Ryanair to reduce flights to TFS because of AENA airport tax rises

[Janet]

Ryanair has announced that as a result of the increase in airport taxes, it is to reduce its flights to TFS over the next few months. Flights to Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, as well as to Madrid and Barcelona, will also be affected. The reductions in scheduling, said to be of around 12% throughout the country, are expected to cost AENA around 25 million Euros in lost taxes from 648 or so flights a week. Some 4,500 jobs could also be in jeopardy.

Ryanair said that it calculated that without the reductions, the increased airport taxes would have cost it between 75 and 80 million Euros more next year than this, and that they wouldn't pass the extra charges on to customers just because AENA was bankrupt. Ryanair VP Michael Cawley criticized AENA's policy of "disproportionate airport expansion" in building unnecessary terminals. Mr Cawley argued that AENA had not listened to its number one client, nor visited its Dublin headquarters as it has done with other carriers. To get the lost Ryanair flights back, he said, AENA would have to withdraw its tax hike. JA