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The bad news just keeps on coming from Spain’s most popular budget airline Ryanair, which has just revealed that it’s planning to cut another one million seats on flights to Spain next summer, adding to the two million seats it has already removed between this summer and next winter.

 

Delivering the latest blow on Friday September 12, the airline's CEO, Michael O'Leary, has once again blamed Aena for acting like a monopoly, saying it imposes "excessive fees" and fails to incentivise regional airports. Smaller airports, serving fewer than three million passengers, are bearing the brunt of these cuts.

 

Data from Aena's traffic reports for August show that the airports most affected lost a total of 55,491 passengers. Jerez and Valladolid have seen operations cease entirely. Santiago de Compostela reduced its capacity by 28% after withdrawing an aircraft. Vigo lost 61% of its capacity, Zaragoza 20%, Asturias 11% and Santander 5%.

 

In net terms, Santiago Airport has been hit hardest, with a 10% fall in passenger numbers, losing 38,598 travellers. Valladolid Airport dropped by 69%, missing out on 14,362 passengers. Vigo saw a 4% decline with 5,149 fewer passengers and Jerez dropped by 2%, losing 1,918.

 

Meanwhile, Zaragoza actually experienced a 4% increase, gaining 2,798 users. Asturias and Santander saw small gains of 1,195 and 543 passengers respectively. Overall, almost 300,000 passengers (296,193) have been affected over the last 5 months.

 

Antonio Mariscal, president of the Jerez Destination Tourism Cluster, explained the wider impact on local economies.

 

"According to our calculations, the cessation of operations by an airline like Ryanair translates into an annual loss of 160,000 passengers, of which around 60% are tourists. And this, with an average expenditure estimated at €800, plus the 'knock-on effect' multiplied by 1.5, has a €100 million impact on the city. If for every €100,000 of direct tourist expenditure, according to the INE, we generate one job, we're talking about 1,000 jobs affected by the measure."

 

While this impact is inevitable at many airports where Ryanair leads by market share, other airlines are stepping in to fill some gaps, especially during winter. Vueling, Binter, Iberia Express and Wizz Air have recently announced plans to increase flights to Tenerife North, and Vueling will also strengthen its presence in Santiago de Compostela.

 

Whether this will be enough to compensate for Ryanair's summer reductions remains to be seen.

 

Last summer, Spain's airports offered 243 million seats, compared to 134 million in the winter season, highlighting a 45% reduction in capacity between the summer and winter schedules.

 

 

Image: Unsplash