Spain’s state airport operator has accused Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary of shifting blame onto Aena to shield himself from passenger anger over flight cancellations.
The dispute between Aena and Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, has intensified in recent weeks. Ryanair argues that ‘excessive’ fees have forced it to cut 2 millions seats on flights to Spain and to already threaten another 1 million seat reduction next summer. ALSO READ: Ryanair cuts 1 million seats and 36 routes in Spain amid fee dispute.
Speaking to The Financial Times – and in response to an interview that the paper had with O’Leary last week – Aena chair and chief executive Maurici Lucena directly challenged O’Leary, accusing him of ‘lying continuously’ and deflecting from the real reasons behind the cuts.
‘What really bothers me is that they’re not telling the truth,’ Lucena said. ‘It has nothing to do with Aena’s fees. The reason they lie is that they don’t want to face the political and reputational cost of abandoning some regional airports, and in some cases even causing job losses when they shut down a base. That’s the real underlying issue.’
According to Lucena, Ryanair’s actual strategy is to redeploy aircraft to more profitable routes outside Spain — where it can charge higher fares and often secure state subsidies.
‘For [Ryanair], the business case includes everything: airport fees, the strength of demand and public subsidies. Then, from that algorithm, they decide where to assign the planes,’ he said.
Lucena also downplayed the importance of the 6.5% fee increase that O’Leary has attacked, noting that it amounts on average to just €0.68 per passenger, though the amount varies depending on the airport.
Ryanair remains Spain’s largest airline by passenger volume, with the country ranking as its second-biggest market after Italy by revenue. Yet O’Leary told the FT last week that some regional costs were ‘too high’, insisting the airline was ‘better off flying at the same cost to places such as Palma [on the island of Mallorca] than flying to Jerez’.
O’Leary said in his own interview with the FT: ‘I plan to return to Madrid in two weeks and will probably announce another million seats being cut next summer.’
Lucena argued that Ryanair’s push to maximise profits is being sharpened by delays to new Boeing aircraft deliveries, which disrupted its growth plans earlier this year. The airline now expects most of the jets by autumn, with the remainder arriving early in the new year – still ahead of next summer’s peak season.
For the coming winter, Ryanair has announced it will suspend flights from several Spanish airports, including Santiago de Compostela, where it carried 42% of passengers in the first eight months of the year. Cuts are also planned at Vigo, Jerez and Tenerife, where its footprint is smaller.
‘When you cancel a route from an airport, especially if it’s a small airport, it doesn’t look good in the eyes of the public because people are used to being able to take that Ryanair flight,’ Lucena said.
Despite the cuts, Ryanair’s overall Spanish traffic has risen, climbing 5.1% year-on-year to 47.2m passengers from January to August, driven by larger airports such as Málaga and Palma de Mallorca.
Lucena, a former PSOE (socialist) politician, stressed that Aena is legally bound to keep smaller airports open, dismissing any suggestion of closures. He also noted that carriers such as Vueling, Binter, easyJet and Volotea are moving to absorb Ryanair’s vacated slots. ‘The airlines will fill these gaps over the coming months, but it takes time,’ he said.
Across the eleven airports where Ryanair has scaled back, scheduled winter seat numbers across all airlines are down only 2.3% compared with last year, according to Aena.
According to the FT, Ryanair responded sharply to Lucena’s comments. A spokesperson said: ‘If we are lying as Lucena claims, then why doesn’t he call our bluff and cut Aena’s high fees at Spain’s empty regional airports?’
They added: ‘Ryanair always goes where costs are lower and will happily go back to regional Spain when they stop charging Madrid/Barcelona prices. Until then it’s adiós Aena!’
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Spanish airport owner accuses Ryanair of ‘lies’ over flight cuts https://t.co/q9A2QwgaBZ
— Financial Times (@FT) September 14, 2025
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