There is only a great beneficiary at Ryanair’s departure from regional airports. One called “High Speed Train”
Ryanair threatened and fulfilled. As he turned a few months ago. The company confirmed yesterday, September 3, which removes more than one million places from regional airports. In total, its activity will be reduced by 41 % in this type of aerodromes and 10 % of its activity in the Canary Islands will also be affected. The movement has unleashed an wave of indignation among Spanish institutions that qualify the exit as blackmail or extortion. The company, meanwhile, defends itself by ensuring that the increase in Aena’s rates are incompatible with its operations in this type of airports. But what the movement leaves us is the confirmation that regional airports are less and less competitive. A good part of them have based their operations on a huge dependence on the company. And the Good train health It is making operating in them, more and more complicated. A good example is that the company will increase its operations in larger airports. The controversy As we explained yesterday, with its latest Ryanair movement it will reduce 400,000 places in the Canary Islands in winter, being the autonomous community most punished by volume. In total, 36 connections are canceled. It remains to be seen if the flights to the Canary Islands are held by other companies. A good example is the Binter expansion that in recent times it has begun to increase its routes in the connections between peninsular Spain and the islands. In addition, Ryanair has announced the closure of Santiago de Compostela and the suspension of all flights to Vigo as of January 1, 2026. It maintains the closure at the airports of Valladolid and Jerez de la Frontera. And will reduce its operations in Zaragoza (-45 %), Santander (-38 %), Asturias (-16 %) and Vitoria (-2 %). The company attacks Aena and the Government, to whom it accuses of “failing to the Spanish regions, whose airports are almost 70 % empty.” For its part, the airport manager attacks that “the communication and institutional relations policy of Ryanair is guided by Phariseism, bad education and blackmail”, while trying to “falsify reality.” All these words pick them up eldiario.es from the mouth of Maurici Lucena, president and CEO of Aena. The excuse Ryanair has used to abandon or reduce its operations at these airports is at the rise of Aena rates. Those rates are the ones guarantee basic services of airports such as cleaning or safety, to put only some examples. At the moment, there are substantial discounts than in airports with the lowest volume of passengers make them insignificant. On the contrary, where it is paid the most is in the airports of greater volume. That rate has been frozen in recent years but will rise if the CNMC approves it. From the beginning, the company’s opposition has been found. They defend that in countries such as Italy, Morocco or Croatia have been lowered to attract tourism and that, with these increases, “Spain is closing” to the same. A statement that The data denies. According to Aena, The increase is just 68 euro cents By passenger but they put the company that their rates have increased by 21% in the last year. But this is just the surface. Spain is not the only country in which Ryanair has reduced operations. The Irish have also retired more than 700,000 places from the French regional airports. And it is also not accidental that their operations to Morocco travel almost empty. For a long time, the company has exploited institutional advertising to maintain open paths that would not be profitable without these substantial pluses. In fact, that Ryanair trip to Daklha is only explained since The interest that Morocco has in exploiting that areanear the Sahara, as a holiday destination. Ryanair as a symptom And the train as a disease that hurts regional airports. To all of the above we must add the loss in competitiveness of many of the airports of which Ryanair leaves. The company has closed operations in Santiago and reduces its connections in Vigo. Casually there are two cities to which The arrival of high speed is especially affecting. Until not so long ago, the only way to travel quickly between Madrid and Galicia was by plane. Now, the High speed It allows you to reach the center of the capital more or less the same time as you travel by plane. And without the discomforts of this means of transport. In Asturiashigh speed is not yet working in full performance but the opening of new sections (and others on the horizon)place the region in a position where the train, again, will compete with the plane for faster connections. It will remain faster to travel by plane but its connection with Madrid is already competitive by train. What to say about Zaragoza where in recent years Renfe has joined Ouigo and Iroyo. The corridor maintains a hard competition And although the tickets are not the cheapest on the market, the volume of trains is very high and the latest connections already allow Zaragoza to be linked with Galicia in four hours (making transford in Madrid). In addition, the possibilities to get to Seville or Malaga are multiple with the aforementioned Renfe rivals. Eliminate air connections with the main Spanish cities should result in greater use of this means of transport. And from Aena they are clear that reality is “more prosaic.” “Ryanair moves her planes to airports where can set higher prices In their plane tickets and earn more money, such as Great Spanish airports“, despite being” substantially higher, “they insisted on words collected by RTVE. In Santander, where connections with Madrid are not so advanced, four international destinations have been withdrawn (Rome, Milan, Vienna and Paris) but the flights to Valencia and Malaga are maintained. In Santiago, however, connections with other Spanish cities die. And in Vigo he retires from the line he had with London. Casually when the contract ends Between the City Council and the company … Read more
