Which Ryanair routes are actually being cut in Portugal?

Ryanair will slash all six of its routes to and from the Azores from the end of March next year, which will affect about 400,000 fliers per year.

This will represent a cut of around 22% in Ryanair’s Portuguese capacity, impacting key cities like Porto and Lisbon as well.

This is also mainly because of higher air traffic control fees imposed by the Portuguese operator ANA (Vinci), as well as EU taxes such as the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), which targets short-haul flights to destinations like the Azores and Madeira, while exempting longer routes.

A new €2 travel tax in Portugal, which Ryanair has said is counterproductive compared to other EU countries, has added to this.

Portugal’s operational costs have also been rising for the last few months, with several airport staff strikes as well, further complicating the situation.

“Sadly, the ANA monopoly has no plan to grow low-fare connectivity to the Azores. The ANA monopoly faces no competition in Portugal – which has allowed it to extract monopoly profits, by raising Portuguese airport fees without penalty – at a time when competing EU airports are lowering fees to stimulate growth,” Ryanair said in a press release in late November.

“The Portuguese government 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.”

However, ANA has categorically denied these monopoly abuse claims, stating that dialogue remains open and that the fees in the Azores were low.