DAA 10% FEES INCREASE DAMAGES IRELAND’S TRAFFIC, TOURISM & JOBS

Ryanair, Europe and Ireland’s No.1 airline, today (Wed, 17 Dec) condemned DAA’s decision to raise its already high airport fees by 10% from 2026. DAA is again abusing its monopoly to force passengers into funding its €3bn gold-plated CAPEX programme, including unnecessary projects like DAA’s €280m “tunnel to nowhere” – a nonsensical project at Dublin Airport – paid for by passengers through higher airport fees, yet it delivers zero benefit to them.

Dublin Airport’s 10% fee hike in 2026 is the opposite of what competitor countries, like Sweden, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia are doing, where Govts and airports are abolishing aviation taxes and lowering airport fees to promote airline investment and deliver traffic, tourism, and jobs growth.

Irish tourism is already suffering under two stupid traffic caps at Dublin Airport – which Micheál Martin’s “do nothing” Govt continues to dither over, and this latest unjustified Dublin Airport fee hike will damage Irish traffic and tourism even more.

Ryanair calls on the DAA to stop wasting money and instead cut costs to grow Ireland’s traffic, tourism, jobs, and economy.

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“DAA has jumped at the first opportunity to hike its already high prices by another 10% to cover its gold plated €3bn CAPEX programme, which it won’t deliver any extra capacity or growth. It’s bad enough that Micheál Martin’s “do nothing” Govt (with a 20-seat majority) has still not scrapped the Dublin Airport traffic cap, despite promising to do so “as soon as possible” last January. Now Dublin Airport is raising fees by 10% in 2026 so they can build tunnels to nowhere which is driving up costs for passengers simply because it’s a monopoly.

Instead of wasting money on unwanted tunnels, the DAA should lower its high fees to grow Irish tourism, jobs – not penalise airlines and passengers with higher fees. Ryanair calls on the DAA to stop wasting money on ridiculous €280m tunnels and instead lower fees to grow Ireland’s connectivity and tourism, before it switches elsewhere in Europe where airports are lowering fees to promote airline investment and low-fare growth.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Tues, 16 Dec) announced that it has carried 35 million passengers through Birmingham Airport since it began operations to/from the airport in 1987.

This winter, Ryanair is operating 346 weekly flights across 37 routes to/from Birmingham Airport, including winter sun hotspots like Alicante, Faro and Malta, as well as top city break destinations like Berlin, Poznań and Rovaniemi.

Ryanair’s full Winter 2025 schedule is available to book now at Ryanair.com, with flights to/from Birmingham Airport available from as little as £29.99.

Ryanair’s Director of Comms, Jade Kirwan, said:

“We’re delighted to mark 35 million Ryanair passengers through Birmingham Airport since Ryanair began operations to/from Birmingham in 1987. This significant milestone showcases Ryanair’s continued support and investment in the region, delivering important connectivity, traffic, tourism, jobs, and economic growth.

This winter, Ryanair is operating a robust schedule to/from Birmingham Airport with 346 weekly flights across 37 routes, including top city break destinations like Berlin, Poznań and Rovaniemi, as well as winter sun hotspots like Alicante, Faro and Malta. Ryanair’s full Winter 2025 schedule is available to book now at Ryanair.com, with flights to/from Birmingham Airport available from as little as £29.99.

Ryanair, the UK’s No.1 passenger airline, today (Fri, 12 Dec) announced that the first flight of its new Winter 2025 route from Liverpool to Turin will take off this weekend. Ryanair will operate 1 flight per week on this exciting new Winter 2025 route, providing customers in the Northwest with even more choice at Europe’s lowest fares.

Ryanair’s full Winter 2025 schedule is available to book now at ryanair.com.

Ryanair’s Comms Director, Jade Kirwan, said:

“We’re pleased to see the first flight of our new Winter 2025 route from Liverpool to Turin take off this weekend (Sat, 13 Dec), carrying lots of cheerful holidaymakers heading away for a well-warranted winter break. This exciting new Winter route will operate once per week, adding to Ryanair’s already robust UK Winter 2025 schedule, offering even more choice at the lowest fares.

Ryanair’s full UK Winter 2025 schedule is available to book now at ryanair.com.”

Head of PR & Comms at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Robin Tudor, said:

“It’s over 25 years since we last had flights to Turin from Liverpool so it’s great to see the return of a route that will be particularly popular with skiers looking to fly from the Northwest’s faster, easier, friendlier airport, when heading for some winter sports in the Italian Alps.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline today (Thurs, 11 Dec) announced its record Summer 2026 schedule for Glasgow with over 100 weekly flights across 8 routes, including 2 exciting new routes to London & Warsaw. Through this record schedule, Ryanair will deliver +200,000 additional low fare seats to/from Glasgow in Summer 2026 (+50% growth), offering customers in west-central Scotland more choice at Europe’s lowest fares.

Ryanair’s Glasgow Summer 2026 schedule will deliver:

• A record 8 routes incl. 2 new routes to London & Warsaw
• 600,000 seats, incl. 200,000 (+50%) additional S26 seats.

To celebrate Ryanair’s record Summer 2026 schedule for Glasgow, the airline has launched a 2-day seat sale with fares from just £29.99 available only at Ryanair.com.

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Thurs, 11 Dec) announced that it has carried 29 million passengers through Bristol Airport since it began operations to/from the airport in 1998.

This winter, Ryanair is operating 240 weekly flights across 28 routes to/from Bristol Airport, including winter sun hotspots like Alicante, Porto and Tenerife, as well as top city break destinations like Budapest, Krakow, and Wrocław.

Ryanair’s full Winter 2025 schedule is available to book now at Ryanair.com, with flights to/from Bristol Airport available from as little as £29.99.

Ryanair’s Director of Comms, Jade Kirwan, said:

“We’re delighted to mark 29 million Ryanair passengers through Bristol Airport since Ryanair began operations to/from Bristol in 1998. This significant milestone showcases Ryanair’s continued support and investment in the region, delivering important connectivity, traffic, tourism, jobs, and economic growth.

This winter, Ryanair is operating a robust schedule to/from Bristol Airport with 240 weekly flights across 28 routes, including top city break destinations like Budapest, Krakow, and Wrocław, as well as winter sun hotspots like Alicante, Porto and Tenerife. Ryanair’s full Winter 2025 schedule is available to book now at Ryanair.com, with flights to/from Bristol Airport available from as little as £29.99.

Bristol Airport’s Chief Executive, Dave Lees, said: 

“We’re delighted to celebrate Ryanair carrying 29 million passengers from Bristol Airport, a milestone that reflects our strong partnership over the past two decades.

This achievement highlights our shared commitment to delivering excellent connectivity across Europe, offering travellers in the South West and Wales an extensive range of destinations, while also opening up opportunities for tourists to visit the region.

We look forward to further strengthening our long-standing partnership with Ryanair and building on this success in the years ahead by expanding our network and providing even more travel options for our passengers.”

-1M SEATS, -5 AIRCRAFT, -20 ROUTES & THOUSANDS OF JOBS AT RISK

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (Tues, 9 Dec) announced it will cut -1m seats (-22%), 5 based aircraft (loss of US$500m investment), and 20 routes from its Brussels Winter 26/27 schedule as a result of the Belgian Govt’s backward decision to double its harmful aviation tax to €10 per departing passenger from 2027, and the Charleroi city council’s proposal to introduce a  €3 per departing passenger tax from next year on passengers travelling from the airport. This significant increase to access costs – which was already hiked up +150% in July (just 5 months ago) – makes Belgium completely uncompetitive compared to other EU markets like Sweden, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia, where Govts are abolishing aviation taxes to drive traffic, tourism, and jobs. Even Germany has now recognised that aviation taxes don’t work and has revised its decision to increase aviation taxes.

If the Govt really wants to revive Belgium’s economy, they should abolish this harmful aviation tax to generate more traffic and tourism, not double it. Ryanair calls again on Prime Minister De Wever and his Govt to abolish the aviation tax or Belgian traffic will collapse and fares will soar, just as they have done in Austria & Germany, where Govt’s repeatedly increased access costs. Ryanair has today (Tues, 9 Dec) written to Prime Minister De Wever, Transport Minister Crucke, Wallonia Minister of Airports, Cécile Neven, and the Mayor of Charleroi, Thomas Dermine, to call for the reversal of these increases.

Ryanair’s Jason McGuinness said:

“The De Wever Govt has bizarrely decided to further increase Belgium’s already sky-high aviation tax by another +100% from Jan 2027, on top of the +150% in July last. These repeated increases to this harmful aviation tax make Belgium completely uncompetitive compared to the many other EU countries, like Sweden, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia, where Govts are abolishing aviation taxes to drive traffic, tourism, and jobs. As a result of this second tax hike in just 5 months, Ryanair has been forced to cut -22% of its Brussels traffic (-1m seats), -5 aircraft from our Charleroi base (loss of US$500m investment), and 20 routes (13 from Charleroi & 7 from Zaventem) for Winter 26/27. Should the Charleroi city council proceed with its ill-judged proposal to introduce further taxes on passengers departing from Charleroi next year, these cuts will deepen as Ryanair will be forced to reduce flights, routes and based aircraft at Charleroi from as early as April 2026 with thousands of local jobs at risk.

If Prime Minister De Wever and his Govt really wanted to revive Belgium’s economy, they should abolish this harmful aviation tax, not double it. Despite so many other EU countries taking this step to support their economies, Belgium is going in the opposite direction, driving up access costs and pushing airlines and tourism elsewhere. We urge Prime Minister De Wever to scrap this damaging aviation tax before Belgian’s traffic, tourism, jobs, and the wider economy collapse any further. Furthermore, the Charleroi city council needs to abandon its lunatic plans to increase taxes driving job losses with the effect of lowering payroll, VAT and corporate tax receipts for the local economy.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 low fares airline, today (Tues, 9 Dec) released its December OTA Survey, showing some OTAs like eDreams, Fru, and Tryp overcharging consumers almost 50% over Ryanair’s prices. These OTAs, do not have distribution agreements with Ryanair, because they wish to continue overcharging consumers. eDreams & Fru are this month’s worst offenders, with eDreams selling a reserved seat that costs just €10 on Ryanair.com for €14.86 – 48% more than Ryanair’s price, and Fru selling Priority boarding for 109.69zł over 48% more than the cost of just 74.00zł on Ryanair.com.

Ryanair continues to campaign to protect EU consumers form OTA overcharging and calls again on EU Govts (notably Spain’s useless Consumer Minister Bustinduy) and National Consumer Authorities to take urgent action to protect consumers from these overcharging OTAs. They should and insist on mandatory price transparency from all OTAs which is in line with the transparent pricing being delivered by all Ryanair’s “Approved OTA” partners, to protect consumers.

Ryanair’s Dara Brady said:

“Ryanair’s December OTA survey shows that eDreams, Fru, and Tryp continue to overcharge unsuspecting consumers almost 50% over the prices on Ryanair’s website. Most notably, Spain’s useless Consumer Minister Bustinduy, continues to do nothing to protect thousands of Spanish consumers from this eDreams overcharging.

Ryanair again calls on EU Govt and Consumer Protection Authorities to take urgent action to protect consumers across Europe by insisting on OTA price transparency standards in line with the transparency standards applied by all of Ryanair’s approved OTA partners.”