Ryanair welcomes drop in Spain airport charges

Budget airline Ryanair has welcomed a report encouraging Spanish airport operator AENA to drop airport charges.

RYANAIR, Spain’s largest airline, today (June 29) praised a report by trade body CNMC setting out that AENA should reduce Spanish airport charges by 2 per cent from 2022 to 2026, rather than increase them by the 5 per cent increase proposed by AENA.

The airline said: “While Ryanair welcomes these reductions, greater operational efficiencies can and must be introduced by AENA to ensure Spain retains air connectivity and maintains its tourism leadership in Europe.”

It added: “Despite years of excessive profits, AENA had sought to increase airport charges by a staggering 5 per cent from 2022 to 2026 which was designed solely to protect its shareholders from any adverse effects of the pandemic.”

Ryanair’s Director of Commercial, Jason McGuinness, said: “We welcome the CNMC’s confirmation that AENA cannot breach Spanish law by increasing airport charges before 2026. Now is the time for AENA and the Spanish Government to reduce excessive Spanish airport charges and introduce long-term traffic recovery incentives in order to stimulate the recovery of local economies and jobs lost as a result of the pandemic.

“We expect the DGAC to follow the CNMC’s ​​recommendations, and introduce charge reductions.

“Any failure by the DGAC to introduce the much needed airport charge reductions will directly result in the delayed recovery of the Spanish tourism industry as airlines reallocate traffic and connectivity to airports and markets who are proactively seeking to recover traffic.”

The news comes after Ryanair has previously critics UK government travel restrictions which the airline claims are hindering the recovery of the economy.

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