INCREASED CHARGES WILL DAMAGE PORTUGAL’S CONNECTIVITY & TOURISM, PARTICURLARY IN PORTUGAL’S ISLAND REGIONS INCLUDING MADEIRA & THE AZORES

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (27 Sept) slammed ANA’s proposal to increase airport charges by up to 18% from 2024. ANA, operated by French airport concession company VINCI, is seeking excessive and unjustified charge increases throughout Portugal, including Lisbon (+18%), Porto (+13%), Faro (+12%), the Azores (+8%) and Madeira (+9%), which will have a hugely detrimental impact on Portugal’s connectivity, tourism and jobs, especially for island economies.

There is no justification for these excessive price increases on top of ANA’s already high airport charges. This excessive proposal from ANA, who face no competition in Portugal, is the exact opposite of what Portuguese airports need – particularly those in Madeira and the Azores where they depend on low airport charges to drive vital connectivity and tourism.

Astonishingly, rather than seeking to lower access costs for the islands, ANA is intent on making access even more expensive by increasing charges in Madeira and the Azores, on top of the excessive increases applied last year, irreparably damaging the competitiveness of Madeira and the Azores. Ryanair was already forced to close its Azores base following ANA’s previous charge increases, and the airline is now calling on ANA to lower airport charges to prevent the same fate for Madeira, ensuring air connectivity remains sustainable in Portugal’s peripheral regions.

On top of excessive charges, a further threat to Portugal’s tourism growth looms in the form of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme costs which unfairly target short haul flights and will inexplicably include the EU’s outermost regions (including the Azores and Madeira) from 2024. Therefore, tourists will face higher costs when visiting Madeira vs. other non-European holiday destinations meaning the island may lose visitors to non-EU destinations such as Morocco, Turkey and Jordan which fall outside the scope of ETS.

As other EU airports reduce charges to promote traffic recovery, ANA has increased charges year after year which will see the airport passenger charge alone at Lisbon Airport increase 50% since 2019. The Portuguese Government should ensure that airports as a vital part of national infrastructure is used for the benefit of the Portuguese economy rather than a private operator extracting excessive monopoly profits, ANA/VINCI must work to improve the competitiveness of Portuguese airports through lower charges.

Ryanair calls on ANAC to urgently intervene and protect Portugal’s passengers and island-economies from ANA’s excessive monopoly pricing.

Ryanair’s CEO Eddie Wilson said:

“There is no justification for ANA to increase charges by up to 18% from 2024. The monopoly airport concessionaire is only seeking higher charges, on top of already high charges, at the expense of Portuguese tourism, connectivity and local employment – particularly for the outermost island regions, including Madeira and the Azores who depend on connectivity for their economies to survive.

As a result of ANA’s 2023 charge increase, Ryanair closed its Azores base from Winter ‘23. These further unjustified increases of 18% will further harm Portuguese airports, particularly those in the peripheral regions of the Azores and Madeira, which will be disproportionately affected by charge increases and the negative effect of the EU’s withdrawal of ETS incentives for the outermost regions.

ANA should be following its European counterparts and lowering charges to help stimulate traffic and tourism. Instead, ANA is irreparably damaging Portugal’s competitiveness with this excessive and unjustified 18% increase in charges, which will do nothing but drive-away much-needed inbound tourism.

We call on ANAC to urgently intervene and protect Portugal’s passengers and island-economies from ANA’s excessive monopoly pricing before it’s too late.”