ANA’S 17% FEE INCREASE HAS DAMAGED PORTUGUESE GROWTH, JOBS, AND TOURISM

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (23rd Jul) called on the Portuguese airport monopoly ANA to cut its excessive fees at Portuguese airports, and deliver competitive costs to restore growth to Portugal’s economy, jobs, and tourism industry.

ANA’s monopoly decision to increase airport fees by up to +17% from Jan 2024 has damaged Portuguese growth as Ryanair was forced to close its Ponta Delgada base and reduce its Madeira base by 50% in S24, with a risk of permanent base closure. These ANA monopoly fee increases are imposed at a time when most European airports are lowering fees to recover their pre-Covid traffic and incentivise growth. These airport fee increases damage Portugal’s growth while they only line the pockets of ANA’s monopoly French-owner-VINCI.

Additionally, Ryanair called on the Portuguese Govt to immediately expand Portela airport capacity, before the construction at Lisbon’s Alcochete airport, which won’t be ready until 2031, at the earliest. The artificial passenger cap at Portela impedes growth at Lisbon and limits low fare competition and choice for Lisbon’s citizens and visitors.

Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary said:

“We call on the ANA airport monopoly to take action and reduce its excessive airport fees. ANA’s monopoly decision to increase fees by up to +17% is ludicrous, when most other EU states are lowering fees to attract airline investment and incentivise growth.

Ryanair is the only airline growing strongly (up to 35%) in Europe post-Covid, and we could double Portugal’s air traffic to 26m, creating hundreds of highly paid Portuguese jobs over the next 6 years. But regrettably, without ANA action and/or Govt intervention, Portugal will lose this growth to other lower cost EU airports due to ANA’s excessive fees, which are forcing airlines like Ryanair to cut flights to/from Portugal. Portugal’s regional islands are already losing out as Ryanair was forced to close its Ponta Delgada base and reduce one of our two Madeira based aircraft, a loss of $100m investment, with the base currently under risk of closure thanks to ANA’s high fees.”