Ryanair, Spain’s No.1 airline, today (Wed, 8 Oct) announced that it will reduce its Summer 2026 schedule to Regional Spain by 1.2m seats (-10%). Ryanair will also stop all flights to/from Asturias Airport, as the Aena Monopoly continues to raise its uncompetitive airport fees at Spanish (mostly empty) regional airports. These regrettable cuts follow Ryanair’s 1m seat cuts to Regional Spain for Winter 2025, and are a direct result of the Spanish Govt’s failure to stop Aena’s monopoly fee increases, particularly at under-used Regional airports, and its failure to reverse Minister Bustinduy’s illegal bag fines, despite promising to do so. While Minister Bustinduy continues to illegally interfere in the pricing of low-fare airlines (in breach of EU law), he refuses to take any action against overcharging by a number of Spanish OTAs (online travel agencies) who continue to overcharge and harm unsuspecting Spanish consumers.

The Spanish Govt is the majority shareholder in the Aena Airport Monopoly and has appointed an ex-politician (Maurici Lucena) to run it. Despite this control, the Aena Monopoly continues to raise fees at Spain Regional Airports, making them uncompetitive and harming growth. Aena’s monopoly approach to pricing is that small underused Regional airports should charge similar rates as busy main airports like Madrid, Barcelona, Palma and Malaga. As a result, Ryanair is switching seat capacity to these bigger Spanish airports (where passenger demand and air fares are higher). When faced with high fees at Regional airports, Ryanair has moved to lower cost airports elsewhere in Morocco, Italy, Croatia, Albania, and Sweden, where Govts are abolishing Enviro Taxes and lowering Airport fees.

Ryanair submitted two growth plans — including for some of the airports we are now closing — to Aena and the Spanish Government. These plans would have increased traffic by 40% by 2030, reaching 77 million passengers per year. However, the Spanish Government chose to ignore the proposals, raise airport charges, and sacrifice potential growth and job creation.

Regional Spain can grow, but it needs a Govt committed to stimulating growth by lowering the cost of air travel to/from the Regions of Spain, and a Consumer Minister who actually protects consumers by ending OTA overcharging, while respecting both EU law, and precedent ECJ Court Rulings (the Vueling Case 2014), which clearly prevent national Govts from interfering in the way airlines price seats, or carry-on bags.

Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary, said:

“AENA and its major shareholder, the Spanish Govt, continue to harm regional traffic growth, tourism and jobs in Spain through high airport fees and unjustified price increases. AENA should be lowering airport fees at underused Regional airports, but instead they plan to increase them by 7%, the highest fee increase for over a decade. The Spanish Govt has failed to stimulate Regional tourism and jobs, as it continues to protect the Aena Monopoly’s high fee operations. We regret that these fee increases make Regional Spanish airports uncompetitive, and this is why Ryanair is switching 1.2m more seats away from Regional airports in Spain in S2026, to some of Spain’s bigger airports, but mainly to lower-cost competitor airports in Italy, Morocco, Croatia, Sweden, and Hungary.

Furthermore, despite Govt promises to reverse Minister Bustinduy’s illegal bag fines, Prime Minister Sanchez has taken no action for 2 years now. Bustinduy’s bag fines are clearly illegal, as they are in breach of EU Regulation on airline pricing freedom, and they are in breach of the ECJ Ruling the Vueling case, which established that airlines are free to charge for carry-on bags, as long as every passenger is allowed to bring a small bag “Maleta Gratis” for their personal items. While Minister Bustinduy pursues his illegal bag fines, he has taken zero action against real consumer harm, such as the overcharging of Spain’s consumers by a number OTAs. Ryanair has written 8 letters to Minister Bustinduy between April 2024 and October 2025, calling on him to take action, but he continues to stand idly by as consumers are being overcharged by OTAs. Minister Bustinduy is not just incompetent, but his bag fines are in clear breach of EU law and ECJ Rulings. If Prime Minister Sanchez has any respect for EU law, then he should dismiss Bustinduy, and cancel these illegal bag fines.

Ryanair remains one of Spain’s biggest overseas investors, and we continue to invest heavily in Spain, with 2 new Maintenance Facilities in Madrid and Seville. We will shortly open our new Airline Training Centre in Madrid. While we wish to continue to grow air traffic and connectivity to Regional Spain, we are prevented from doing so by the Aena’s Monopoly high airport fees and the failure of Prime Minister Sanchez and his Govt, to restrain this overcharging Airport Monopoly, which they own and control. We look forward to returning to Growth in Regional Spain, when Aena fees are reduced, making them competitive with lower-cost airports elsewhere in Morocco, Italy, Croatia, Hungary and other EU States, who are abolishing Aviation Taxes and lowering airport fees to grow their traffic and tourism industries.”