Airline cancels around one million seats on flights between various countries and Spain in protest at increase in fees charged by airports operator.
Ryanair has cut around two dozen flights connecting Luxembourg and Spain this winter, as part of changes to its timetable for the coming months.
The Irish budget airline has blamed a planned 6.5% increase in airport charges by the Spanish operator Aena from 2026 as the reason why it intends to cancel around one million seats across various countries from the 2025/26 winter timetable.
Two routes connecting Luxembourg with Barcelona and Madrid will be trimmed back, with 124 flights to operate to and from Barcelona instead of the 135 originally planned. The route between Madrid and Luxembourg will see 140 flights, down from 155 initially scheduled.
The cuts are part of a larger reduction that began in the summer of 2025, when Ryanair cancelled around 800,000 seats and withdrew from Jerez and Valladolid airports. Smaller airports, such as Vigo, Santiago and Zaragoza, were hit particularly hard.
The airline has accused Aena of acting as a “monopoly” on pricing, and focusing on generating record profits instead of promoting competitiveness.
Aena, however, rejects the criticism and emphasised that the fees are still very low – around €0.68 per passenger.
The operator has accused Ryanair of “extortion” and dishonesty, and suspects that Ryanair is not making the cuts because of the fees, but rather to be able to charge higher ticket prices at larger airports.
Meanwhile, in France, the airline has said it is cutting its winter operations by 13%, removing 750,000 seats and no longer serving the airports of Strasbourg, Bergerac and Brive, citing increased French airline ticket tax.
The news of the cuts came as Ryanair announced a partnership agreement with search engine Skyscanner, which gives users of the site direct access to flight offers from the low-cost airline.
Credits: Ryanair Airline
