SPAIN’S Transport Minister, Oscar Puente, has accused Ryanair of using a global shortage of new aircraft as an excuse to pressurise governments to cut airport taxes.
In a Europa Press interview, Puente says a delay in orders being delivered is leading to a lack of planes across the airline sector.
He referred to Ryanair’s cut of three million seats at Spanish regional airports between 2025 and 2026, while increasing the number of seats at large facilities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Palma and Malaga by 600,000.
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Puente said the carrier is simply transferring its fleet from ‘less profitable’ facilities, such as Valladolid, to airports with higher where good profits can be made despite higher airport taxes.
The minister defended the competitiveness of the Spanish airport system, which he said is above the European average.
He also commented on the stance made by airport operator Aena in the face of demands from Ryanair CEO, Ryanair, that growth by the Irish airline in Spain will depend on reduced tariffs.
The Spanish government this year expects to that the 100 million mark for overseas tourists will be broken for the first time this year.
It also projects a €13 billion investment in the Aena network between 2027 and 2031.
Ryanair has responded by rejecting that supplies of new aircraft from Boeing has had an impact on its services in Spain.
It solely blames regional airport service cuts on the fare and tax structure set by Aena, which it describes as ‘uncompetitive’ compared to other countries.
In a statement issued after the Puente interview, the budget carrier has called his comments about a lack of aircraft, ‘false and objectively incorrect’.
The operator says it has received all of the 210 aircraft of its Boeing MAX-8200 order and that the decision not to allocate them to the Spanish ‘peripheral network’ responds to purely profitability issues and making a return on its investment.
Ryanair says new planes have been reallocated to countries such as Morocco, Italy, Albania, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden, where public authorities and airport managers are ‘cutting regulated costs and subsidising tax rates’ to lower ticket prices and to attract more services.
It added that Puente continues to ignore ‘the harsh reality’ that Spanish regional airports are 70% empty, ‘causing incalculable damage to Spain’s regional economies’.
The statement concluded: “If Spanish regional airports had competitive prices, Ryanair would invest and grow in regional Spain, as it is already doing in other regional airports in Europe where rates are competitive.”
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