Ryanair has announced it is cutting seat capacity to Vienna, removing three aircraft from winter 2025 schedules and cancelling three Viennese routes to and from Denmark, Estonia, and Spain, despite its 160% growth in Austria since COVID-19.
The move follows Hungarian carrier Wizz Air’s cancellation of flights to the Austrian capital. Both budget airlines say Austria’s increasing airport fees and €12 aviation tax affect the business case for flying there. In addition to the cuts at Billund, Santander, and Tallinn, Ryanair announced last week it would be closing down its operations at three Spanish airports (Tenerife North, Vigo and Santiago de Compostela), and slashing up to a million Spanish seats.
Echoing the language already used in disputes with Belgian, French, and Spanish authorities, Ryanair has dubbed the Austrian aviation tax “harmful.” The low-cost airline’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, told media at a conference that he was attempting to exert policy pressure on the Austrian government.
His proposals would see 10 new Boeing 737 8200 aircraft added to the country’s schedules by 2030. The growth plan, claimed to be worth €1 billion, would also entail 40 new routes and boost annual passenger numbers to 12 million, creating more than a thousand new jobs. If, on the other hand, Ryanair’s demands are ignored, he said: “Vienna will continue to decline until it gets its act together.”
The managing director of Laudamotion, a low-cost carrier acquired and rebranded by former Austrian race driver Niki Lauda, which has been entirely owned and operated under wet lease to Ryanair since 2020, agrees with O’Leary. Andreas Gruber said that Austria’s aviation sector is not aligned with its neighbours: “The costs are too high. Countries like Hungary, Slovakia, or the Czech Republic don’t have this.”
Ryanair has frequently called airport charges in various countries “excessive” and frames national aviation taxes as an attack “on ordinary passengers” while threatening to move its own operations to different markets. However, its recent withdrawal from Spain may come to be seen as an own goal, as it appears to have handed a market opportunity to competitors.
Vueling has said it will add 160,000 seats to its winter schedule, including at airports Ryanair is abandoning, as part of the carrier’s “ambition to establish ourselves as the key airline in the domestic market, as well as in major corridors between Spain and Europe,” according to route planning director Jordi Pla.
In addition, Canarian flag carrier Binter is set to boost its Tenerife Norte seat availability by 33%, Iberia Express is adding five percent, and Volotea and Wizz Air are also said to be in the market for extra seats.
