Ryanair cuts Spain flight routes and adds new ones for 2027
Low-cost airline Ryanair has scrapped several routes between Spain and Belgium, but will add a number of new ones from Spanish airports to the UK, Italy and Germany.
Irish budget airline Ryanair has recently announced it will axe five routes between Belgium and Spain over the 2026-2027 winter season, as part of a reduction of 20 flight routes at Brussels-Zaventem and Charleroi airports.
According to the airline, the decision was down to an increase in taxes on flights in Belgium.
Cancelled connections will include Brussels-Zaventem flights to Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and Valencia.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary justified the measure by blaming “the stupidity of the Belgian government” and their decision to increase taxes on flights by 250 percent, rising from €2 in January 2025 to €7 in January 2027.
O’Leary argues that raising airfares doesn’t generate growth but rather shifts passengers to destinations with lower taxes.
He also had words for “the morons in Brussels who want to increases taxes on aviation”, the EU’s “fucking stupid regulations” and President of the European Commission, “useless [Ursula] Von der Leyen”.
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The potty-mouthed Ryanair founder has previously launched similar insults at the Spanish government and airport manager Aena for increasing airport taxes, which has led to multiple Ryanair flight routes from smaller regional airport being slashed over the past two years.
However, the low-cost Irish carrier is continuing to invest heavily in Spain’s more popular and therefore profitable airports, and it has new routes from these hubs planned for the coming year.
Ryanair has announced several new connections to and from Spain for the summer 2027 season, including linking Alicante with Naples in Italy and Tangier in Morocco.
Málaga will have a new connection to Norwich in England, while Seville will have a new route to Memmingen in Germany.
Lastly, Reus in Catalonia will add a route to Newcastle in northern England.
The new routes are already available to book.
Michael O’Leary also stated this week that he expects European airfares to rise by up to 20 percent in 2027 due to higher fuel costs, taxes and reduced capacity.
During his press conference in Brussels on Tuesday October 20th he said: “You’re going to see airfares rise next year in Europe, I think by 10, 15, maybe 20 percent. You’re going to see the biggest increase in airfares, I would say, in history in Europe for the next 12 months.”
According to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) monitor, jet fuel prices in Europe averaged €185.49 a barrel in mid October, which is up almost 128 percent from the same time last year.
As a result, O’Leary believes there will be fewer seats available in 2027 due to bankruptcies and takeovers in the European aviation market.
Last year, Ryanair cut 800,000 seats on flights to Spain over the summer and a million seats during the winter season in protest against Aena’s 6.5 percent fee increase.
They also pulled out of Valladolid, Jerez, Tenerife North and Santiago de Compostela and axed connections with Vigo by January 2026 and stopped all flights to and from Asturias by March 2026.
