NO GROWTH IN LISBON, MADEIRA OR THE AZORES DUE TO INCREASED CHARGES

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (1^st Feb) announced its Portugal Summer 2023 schedule with 19 new routes (164 tot.) to exciting destinations inc. Barcelona, Rome, and Toulouse. All new routes will operate from Faro and Porto in response to lower apt charges, whilst no growth will be allocated at Lisbon, the Azores or Madeira airports due to no slots in Lisbon, unjustified airport charges rise and ETS taxes which damage Portuguese islands tourism and jobs.

Ryanair’s Portugal S2023 schedule will deliver:

– 30 based aircraft (4 B737 G/changers)

– $3bln invest.

– 19 new routes from Faro (8) and Porto (11)

– Increased frequencies on 30 other routes

– Supp. 10,000 jobs, incl. 900 highly paid pilot, cabin crew & engineering jobs

While Ryanair will operate over 1,600 weekly flights to/from Portugal in Summer 2023 giving Portuguese customers/visitors unbeatable choice at the lowest fares when booking their well-deserved holidays, the airline’s growth at Lisbon (and Madeira/Azores) has been stifled due to increased charges and ETS fees at Portugal’s islands making these airports totally uncompetitive.

In order to continue delivering tourism and growth across all regions of Portugal, incl. Lisbon, Ryanair calls on ANAC and ANA to extend the reduction of airport charges to all Portuguese airports, not just Faro and Porto, and urges the Portuguese Govt to confirm the early opening of new Lisbon airport (Montijo) as soon as possible and release TAP’s unused slots in Lisbon Portela.

Ryanair also calls on the Portuguese Govt take immediate action against the extension of ETS taxes to Madeira and the Azores from 2024. These ETS taxes exclude long haul and transfer flights (biggest polluters), yet unfairly target short haul flights, which will have a detrimental impact on Portugal’s tourism industry by making costs for tourists travelling to Madeira or the Azores much higher than non-EU holiday destinations like Morocco, Jordan and Turkey, who remain exempt from paying ETS taxes.

Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary said:

“As Portugal’s No.2 airline, Ryanair is pleased to announce our new Portugal schedule for Summer 2023, with 1,600 weekly flights across 164 routes, incl. 19 new routes from Faro and Porto to the likes of Barcelona, Belfast, Copenhagen, Rome & Stockholm for our Portuguese customers/visitors to enjoy.

While we have been announcing further growth and investment for lower cost Portuguese airports like Faro and Porto, it is regrettable that we have not been able to deliver the same growth to Lisbon because TAP refuses to release its unused slots, and due to increased airport charges and higher ETS fees making Portugal’s islands airports totally uncompetitive.

Ryanair is once again calling on ANAC and ANA to extend the reduction of airport charges at both Faro and Porto to all Portuguese airports, incl. Lisbon, to allow Ryanair to drive tourism recovery and growth for Portugal as we have done for the last 20 years with our economic contribution of over €1.5bn, as recently quantified by an independent report by PwC.

To celebrate Ryanair’s new Lisbon Summer 2023 schedule, we are launching a special seat sale with fares from just €29.99 for travel between Apr and Oct ‘23 which must be booked by midnight 3^rd Feb on Ryanair.com.”