Despite Spain basking in a record-breaking influx of 94 million international visitors in 2024, the nation’s beloved tourism sector has been hit by turmoil and controversy. Locals are up in arms over soaring rents due to properties being converted into holiday accommodations, prompting Spanish authorities to introduce measures aimed at curbing the negative impacts of tourism.
The situation escalated last week when Ryanair criticised Spain’s aviation industry and axed flights from crucial regional airports, stripping away approximately 800,000 seats in 2025, citing “excessive fees” imposed on the carrier. Spanish officials have branded the airline’s actions as “blackmail”, but Ryanair has intensified the dispute by urging Spain’s airport authority, AENA, to offload some of its less successful regional airports.
The leading budget airline, which dominates Spain’s air travel sector, presented the Minister of Transport with a stark choice in a statement: “Minister Puente has two options: he can continue to support AENA’s failed regional airports policy or he can demand a growth plan from AENA that will attract airlines. If AENA fails to grow regional airports, it should be forced to divest itself of regional airports that are currently suffering the consequences of its inaction.”
Ryanair has been accused of “blackmail” by Spain’s airport operator, who urged the Irish airline to “calm down”. However, the firm remained defiant, stating: “Spain’s regional governments know the value of connectivity, increased tourism and job creation, and they want action, and they want it now.”
The budget airline is set to cut 800,000 passenger seats from 12 routes, including ending all routes to Jerez and Valladolid and reducing flights at regional airports such as Vigo (-61%), Santiago (-28%), Zaragoza (-20%), Asturias (-11%), and Santander (-5%).
This comes in response to the £8.70 fee per passenger charged by AENA, which was frozen for 2025 by a competition watchdog. However, Ryanair’s CEO Eddie Wilson argued this does not compensate for previous increases and fails to incentivise routes to regional airports.
Speaking at a travel forum, he said: “It can be clearly seen that AENA has not taken into account the high and uncompetitive access costs of Spanish airports, which causes regional airports to be half empty and currently underutilised by 64 per cent.”
Despite the ongoing dispute over fees and cuts to smaller airports, Ryanair is still expected to see a growth in passenger numbers of around 5 per cent, thanks to additional flights to busier airports. The UK remains the largest market for Spanish tourism, accounting for 23 per cent of the sector, which has seen a boom of 6.5 per cent in just one year.
In a sharp rebuke, the Spanish airport authority Aena has lashed out at Ryanair, stating: “Aena regrets that Ryanair uses spurious arguments that do not correspond to the reality of airport rates in Spain to confuse citizens and shamelessly put pressure on national and regional public institutions.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
