Ryanair cancels Canary Island flights as it cuts 1,000,000 seats from Spanish tourist routes

Bad news for anyone thinking about a cheap European getaway — Ryanair is cutting one million seats to and from Spain this winter.

The Irish airline said it will reduce passenger capacity in response to what it describes as a ‘shameless’ fee increase by Spain’s national airport operator, Aena.

The bloodbath includes 400,000 seats on flights to the Canary Islands, one of the most popular tourist destinations for UK holidaymakers.

Aena recently announced that it will roll out a 6.6 percent hike in airline fees from 2026 onwards, which will be the highest in more than 10 years, despite the operator seeing record profits in 2025. 

It said the extra cash raised will go towards the expansion of Madrid and Barcelona’s main airports. But Ryanair claims the added cost makes some regional routes unviable.

Aena’s CEO Maurici Lucena has hit back at the move, accusing Ryanair of ‘self-righteousness’, ‘rudeness’, ‘blackmail’ and greed.

It’s the latest exchange in a long-running conflict between Michael O’Leary’s low-cost carrier and the operator of most of Spain’s commercial airports.

So which airports will see the most cuts?

First off, Ryanair will stop all flights to Tenerife North from the start of this winter (exact date TBC), as well as all flights to Vigo from 1 January 2026.

Local journalist Victor Currás told Metro the decision is ‘hurting his city’.

‘In Vigo, where I live and work, they have already stopped operating the route to Barcelona despite having an average occupancy rate of over 90 percent,’ he said.

Metro has contacted Ryanair for comment.

Elsewhere, Ryanair is shutting its two-aircraft base in Santiago, and the airline’s base at Valladolid airport – which has been closed since winter 2024 – will remain closed this winter as well.

Similarly, the base at Jerez airport will be closed for the duration of the winter 2025 season. 

Other regional airports will also be affected, including the cultural hotspot of Zaragoza, which is set for a 45 percent seat decrease. 

Despite the capacity reduction in Spain, Ryanair intends to fly at least 3 percent more passengers overall in the year ending 31 March 2026.

It said it will continue to expand at Madrid and Barcelona airports, and deploy capacity to airports in countries that ‘want to develop traffic’, including Morocco, Sweden, Croatia and Hungary.

Eddie Wilson, CEO of Ryanair DAC, the main operating airline of the group, blamed cuts on Aena’s ‘monopoly’.

He said: ‘The decision by Aena and its shareholders (including the Spanish Government) to increase already uncompetitive airport charges by 6.62 per cent next year is the latest evidence that the monopolistic airport operator has no interest in developing traffic at Spain’s regional airports, and simply wants to focus on making record profits from the country’s main airports.’

This isn’t the first time Ryanair has announced cuts to its flight schedule in 2025.

Ryanair had already said in January it was cutting 800,000 passenger seats through the country’s regional airports during the summer season.

In April, the carrier further threatened to drop more flights to destinations across Spain following Aena’s 2024 move to increase airline charges by 4.09% to make up for inflation.

And Spain is not the only destination affected. Earlier this year, Ryanair withdrew one of its aircraft from Rome Fiumicino, Italy’s largest airport, due to surcharges.

Flights were scrapped to and from Aalborg, too, after Denmark announced the introduction of an aviation tax of DKK50 (£5.60).

This summer, Ryanair operated 12 percent fewer journeys to and from Germany, blaming air traffic control costs and aviation taxes.

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