Ryanair

Ryanair proposes burying the hatchet with Aena and negotiating the new rates until 2031

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There are many signs that define a toxic relationship. Ryanair and Aena seem to have fully entered into one of them. The Irish company is playing the good cop, bad cop game with the airport manager. But, unlike what usually happens, there is only one player here. One that unfolds and that attacks as soon as it reaches out. What happens? That Ryanair “would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Aena and agree on competitive incentive programs, available to all airlines, that would stimulate traffic.” That is, a hand extended after continued attacks on Aena, the company in charge of managing the vast majority of Spanish airports. There is only one problem, that proposal must be found in the fifth paragraph of a statement that repeats over and over again the position that the airline has taken regarding airport taxes in our country: “Aena’s excessive rates are diverting that traffic towards more competitive airports in other parts of Europe.” What is Ryanair talking about? In its latest publication, Ryanair points to a Aena statement of February 25, 2025 in which the company noted that “passenger traffic at Aena airports in Spain grew by 3.9% in 2025, with 321.6 million passengers.” And not only that, the company assures that in 2026 it will grow another 1.3% to reach around 326 million passengers. But the true origin of the last exchange of statements was found a few days ago. On February 18Aena presented its proposal for the coming years with an average annual increase in airport taxes of 3.8% between 2027 and 2031. The increase will result in an increase of 0.43 euros per passenger, according to Aena. The company assures that these increases are essential to undertake an investment wave of 12,888 million euros with a great boost from the Canarian airports that should receive investments worth 1.8 billion euros. very hard. “The Aena monopoly statement of Wednesday, February 25, is astonishing for its inability to understand how to take advantage of Spain’s airport infrastructure to boost traffic, tourism and employment,” is how the press release that Ryanair has distributed begins to explain its position regarding Aena’s latest communication. And once again, the company focuses on airport taxes in regional enclaves. “Aena’s DORA III proposal (where investments are collected in the coming years) It is exactly what you would expect from a protected monopoly: defending itself, blaming others and ignoring the damage caused by its own pricing policy. With the DORA III proposals, Aena plans to increase airport taxes by 21% without taking inflation into account. “This will be another nail in the coffin of regional connectivity in Spain for the next five years, unless the CNMC and the Government of Spain intervene and reject this failed monopolistic strategy.” an open door. However, the Irish company opens the door to a new negotiation with Aena despite the fact that this company “has closed the door”, in the words of Ryanair. The airline assures that it intends for part of the 300 new aircraft that will arrive in its fleet to be destined for one of the Spanish airports. And the company is once again focusing on smaller airports. In 2025 they carried out a restructuring that has left some of them, such as Valladolid, completely empty. They claim that their traffic has increased by 11% in Morocco, 9% in Italy and 60% in Albania. Despite this, they do not point out that even with their partial withdrawal have increased their presence in Spain by 100,000 places. And although its 0.5% growth is small, it is also misleading. It has moved more passengers than ever in our country and some withdrawals are understood only by commercial agreements that, in reality, are flights subsidized by local entities. Something that Morocco applies but that also have been using some town halls in Spain. Interested. What seems evident is that Spain continues to be one of the main airport markets in Europe. Last year, our country reached a new tourist record: 97 million. And the great objective is to achieve break the barrier of 100 million tourists this same year. Aena is aware that tourism is a powerful weapon when it comes to putting pressure on airlines with annual increases. Maurici Lucena, president of Aena, pointed to a lack of responsibility on the part of the airlines and to acting “in bad faith” when they criticize the increases, in words reported by EFE. For its part, the Association of Airlines (ALA) presses for the CNMC to reduce Aena’s proposal which they call a “high rate” while they have presented a proposal that advocates lowering rates by 4.8%. The gap between both proposals is 4,950 million euros. Photo | Xataka In Xataka |

If the question is how much money Ryanair can ask you for for messing up on a flight, the answer is: a lot.

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Making a mess on a plane is expensive, very expensive. At the beginning of the week, Ryanair fined one of its passengers a fine of 15,000 euros as compensation for damages and losses on a flight. The decision comes at the hands of the Dublin Court, and although the amount is one of the highest in recent years, it is far from being an exception. what has happened. According to Ryanair in his statementone of its passengers forced the plane he was traveling on to divert to Porto, after attacking passengers and crew on a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote. No specific details about the attack itself have emerged, but the Dublin Court has imposed a penalty of 15,000 in damages on the accused. The lawsuit was filed in January 2025, Ryanair is not fooling around. In this case, it was Dublin that imposed the amount of the penalty, but the airline has a rigid policy of sanctions for non-exemplary passengers. In June 2025, the company warned about fixed fines of 500 euros for any passenger expelled for misconduct before the flight. In the event that the flight has already started and results in a forced diversion, the policy is clear: legal persecution. It is not the first fine very high. Ryanair has been able to ban passengers for five years and obtain compensation for damages due to value of 3,000 euros on recent Berlin-Marrakech flights. He also managed to get sanctioned 2,000 euros to a passenger who decided to smoke on the plane. The measure fits within the framework of a company with a clear policy: squeeze every penny out of each clientwith a solid margin thanks to its aggressive strategies. The finer, fined. Ryanair has just received one of the highest fines in recent years (not the largest, estimated at more than 100,000 dollars and a lifetime ban by Jet2), but it is also the one that has the record of having suffered the highest fine to an airline by the Government of Spain. A profitable business model, focused on squeezing every penny from its passengers, and a clear policy regarding inappropriate behavior: pay. In Xataka | Spain and Ryanair are in a legal battle over the charge for hand luggage. Ryanair’s best ally: Europe

Ryanair and the rest of the low-cost airlines have been charging for your carry-on suitcase for years. The European Union is tired of it

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It is no surprise that the main business of “cheap airlines” is precisely charge you for cabin luggage. A cheap Ryanair or EasyJet ticket can easily be double the price if you include a small suitcase to carry in the cabin. And from Europe I want this to end nowboth by users and legislators. not so fast. In this regard, the European Parliament has voted in favor to allow all passengers to carry one cabin bag of up to 7 kg free of charge, in addition to their personal bag or backpack. The measure has sparked criticism from low-cost airlines, since they rate it ‘existential threat’ to its business model, and that could raise ticket prices by up to 25%, according to EasyJet. The trigger. The European legislative proposal establishes that any passenger may carry at no additional cost one personal item plus one piece of hand luggage of up to 7 kg and with combined dimensions of 100 cm. This would affect all flights to or from EU airports operated by EU airlines. Of course, it should be noted that this bill must still go through the European Council before becoming law. Baggage and margins. Bag fees have become a great source of income for low-cost airlines. Jay Sorensen, airfare expert at consulting firm IdeaWorks, counted to the Financial Times that European airlines raised $16 billion in 2025 just for baggage, of which 60% went to low-cost airlines. Although these fees are not usually broken down individually, Sorensen estimates that they represent almost a fifth of the total revenue of low-cost airlines. Reaction of the industry. Kenton Jarvis, CEO of EasyJet, has qualified the “lunatic idea” proposal and warns that the additional costs “would have to be passed on” to all passengers through higher prices, even for those traveling without luggage. On the other hand, József Váradi, CEO of Wizz Air, account to FT that consumers are “much smarter” and “are able to navigate the current system of optional tariffs.” For its part, Airlines 4 Europe, the industry lobby, has presented a survey according to which half of passengers would prefer to pay lower fares and keep suitcases as an optional extra. Margins. The low cost model is based on eliminating minutes on the ground and fuel costs. Augusto Ponte, European director of the consulting firm Alton Aviation, account FT that if each passenger carried between 2 and 4 additional kg, a plane with 150 people would have 500 kg extra weight, which translates into between 15 and 20 additional euros of fuel per hour of flight. According to Ponte, for an airline like EasyJet, which flies approximately one million hours annually, that would mean more than €28 million extra per year in operating costs, approximately a tenth of its total profit. In addition, the executive says that 150 additional suitcases in the cabin per flight would cause delays of about 10 minutes in each boarding, not counting the time necessary to relocate the excess in the hold. Ponte assures that, in short-haul aircraft that make six flights a day, this would be equivalent to one hour less operation per plane each day. Consumer protection. Beuc, the European consumer association, strongly supports the proposals of Parliament and even proposes raising the permitted weight to 10 kg. Agustín Reyna, its general director, argues that passengers “expect their hand luggage to be included in the price of the ticket” and that forcing them to pay turns luggage into “a luxury item.” For his part, Andrey Novakov, the Bulgarian MEP who is leading the parliamentary negotiation on these rules, has declared that the goal is “to strive for clearer and more predictable rules for airlines and a stronger aviation sector, but never at the expense of passengers.” Cover image | Gabor Koszegi In Xataka | When Ryanair CEO went to a restaurant he was charged for two extras: “priority seating” and “legroom”

Airlines justify price increases with additional premium services. All except one: Ryanair

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The increase in operating costs It is making it increasingly difficult for airlines to offer low-priced flights. The low-cost They are becoming less and less, and with each passing year the prices of their tickets increase. Airlines have found a simple way to justify that increase: offer more comfort with wide seats and extra services that sound like luxury. Ryanair, however, does the opposite. Although the Irish company is forced to raise the price of its tickets, the company is reluctant to include any “luxury” options to justify the price increase. The boom in “premium” seats. As and how he published The New York Timestraditional airlines are dedicating more and more space on airplanes to seats for “premium” tourist class, with larger seats and improved services. This allows them to charge much more for those seats, while maintaining the number of passengers. The data they point because tickets for these “premium” tourist zones cost up to five times more than a normal one and represent close to 15% of revenue per passenger. According to data of Financial Timesuntil 2028, the number of seats of this type will grow by 11% each year, while the basic economy class stagnates in terms of sales. With this new “premium” tourist model, airlines earn more for each person who travels, without having to squeeze passengers into increasingly tight seats. The low-cost ones join the cart. Such is the success of this model, that even low-cost airlines have begun to offer packages with more services and, of course, with a higher price. Companies like EasyJet or Frontier Airlines They sell “premium” options with priority boarding, seat selection or even complete vacation packages. This adds extra costs to the way you work. The problem is that these added services make the ticket more expensive, so now they depend more on charging for the large baggage check-in or reservation changes. This makes them lose their price advantage and brings them closer to traditional airlines. Their response has been to stop competing for passenger volume at a low price, and now they seek to offer prices equivalent to a single ticket on a conventional airline, but with extra amenities. Ryanair does not take the bait. Ryanair has already announced that the price of your tickets will increase up to 9% in 2026. The company has achieved keep your costs very controlled placing its expenses per passenger and kilometer at only 4.5 euro cents, compared to more than 7 cents for rivals such as EasyJet or Eurowings, or 9 cents for British Airways. Keeping operating expenses low is what allows Ryanair to continue with its low pricing policy without having to offer “premium” features. Something in which its CEO seems not to give in one bit, judging by the clash in X between Elon Musk and Michael O’Leary for connectivity WiFi on airplanes. Musk claimed that more and more airlines were offering WiFi connection packages on their flights as a “premium” option, and criticized Ryanair for not including it. The response from the controversial CEO of Ryanair was immediate, ensuring that he was not going to offer anything that would increase the operating costs of his planes, and the installation of a Starlink antenna increased fuel consumption. That ignited the spark of a small brawl in which Musk threatened to buy the airline but O’Leary knew how to take to his field. Costs are the key. As demonstrated by the latest financial balance of the Irish airline, savings and containment of operating costs are the secret of Ryanair’s success which, with its refusal to pay the increase in Aena rates and at the price of fuel, it recorded profits of 2,540 million euros in the last half of 2025. While the rest of the airlines must resort to “premium” services to justify their price increases. Ryanair seems to be comfortable with its role as stingy in services to its passengers, and prefers to continue betting on a strategy of low prices and moving a highest percentage of passengers. For now, that model works for them. In Xataka | The CEO of Ryanair would govern a country like his airline: a “low cost” state with millionaire politicians and cuts in services Image | Ryanair

The CEO of Ryanair is clear about how he would govern a country. We are lucky that it doesn’t.

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Michael O’Leary has spent decades building a reputation based on provocation and irreverence. The CEO of Ryanair has not only built Europe’s largest low-cost airline based on surcharges on your services and open confrontation with clients, unions and regulators. He has also turned each interview into a showcase of extreme opinions that rarely leave anyone indifferent. The last of them, granted to the Financial Timesis especially revealing. In it, O’Leary explains bluntly how he would run a country if he had the chance. To no one’s surprise, his approach is not too far from what has been applying for years at Ryanair: treat everything as a balance of results, eliminate what is considered “inefficient” and assume political wear and tear as inevitable collateral damage. Govern a country as if it were Ryanair. O’Leary doesn’t hesitate when asked about his vision of power. As he explains, if he had to govern a country he would do it exactly the same as his airline. Aggressively cutting public spending and, especially, social benefits. “I would run it like Ryanair, I would cut it big… I would cut benefits big. Get a job!” he says without nuance in the interview. Even when he recognizes that there are people who cannot work, his conclusion remains the same and he would not hesitate to reduce this aid. “Are there people who cannot work at all? Yes, but it would also cut their benefits,” said the controversial manager, who maintains an extreme vision of the minimum State, where the social protection network is perceived more as a cost than as a collective investment. Millionaire politicians to attract talent. The most striking part of the interview comes when O’Leary addresses salary of the politicians. There are no cuts on the horizon. For the Irish manager, one of the big problems in current politics is the lack of talent, and the solution is to pay politicians as if they were senior managers. His idea is that “If you are prime minister or a minister, you should earn at least one million pounds a year”, which is equivalent to 1,152,900 euros at the exchange rate. Very far from the 93,145.20 euros that are assigned as salary to the President of the Government in Spain, or 182,400 euros gross per year who receives the President of the Republic in France. “Politicians must be paid much better, although saying so is political suicide,” giving Singapore as an example, where senior public officials receive very high salaries to attract the most talented profiles in the private sector to politics and reduce incentives for corruption. Zero personal affinity with Trump. O’Leary’s interview Financial Times It also leaves room for his relationship with Donald Trump. O’Leary recounts a direct call from the then-candidate in 2016, in which Trump insisted for almost an hour on increase flights from Ryanair to airports close to its golf courses in Scotland and Ireland. The current president of the United States even offered him accommodation in one of his hotels. O’Leary’s response to Trump’s offer was to avoid at all costs approaching any politician. “No, no way. It’s not my style,” the executive concluded, making it clear that personal harmony with Trump never existed, although both share a very similar vision of the world as a place where everything is negotiated. The same approach you apply to your passengers. O’Leary’s ideas on how to govern are consistent with the decisions he has made at Ryanair during the years who runs Ryanair. From defending the charge for using the bathroom on board to imposing increasingly complex surcharges for luggage or boarding passes. Everything responds to one income maximization logic and reduce costs, even if that means a more hostile experience for the customer. Their inflexibility with refunds is another example. In the interview he remembers the case of a passenger stabbed in an attack on a train in the United Kingdom who tried to cancel a flightbut did not obtain a refund for the ticket. “If the company had offered him one, the doors would have been opened to other demands for reimbursement,” said O’Leary, for whom the company’s efficiency and profitability always come before empathy. An old idea with dubious results. The proposal to manage a country as if it were a company is neither new nor exclusive to O’Leary. Elon Musk already defended openly that approach from the DOGE who led in the first months of the Trump administration. The result was especially negative for the cooperation policy and the operation of the US administration. Trump himself has applied this logic of business negotiation to international and economic policy with the imposition of tariffs as a negotiation weapon. The results, at least so far, do not seem to be giving the best fruits for the United States economy. In Xataka | When Ryanair CEO went to a restaurant he was charged for two extras: “priority seating” and “legroom” Image | Flickr (Polish presidency of the Council of the EU 2025)

The fight between Ryanair and Aena has left a trail of victims throughout Spain. But none as serious as Vigo

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This Sunday, January 4, Vigo airport closed its stage as an international terminal with the last Ryanair flight to London-Stansted, which took off at 9:30 p.m. The Peinador airport has thus become the only Galician airfield without connections outside of Spain, a situation that it already experienced between 2019 and 2023 after the first departure of the Irish airline. What does it mean for Vigo. The most populated city in Galicia loses its only air gateway to abroad after almost three years. Since the end of March 2023, the flight to London had returned the airport’s international status, but is now relegated to an exclusively domestic airport with routes to Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Gran Canaria and Tenerife, in addition to some specific flights to Mallorca. A stormy relationship. The divorce between Ryanair and the Vigo Council is consummated with crossed reproaches. The City Council imposed two sanctions on the company in 2025 for an amount greater than 67,000 euros, accusing it of suppressing 16 frequencies during the summer of 2024 and failing to comply with the agreed tourist promotion actions. “They are not serious people,” Mayor Abel Caballero even stated, according to collect Vigo Lighthouse. Although the contract ended in December 2025, Ryanair took advantage of Christmas to maintain the flight for a few more days. The goodbye numbers. Ryanair closes its second stage in Vigo after selling almost 1 million tickets in a decade of operations, according to The Voice of Galicia. In its first period (2016-2019), the airline received 4.4 million euros from the City Council for three years of presence. In this second phase, it received an additional 1.87 million for the three-year period that is now ending. According to account the mid-Atlantic, the route to London moved nearly 45,000 passengers in 2025 alone, its best record in these three years. Galician airports. The situation contrasts with Santiago de Compostela, which maintains twelve international destinations, and A Coruña, with four. Peinador exceeded one million passengers in 2025, although a good part of that traffic is due to Imserso trips, as collect Vigo Lighthouse. In this way, those who want to leave Spain from Vigo by plane will have to depend on other airports. It will be international again. The Vigo terminal will recover international connections in October, although in a timely manner: the Travelmakers agency has scheduled two planes to Egypt, as already happened in 2025 with charter flights to Morocco, as collect the middle. In addition, Aena and the Port Authority agreed to promote the arrival of cruise passengers at the airport in 2026 to reinforce Vigo’s role as a base port. But they are sporadic solutions, not stable routes. The battle for the north. The Peinador case has been a consequence of the pulse between Ryanair and Aena due to airport taxes, which has caused cuts of 80% in Galicia and also affected Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country. Other airlines such as Vueling, Volotea or Aer Lingus are occupying part of the gap left by the Irish in airports such as Santiago, Bilbao or Santander, but the recovery is not the same in all airports. Between the lines. Peinador also enters the list of the nine Spanish airports that operate exclusively in national territory, including Valladolid, Salamanca and Pamplona. For an airfield that in 2017 served eight international destinations and handled 1.5 million passengers in its golden age, the step backwards is significant. It remains to be seen if this status is maintained for long or if the airport will be able to attract new international flights in the future. Cover image | Wolfgang Weiser In Xataka | This is the DGT map to visualize where there are active V-16 beacons in Spain. There is another more useful unofficial map

Ryanair thought it could build loyalty with a subscription service. Until you’ve remembered what your real business is

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“It has cost more money than it generates” With a brief note and the statements of Dara Brady, CMO of the company, Ryanair has confirmed the closure of Prime, the membership program that sought to retain its customers with advantages that have generated greater costs for the company than benefits. The subscription service of the company has not lasted even a year before its cancellation. Surgical. A test, some results eight months later and a decision: close Prime. Ryanair has confirmed that it is closing its subscription program just eight months after it was launched on the market in a decision that is as firm as it is clean. Subscribers will maintain their benefits but those who had not signed up until last Friday, the 28th, will now no longer be able to do so. They report on the company’s website that customers will maintain their benefits “of exclusive savings on flights and seats for the remaining 12 months of membership.” However, the company’s Prime program already has its days numbered. two million. It doesn’t seem like much for a company like Ryanair, but it speaks volumes about the rigorous cost control that the company manages. The statement includes the words of Dara Brady, CMO of Ryanair, who points out that the program has collected 4.4 million euros in subscriptions but that the benefits delivered are greater than six million euros. That is, in the eight months in which the service has been active, the company has lost less than 250,000 euros per month in the new program. Doesn’t seem like much for a company that has obtained 2,540 million euros in the first quarter of 2025. What did they offer? In its announcement last March, Ryanair offered the following benefits For your subscribers: Priority sale on selected flights Exclusive discounts for some flights Free seat selection for the member and one companion To access these benefits, the client had to pay 79 euros per year. According to the company’s accounts, seat selection alone already amortized the investment from three flights a year. With four flights made per year, we would be amortizing 26 euros on average. The subscription extended for a maximum of one year or 12 flights per year. In addition, I had travel insurance to cancel flights due to injuries or illnesses, the delay of other flights or theft of luggage. Of course, those over 70 years of age were excluded from sickness coverage. Unattractive. “With more than 207 million passengers this year, Ryanair will remain focused on offering the lowest fares in Europe to all our customers, and not just this group of 55,000 Prime members.” The closing of the press release published by the company is a clear confirmation of what happened. The most attractive thing that Prime offered was that the customer could choose (and save money) in the choice of seats but it did not even guarantee that two passengers (one being “non-Prime”) could travel together. It is an incentive that has not been attractive enough for a company where the customer looks for the cheapest way to travel and chooses to add services little by little, depending on how much money you are willing to pay. Nothing premium. Ryanair’s test has convinced the company that it has no room to delve into policies that bring it closer to premium or higher-cost companies. Many of the airlines with higher prices offer cards or loyalty services to keep their customers retained, but this way of acting has not caught on among the Irish company’s customers. The reasons are obvious. When someone chooses Ryanair it is because they expect the lowest possible price for a short flight. And you are willing to sacrifice by traveling with less luggage or accepting 100% digital boarding. You either take it or leave it. And Ryanair knows that the customer will leave it when the competition offers that same flight at a cheaper price. On the other hand, customers who are loyal to higher-cost companies obtain other advantages that do receive greater attention on flights of higher cost and time. For example, loyalty cards companies like Iberia They allow access to VIP lounges or priority boarding, secondary values ​​for those who aspire to travel through Europe at the lowest possible price. To this we must add that the high price paid for the ticket ends up subsidizing these companies for the economic effort they have to make to deliver the benefits to their customers. Photo | Markus Winkler In Xataka | Now we know why Ryanair charges its passengers for everything: it is the key to having a profit of 2,540 million euros

Ryanair is known for being one of the cheapest airlines. It is not so much if we look at its RASK

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Iberia reaches third place in AirAdvisor ranking over the best airlines on the continent, even surpassing Ryanair in a key indicator to evaluate cost-efficiency. The study analyzed more than 7.6 million flights and 831,000 passenger opinions to determine which airlines best combine price, service and reliability. Low cost vs. traditional. Iberia is positioned as cheaper than Ryanair when we measure the real cost per seat kilometer, as revealed the latest report AirAdvisor Annual. The Spanish airline ties with Vueling in seventh place if we stick to the price (with a RASK of 0.0824 euros), while Ryanair falls to the last position of this specific indicator, tied with Air France. Why is RASK important?. The RASK indicator (the formula being total revenue between available seats per kilometers flown) measures how much a passenger actually pays for each kilometer traveled, including all additional charges. With this parameter, we can see that low-cost airlines They are not so low-cost when we add extrassuch as checked baggage, seat selection or priority boarding. In this sense, if we stick to the RASK indicator, Iberia demonstrates that a traditional airline can also compete on prices without sacrificing basic services. The complete ranking. According to the report From AirAdvisor, Aegean Airlines repeats as the best European airline for the second consecutive year with 93 points, followed by Finnair (89 points) and Iberia (88 points). The Spanish airline recovers positions after falling to sixth place in 2024, rising three places in one year. Lufthansa and KLM complete the top 5, tied with Scandinavian Airlines. At the opposite extreme, Air Europa once again occupies the last place in the ranking with 48 points. Where Iberia stands out. The Spanish company obtains the highest scores in three key categories, according to the AirAdvisor report: travel with pets, family travel and safety. Its VIP lounges are ranked third in Europe, only behind Aegean and Finnair. In addition, Iberia was ranked 15th in the ranking of the 100 best airlines in the world in 2024. Its main weakness according to the report: reputation among customers, where it is the third worst valued. The Ryanair case. The Irish airline leads with 88% punctuality in both 2023 and 2024, but loses ground in almost all other categories. Ryanair is ranked 12th in the AirAdvisor overall ranking with 58 points, surpassing only Wizz Air, LOT Polish Airlines and Air Europa. In addition, the company obtains the second worst reputation score among customers and, according to the ranking, it is the worst option for traveling with pets and in comfort. The cheapest in Europe. For the third consecutive year, Wizz Air maintains the title of the continent’s cheapest airline, with a RASK of just 0.0417 euros per seat kilometer. They are followed by TAP Air Portugal (0.0713 euros) and Scandinavian Airlines (0.075 euros). However, it’s not all about the price, and Wizz Air occupies 13th place in the general classification, being the worst rated by passengers and registering the lowest scores for travel with pets and comfort. The methodology behind the numbers. According to they claim From AirAdvisor, its team spent weeks analyzing nine different categories to create this ranking. The data includes 7.6 million flights operated between 2023 and 2024, more than 831,000 customer reviews from nine different sources, 75,000 lounge reviews, 46 industry awards and pet, family and comfort policies of 13 airlines. Each category receives a specific score that then adds points for an overall ranking. What does this mean for the travelers. “Low-cost” and “traditional” airlines are becoming diluted and are no longer defined entirely by their quality/price ratio. There are other important indicators, such as the RASK, and airlines such as Iberia, KLM or TAP Air Portugal have adjusted to compete on price with low cost airlines, while ending up offering more complete services without surprise charges. Therefore, for the passenger this means that comparing only the base fare of the ticket can end up being misleading. Hence, a recommended practice is to see the final price of the ticket on each airline that we weigh once all the extras have been added and basic services have been taken into account. Cover image | Wolfgang Weiser In Xataka | In the midst of the battle between Ryanair and Aena, there is a Spanish airport that is suffering more than any other: Valladolid

From today, Ryanair requires 100% digital boarding. It is the culmination of a strategy to trap us in its application

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The day has come. Ryanair only lets you board its planes with a digital card. The measure has been postponed for a few months but November 12 was finally the date on which this decision by the airline, which has raised some controversy and critical voices, was consolidated. Digital boarding. Showing your boarding pass on your mobile phone will be the only way to access Ryanair planes from today. The company claims that by issuing the digital boarding pass, what they call TED, 300 tons of paper are saved per year. This TED is available from the Ryanair application, once the passenger has checked in online prior to taking the plane. This card is available without a mobile data connection, so they ensure that you can access the plane if your mobile phone does not have data or the airport Wi-Fi is not fast enough. The big news is that, until now, it was possible to send a PDF to email from the application and from the browser. This PDF could be printed or simply stored on the mobile phone and brought onto the plane with it, “bypassing” the download of the application. What does Ryanair earn? That the client downloads its application where the company offers seat changes and, simply, facilitates the collection of supplements with added services. This has become the company’s great gold mine. It is, in fact, the only reason to make this decision. In Xataka Mobile have contacted the company to ask why this change and the last part of the answer is eloquent: “This transition, already adopted by almost 80% of Ryanair’s more than 207 million annual passengers, will offer a faster, smarter and more sustainable travel experience. In addition, it will make it easier for passengers to access a variety of innovative features within the app” In the video itself where they explain the change, they already point out that the user will have constant information during their flight, the allocation of the boarding gate… or the possibility of ordering food at your seat. And if… The company has opened a page question and answer website in which all the possible “what ifs” that we can think of are answered. All of them, yes, require billing in advance. For example: And if… I left my phone at home: you can request a free paper boarding pass at the airport, as long as you have completed the online check-in. And if… I lose my phone: same case as the previous one. And if… I lose my phone or I run out of battery after having passed the control: if we have passed the control it means that the passenger has already checked in. In that case, attention will be offered at the boarding gate. And if… I don’t have a smartphone: we will have to check in online beforehand and request a physical boarding pass at the airport. If we have not done it previously, we will have to pay the 55 euros that Ryanair charges for check-in at the airport. Is there some kind of advantage for the user? More or less. Until now, issuing the boarding pass cost 55 euros, whether or not we had done online check-in previously. With the change, Ryanair ensures that the issuance of the card will be free, as long as we have previously made the online check-in. Controversy. Since the measure will be announced in October 2024the voices opposed to the measure have multiplied. Facua has assured since then the measure is illegal as it is considered abusive. The organization defined the situation as follows: Mandating 100% digital boarding is “an especially burdensome clause for vulnerable groups (older people, passengers who, due to their disability or physical condition, have difficulties interacting with new technologies, etc.). These types of consumers usually need the attention and assistance of a third party to be able to carry out the procedures correctly. on-line. Likewise, in Xataka we already got in touch with the company to ask what would happen if a person wanted to print their boarding pass and access it with it, without using their mobile phone. So we didn’t know (nor did the company confirm) that they were going to remove the PDF. Now, the only way is to take a screenshot and print it. However, if someone wanted to go to this trouble, there was no solution offered for this case. Photo | Dan Barrett In Xataka | Ryanair has found a new formula to earn more per ticket: forcing you to board 100% digitally

In the midst of the battle between Ryanair and Aena, there is a Spanish airport that is suffering more than any other: Valladolid

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Villanubla airport has lost 60.7% of its passengers so far in 2025, accumulating only 59,689 travelers between January and September. The figure contrasts greatly with the rest of the airports in Castilla y León, which are growing at double digits, and makes the Valladolid airport the great victim of the fight between the Irish airline and Aena. The trigger of the crisis. Ryanair left Valladolid on March 28 after accuse Aena of applying “excessive rates”. The Irish airline, which had been the main operator of the airport, confirmed in September that I wouldn’t return either during the winter season. Without their presence, the airport has been practically disconnected: in September it transported only 6,037 passengers, 58.5% less than the same month in 2024. A solo drama. While Villanubla collapses, the other three airports in the community they rise strongly. León increases its passengers by 18.6% to 56,925, Salamanca grows by 17.5% to 21,736 and even Burgos, with only 2,413 travelers, achieves a modest increase of 1.4%. The Valladolid airport, which depended largely on the influx of Ryanair, has seen how the fight between this airline and the airport manager has taken a toll on its usual traffic, unlike the rest of the provinces in the community. What’s behind. The conflict between Ryanair and Aena has been going on for years. The Irish company has been around for a long time eliminating seats in many regional airports as a lever to negotiate discounts on airport taxes. Aena, for its part, has maintained a firm position in its pricing policy, also aware that giving in to pressure from Ryanair would set a precedent that would not suit the rest of the airlines. Valladolid has been caught in the middle of this battle. The cascading impact. The 60.7% drop in passengers not only affects the airport, but also hits the entire provincial economy. Fewer travelers means fewer connections for local businesses, less tourism and a greater perception of isolation. The 4,647 operations registered until September represent a 14.1% less than in 2024which means that other airlines have not covered the gap left by Ryanair as has happened at other airports. The only escape route. He return of Vueling This same month of October could mark a turning point, especially taking into account the seven months of operational drought at the airport. However, it remains to be seen if its offer of routes and frequencies will be enough to reverse the collapse. Cover image | Lucas da Costa e Silva In Xataka | Using the WiFi on the train in Spain is the worst. The question is why there is so much difference compared to the rest of Europe

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