Flyers hoping to travel with Ryanair in 2026 may find themselves disappointed as the budget Irish carrier carries out sweeping cuts to its network throughout the year. The flights are being wiped from timetables, the airline says, due to increases in airport and air traffic operator charges and aviation taxes that eat into Ryanair’s famously tight margins.
The cuts are being held up as evidence of Ryanair’s ruthless approach, with the airline unafraid to stop serving traditionally popular destinations and instead build capacity into destinations that are less known but, put simply, charge less to airlines for operating there.
To help readers avoid a nasty shock at the time of attempted bookings, here’s a roundup of the Ryanair cuts for 2026.
Balkans
Multiple routes and frequency cuts across:
- Bosnia
- Croatia
- Serbia
Belgium
- Brussels Zaventem
- Charleroi
Ryanair is imposing major cuts on services to and from both airports from April and winter 2026/27. At least 20 routes and one million seats will go due to taxes, the carrier says, with the loss of major tourist destination connections to the European capital, including Barcelona, Krakow, Milan, Lisbon, Mallorca, and Rome.
France
- Brive
- Strasbourg
Ryanair flights in and out of the French airports of Brive and Strasbourg are being “suspended” from early 2026, as part of the loss of 750,000 seats and 25 routes nationally, with no mention of a reprise. However, in good news for French flyers, the airline is set to return to Bergerac in summer 2026, following a deal with local authorities.
Germany
After rows with German authorities over airport charges, the loss of 800,000 seats made waves when Ryanair announced a suite of 24 route closures, which have already been happening at:
- Berlin
- Cologne
- Frankfurt-Hahn
- Hamburg
- Memmingen
From early 2026, schedules will shed flights serving the following cities, which Ryanair describes as “closed to its operations.”
- Dortmund
- Dresden
- Leipzig/Halle
Ireland
- Cork
Ryanair’s home country is no exception to the cuts. Cork in the south will lose specific flight routes for example, to Poznań, Gdańsk, and Rome.
The Netherlands
- Maastricht / Aachen
All flights are suspended until further notice.
Portugal
- The Azores
This destination will be wiped entirely from Ryanair schedules across the whole region, starting 29 March 2026. Six routes will be affected, and seat capacity will drop by 400,000 annual passengers. The airline blames the cuts on “high airport charges and inaction.”
Spain
- Asturias
- The Canaries
- Jerez
- Santander
- Santiago de Compostela
- Tenerife Norte
- Valladolid
- Vigo
- Zaragoza
For the summer season 2026, Ryanair is set to close all Asturias flights as part of regional Spain cuts, as well as cutting to zero some of the other airports listed, and reducing capacity at Santander, The Canaries, and Zaragoza. At Santiago de Compostela, the airport may remain open with baseline services. In total, regional Spanish seat capacity will be slashed by 1.2 million.
The exit from so many of Spain’s airports comes after the airport authority AENA raised taxes by seven percent. O’Leary pointed to the loss for regional Spanish destinations as most of the capacity will go elsewhere, “to some of Spain’s bigger airports, but mainly to lower-cost competitor airports in Italy, Morocco, Croatia, Sweden, and Hungary.”
