WHILE HUNGARY, ITALY, SLOVAKIA AND SWEDEN SCRAP TAXES, SILLY BELGIUM RAISES TAXES (5-FOLD!!) & LOSES TRAFFIC/JOBS

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, today (Wed, 14 Jan) revised its Brussels 2026 schedules by reducing the number of seats on offer at Charleroi by 1.1m in 2026, with a further planned 1.1m seat cuts in 2027, as Charleroi City Council announces plans for a €3 tax per pax departing Charleroi from April 2026, and the silly Belgium Govt announces a 5-fold increase in pax taxes from €2 in Jan 2025 to €10 in Jan 2027 (at a time when Mario Draghi is calling on Europe to be more competitive). These tax increases are silly when other EU countries including Sweden, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy and Albania, have abolished Aviation Taxes to grow traffic, tourism and jobs. Belgium’s tax rises will now send traffic and jobs to other, more competitive, EU countries.

Ryanair calls on Prime Minister De Wever to reverse these silly tax rises, which will damage Belgium’s competitiveness, and cost Belgium millions of passengers, thousands of flights, and thousands of jobs in tourism and support industries. While almost every other EU country is abolishing Aviation Taxes, it makes no sense for Belgium to increase pax taxes 5-fold, when these taxes have failed in every other EU State. Ryanair, which is Belgium’s largest airline, carrying 11.6m passengers to/from Belgium in 2025, will now cut this figure to (10.6m) in 2026 (if Charleroi Council goes ahead with its €3 tax plan) and will cut further to 9.6m passengers in 2027, if the Belgium Govt doesn’t reverse this idiotic 5-fold increase in pax taxes. The competitiveness of European Aviation is already being damaged by Europe’s mad ETS tax scheme, which taxes only intra-EU flights, while exempting all non-EU flights, and Belgian citizens/visitors cannot be asked to pay even more of these unfair and damaging taxes.

As many other European States have shown, taxing air travel loses traffic, routes and jobs. If the Belgium economy really wants to grow, then the Govt needs to scrap these silly travel taxes, and allow low-fare airlines – led by Ryanair – to return to growth in Zaventem and in Charleroi, instead of cutting over 2m seats, which is what we now plan to do over the next 2 years.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“Only the Belgium Govt could be so silly to raise Aviation Taxes five-fold, at a time when Sweden, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Albania are abolishing their Aviation Taxes. These taxes have failed, and have damaged air travel and tourism in many EU countries, which is why they are being scrapped. In Belgium however, the De Wever Govt seems determined to fail, while others are succeeding. Having enjoyed Ryanair’s low fare growth at Charleroi and Zaventem Airport over the last 20 years, the Govt has now decided to raise aviation Taxes (by 5-fold!!) at a time, when almost all other EU States are abolishing them.

What these silly politicians don’t understand is that aircraft and passengers are mobile. If Belgium wants to tax passengers, then they simply switch to lower cost, non-tax, destinations, like Sweden, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia and Albania. Belgium’s loss will be to the gain of these lower cost, tax-cutting States.

When the Draghi Report has called on Europe to become more competitive, the De Wever Govt seems determined to make Belgium even less competitive. Raising taxes will deliver fewer flights, less passengers, less tourism, and cost thousands of jobs at both, Zaventem and Charleroi Airports. The solution to this challenge is easy: Scrap these damaging aviation taxes (as many other EU States have), and allow Ryanair to continue to grow, especially at Charleroi, where over the last 20 years, Ryanair has grown to be Belgium’s largest airline. This growth can easily be lost to tax abolishing countries like Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia and Italy, and if Charleroi and Belgium don’t reverse these taxes, then Ryanair will cut 1.1m pax in 2026 and another 1.1m in 2027, and we will keep cutting until Belgium’s silly Govt works out that taxing traffic is not the way to grow tourism/jobs, it simply sends them to other lower cost, zero-tax, competitor destinations elsewhere in Europe.”