Alex Trelinski
SPAIN’S airport operator has accused Ryanair of ‘blackmail’ after last week’s announcement that it was cutting back flights to regional airports due to ‘excessive’ taxes.
Aena urged the Irish carrier to ‘calm down’ and claimed it wanted to use its airports for ‘free’.
The airline countered by saying that Aena has ‘repeatedly misled Ryanair and the Spanish people’ about its fares.
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The company announced last week that it will stop services to Jerez and Valladolid, and reduce flights to Vigo, Santiago de Compostela, Zaragoza, Santander and Asturias.
It added that it will reduce capacity on 12 routes by 18% and cancel some 800,000 passenger seats compared with the previous summer.
Ryanair said the decision is a result of excessive charges and ‘incentive plans’ from Aena which in turn is looking at other companies like Vueling and Air Nostrum to make up the service shortfall.
The Irish company accused the operator of refusing to ‘use its regional airport structure to support Spanish regional investment, instead prioritising investments in airports outside Spain’.
Aena said in statement that Ryanair should ‘abandon its threatening business and communication strategy, which it is very difficult not to interpret as blackmail’.
The operator explained that Aena’s airport charges are based on ‘Law 18/2014’ and are monitored by Spain’s competition regulator, the CNMC.
It also said that airport fees paid by any airline are just €2 per passenger at the regional airports ‘targeted’ by Ryanair.
“Ryanair’s intention with its constant public pressure is simple: to use a large part of Spanish airports for free,” Aena’s statement continued.
“Ryanair intends, surreptitiously and without any solid reason, to achieve a pure transfer of income to the pockets of the shareholders and managers of the airline,” Aena added.
It also stated that Ryanair’s demands could ‘violate Law 18/2014 and, therefore, be illegal’.
In the war of words, Ryanair then produced a long response to Aena’s statement.
It included a comment that regional airports had not increased traffic and that the fastest growing regional facility was Castellon- not managed by Aena.
It countered suggestions about Spain’s having one of the lowest airport taxes in Europe and stated that Aena’s claim of €2 charged per passenger at regional airports was ‘clearly false’.
Ryanair also stated that Aena’s comments about it cutting back in Europe was untrue after it invested over €3 billion in European airports last year.
It said it had not opened a base in Spain since 2016 due to Aena’s ‘excessive charges’ and quoted the example of Ryanair having eight million passengers per year in Malaga, but not using Granada because their fees are too high.
