Ryanair and AENA spent 2025 sending each other errands. The airline claims that the airport manager imposes abusive rates on its customers due to a lack of competition. The second defends itself by ensuring that where it is needed it offers substantial Price reductions.
Be that as it may, the truth is that the airline that moves the most passengers in our country made a decisive snip at its offer in Spain. Surprisingly, Aena and Ryanair moved more passengers in 2025 than ever.
The conflict. It exploded in February 2025. A little less than a year ago, Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, recorded a video in which he called Pablo Bustinduy, Minister of Consumer Affairs, a “clown.” The reason is that the Government defended that the company should allow access to its planes with larger suitcases and tried to fine them for it.
It was the most striking and extravagant image but the embryo of it had to be found first. Assuring that Aena, the manager of Spanish airports, imposes abusive rates on airlines, in January Ryanair already indicated that it was going to drastically reduce its operations in our country. Specifically, it aimed to eliminate 800,000 seats in regional airports.
The consequences have been especially serious at airports that were more dependent on the airline. Jerez has reduced its traffic by 7% but in Valladolid the situation has been much more serious, with drops of more than 60% and causing layoffs in auxiliary travel services, such as the cafeteria. The company also continues to threaten to deepen its withdrawal.
A surprising fact. And despite everything, Ryanair and Aena rise. The manager of Spanish airports has published the data relating to the traffic volume for 2025. And with it has come the surprise.
That is to say, our country continues to add people to the plane and those people choose, for the most part, the Irish company to make their trips. 19% of all passengers who boarded a plane in our country at some point did so on board one of Michael O’Leary’s company planes.
Rates as an excuse. Although O’Leary has defended that his fear of regional airports is directly related to Aena’s airport taxes, the truth is that the company has closed ranks around the airports where it accumulates a greater volume of passengers and has greater room to grow.
This winter the company has added 100,000 places in an increase that, above all, has gone to Malaga, Alicante and Valencia. That is, attractive tourist destinations due to their mild temperatures, especially for those arriving from beyond our borders.
Setting the shot. As we said, it is no coincidence that Ryanair has increased operations at these airports. And the volume of passengers in any of them has skyrocketed in the last two years.
- Malaga: Passenger growth of 11.5% in 2024 and 7.4% in 2025. Of these, international passengers increased by 13% in 2024 and 7.8% in 2025.
- Alicante: Passenger growth of 16.8% in 2024 and 8.5% in 2025. Of these, international passengers increased by 16.8% in 2024 and 10.6% in 2025.
- Valencia: Growth of 8.7% in passengers in 2024 and 9.5% in 2025. Of these, international passengers increased by 11.3% in 2024 and 12.9% in 2025.
Not only Spain. These movements in which Ryanair has been regrouping at the airports with the highest volume of traffic are not exclusive to Spain either:
- Germany: has reduced 800,000 seats.
- France: has reduced 725,000 seats.
- Estonia: has reduced 110,000 seats.
- Latvia: has reduced 160,000 seats.
empty seats. In this European reorganization, the high prices that the company has to pay to airport managers have been pointed out on numerous occasions. These costs, however, are just one more value to take into account when calculating and obtaining profitability from the flights because a part of the company lives by selling itself to the highest bidder.
And if Ryanair has maintained international flights from cities like Vigo, it has been because it has been playing with hidden subsidies in the form of advertising contracts. These same agreements are what now allow new routes to Morocco with planes that are half full.
Photo | Lucas da Costa e Silva
In WorldOfSoftware | The big secret of Ryanair’s success is that it doesn’t make money for flying: it does so by squeezing you out of everything else.
