Ryanair has announced the cancellation of all its routes to and from the Azores from spring 2026 due to what the carrier calls “high airport fees.” Blaming airport charges set by French airport operator ANA and the Portuguese government, Ryanair said in a statement its entire Azores network of six routes would cease from 29 March 2026, resulting in the loss of around 400,000 seats.
Explaining the decision, which comes on top of cuts to annual seat capacity to the archipelago amounting to more than 200,000 (or 35%) over the past three years, Ryanair said ANA and the Portuguese government have increased air traffic control charges by more than 120% and brought in €2 travel tax, in contrast to the fees applied by “other competing EU States” which are “abolishing travel taxes to secure scare capacity growth.”
The low-cost Irish carrier accused the ANA of being a “monopoly” that was raising Portuguese airport fees “to line its pockets, at the expense of Portuguese tourism and jobs”with “no plan to grow low-fare connectivity to the Azores.”
The airline also complained about European Union’s environmental ETS taxes, which it points out are “levied on intra-European flights only, while more polluting long-haul flights to the US and Middle East are excluded.” This, Ryanair said, is making European aviation less competitive, especially for “remote regions like the Azores.” It argues that Ursula von der Leyen should act to bring ETS in line with other international carbon schemes like CORSIA.
Noting that airport charges across Portugal have risen 35% since COVID-19, Ryanair’s CCO Jason MacGuinness said in a statement the budget airline had “no alternative other than to cancel all Azores flights from 29 March 2026 onwards and relocate this capacity to lower cost airports elsewhere in the extensive Ryanair Group network across Europe.”
He added: “After 10 years of year-round Ryanair operations, one of Europe’s most remote regions will now lose direct low-fare flights to London, Brussels, Lisbon, and Porto due to ANA’s high airport fees and Portuguese government inaction.”
The Azores Ponta Delgada airport retains 22 routes to and from Europe and North America, operated by Azores Airlines, Binter, British Airways, Edelweiss, Eurowings, Iberia, Smartwings, Transavia, and United. Commentators have speculated that the reduction in Ryanair’s capacity will prompt rival airlines to increase their own flight numbers, as happened recently after Ryanair cuts to its Spanish network. The carrier has also dropped flights from France, Germany, Austria and the Baltics amid similar disputes over operating costs.
