Ryanair has announced the closure and partial suspension of some of its routes in Spain as winter approaches. This step by this Irish carrier has led to significant job losses and is also set to impact tourism in Spain.
Closure of the Santiago de Compostela Airport Base
Ryanair is closing its two aircraft bases at Santiago de Compostela, which was initially planned to receive an investment of €180 million. The airline has said that these decisions are due to the high airport charges by AENA and stakeholders.
Eddie Wilson, CEO of Ryanair, said, ”
The decision by AENA and its shareholders (including the Spanish government) to increase already uncompetitive airport charges by 6.62% next year is the latest evidence that the monopolistic airport operator has no interest in developing traffic at Spanish regional airports, and simply wants to focus on making record profits from the country’s main airports. This excessive increase, the highest in more than a decade, means that most of Ryanair’s capacity for winter 2025 in regional Spain will be moved out of Spain to more efficient airports that want to develop traffic, in particular those in Italy, Morocco, Croatia, Sweden and Hungary.
Unfortunately, Ryanair will be forced to reduce its capacity in winter 2025 in regional Spain by 16% (-1 million), which will mean the closure of our two-aircraft base in Santiago (the loss of 200 million dollars of investment for Galicia); the suspension of all flights to Vigo and Tenerife North; the continued closure of Valladolid and Jerez during the winter of 2025; and significant reductions in Santander, Zaragoza, Asturias, Vitoria and the Canary Islands. AENA and the Spanish Government have an obligation to explain to the regions their long-term strategy for Spain’s regional airports (which are now almost 70% empty), as their mismanagement is directly contributing to the loss of local jobs, connectivity and investment, resulting in the loss of approximately 2 million Ryanair seats across regional Spain.
Moreover, this move will lead to severe job loss and affect the routes to the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage site. Seven routes are being fully cancelled, whereas the other routes will be seeing frequency reductions.
Affected routes which have been cancelled or suspended are-
- London Stansted (STN) – Santiago de Compostela
- Dublin (DUB) – Santiago de Compostela
- Milan Bergamo (BGY) – Santiago de Compostela
- Brussels Charleroi (CRL) – Santiago de Compostela
- Porto (OPO) – Santiago de Compostela
- Edinburgh (EDI) – Santiago de Compostela
- Rome Fiumicino (FCO) – Santiago de Compostela reduced frequency
Suspension of the Vigo Airport Route
Ryanair will be suspending its operations and flights to the Vigo Airport from January 1, 2026.
Cancelled routes are –
- London Stansted (STN) – Vigo (Only current Ryanair route from Vigo)
Suspension of the Tenerife North Airport Route
Ryanair has announced the cessation of its operations at the Tenerife North Airport in late October this year.
The cancelled routes are –
- Gran Canaria (LPA) – Tenerife North
- Madrid (MAD) – Tenerife North
- Barcelona (BCN) – Tenerife North
- Bilbao (BIO) – Tenerife North
- Santiago de Compostela (SCQ) – Tenerife North
- Seville (SVQ) – Tenerife North
- Valencia (VLC) – Tenerife North
- Vigo (VGO) – Tenerife North, this route has already been affected by the suspension of the Vigo route
Jerez Airport, Suspension and Other Base Closures
The Ryanair base at the Jerez Airport has already closed for the summer of 2025 and will remain closed for the winter this year.
Affected routes, which have been cancelled for winter, are –
- Barcelona (BCN) – Jerez
In addition, Other airports and routes which have been fully or partially suspended are –
Zaragoza Airport (ZAZ) – Capacity reduction
- London Stansted (STN) – Zaragoza
- Milan Bergamo (BGY) – Zaragoza
- Brussels Charleroi (CRL) – Zaragoza, reduced frequencies to Barcelona (BCN) and Palma de Mallorca (PMI)
Santander Airport (SDR) – Capacity reduction
- London Stansted (STN) – Santander
- Edinburgh (EDI) – Santander
- Dublin (DUB) – Santander ( Bookable until April 27, 2026)
- Reduced frequencies to Málaga (AGP) and Barcelona (BCN)
Astrurias Airport (OVD) – Capacity reduction
- Rome Fiumicino (FCO) – Astrurias
- Düsseldorf (DUS) – Astrurias
- Brussels Charleroi (CRL) – Astrurias
Vitoria Airport (VIT) – Capacity reduction
- London Stansted (STN) – Vitoria
- Barcelona (BCN) – Vitoria
Canary Island Airport (LPA) – 10 pc capacity
- Canary Island Airport faced a 400,000-seat cut with 36 mainland-Canaries routes cancelled –
- Bilbao (BIO) – Gran Canaria
- Seville (SVQ) Gran Canaria
- Santiago de Compostela (SCQ) – Gran Canaria
- Vigo (VGO) – Gran Canaria
- Valladolid (VLL) – Gran Canaria
Meanwhile, AENA has criticised this step by Ryanair, and has said:
” Ryanair’s impertinence and uninhibited public demands on democratic governments in countries where it operates its flights to obtain economic advantages, shed light upon two deep-rooted and unedifying characteristics of this airline company. The first is that Ryanair has a disturbingly plutocratic idea of the political system, i.e. it seeks to intimidate public opinion by slashing its flights, calls for the resignation of ministers from half of Europe and the president of the European Commission, mocks democratically elected politicians, and calls for laws to be changed in its favour because it believes that government decision-making should bend to the interests of the most economically powerful companies such as Ryanair, instead of protecting the “general interest”.
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