Irish Low Cost Carrier (LCC) Ryanair will cancel all routes to Portugal’s Azores archipelago by March 29. This sudden change is likely to affect 400,000 passengers who hoped to make the journey to Portugal with the low-cost airline, and also likely to affect six other routes including London, Brussels, and Lisbon.
The “European Hawaii”
The Azores, dubbed the “European Hawaii” because of its volcanic tropical setting, is an archipelago made up of nine islands, with one of the main transport hubs being Ponta Delgada Airport (PDL) on São Miguel Island. The absence of such a journey is going to be a significant effect on other routes such as South Charleroi Airport (CRL) in Brussels, London Stansted (STN), and the Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS) in Lisbon. By cutting these routes to Portugal and other parts of Europe Ryanair risk losing 400,000 passenger seats, which they claim is because of a percentage increase in travel tax, as the airport has introduced a €2 carbon charge for low-cost departures. Despite this there has been no word of it affecting domestic flights between Portugal to the Azores.
Ryanair Refutes Tax Rise
The impetus for this decision comes from Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary who has been critical of the Portuguese government’s decision to raise airport landing taxes and claims that they “must intervene” to maintain financial stability of the airports and meet seat capacity. In a full statement he had this to say:
“The Portuguese Govt. must intervene and ensure that its airports, which are a critical part of national infrastructure – especially in an island economy like the Azores – are used to benefit the Portuguese people, rather than benefitting a French airport monopoly.”
The airport monopoly in question that O’Leary is referring to is Vinci Airports, a French aviation operator that acquired Aeroportos de Portugal (ANA) in 2013 and now operates 10 airports within some of Portugal’s aviation hubs, namely Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Ponta Delgada.
This is also not the first time that Ryanair have pulled out of flying to other European countries like France, Belgium, and Germany, because of their tax rises, and have made plans to cut their flight capacity by March this year.
Can this financial situation be resolved, or does it seem both the airline and the airport are at a stalemate? Comment below and let us know your thoughts!
