Rising air taxes: Ryanair withdraws from European markets in a landslide

That we love Ryanair or not, Ireland's ultra-low cost carrier is Europe's leading airline : 197.1 million passengers carried by 2024, 94 bases in 37 European countries237 destinations and 610 aircraft. Its success is reflected in the load factor of its aircraft: 92% in the third quarter of its 2024/2025 fiscal year.

This positioning normally gives Ryanair real leverage over the various civil aviation and airport authorities across the continent. Except that politicians don't seem to be impressed. Air transport has been increasingly drained since the end of the Covid pandemic with tax increases in most European countries.

A race to raise taxes

With the exception of Sweden, Greece, Hungary, Poland and Portugal, European countries have seen massive increases in air taxes since 2022. Germany, Austria, Ireland and the Netherlands rushed into this policy. By 2025, Denmark, Belgium, Italy and France have increased their taxes. Or are about to.

Many European governments are justifying these increases by the need to finance the decarbonising the airline industry and increasing taxes on polluters. Except that, according to the association "Airlines for Europe" (A4E), of the 4 billion in taxes paid by 2022 by the association's member airlines, very little will actually go towards decarbonising the industry and research into the production of green fuel (SAF). Only Denmark has decided to earmark the entire proceeds of its new air tax for the development of SAF*.. There are also increases in airport and air safety charges.

Decisions that are regularly denounced by Ryanair, which is threatening to reduce its presence in many countries as a result. At 2024This was the case in Germany with a significant drop in the company's presence in Berlin (-20%).

Threats carried out

This year in Germany, Ryanair to cease services to Dortmund, Dresden and Leipzig and will reduce its presence from 60% to Hamburg.

In France, Ryanair has closed its Bordeaux base following the increase in airport taxes. The carrier has already threatened that other regional airports could follow suit with the introduction of the solidarity tax increase on 1 March.

Pruning continues this year. Ryanair has announced the closure of its Aalborg and Billund bases in Denmark. at the end of March. This means the disappearance of 32 lines.

The increase in operating costs in Spain also justifies a sharp reduction in its activity in this country, according to the company. Ryanair reduces the number of its flights by 18% for the summer season. That's 800,000 fewer seats on 12 routes. The company is completely closing its bases in Jerez, Santiago de Compostela and Valladolid. It is also reducing traffic to Santander, Zaragoza and Vigo.

Visit Italy: Ryanair reduces its presence at Rome-Fiumicino due to a new municipal surcharge starting on 1 April. The company has also withdrawn one aircraft from Vienna.

Next victims: Belgium and France?

Visit BelgiumThe new government plans to increase the boarding tax, which will be introduced in 2022. This taxFor flights over 500km within the European Union, the charge is €2, and for flights over 500km outside the EU, €4, should be increased to €5. Will it have an influence on the Ryanair network, one of whose biggest European bases is Charleroi-Brussels South airport?

Only time will tell, once this increase has been approved by the government. In the meantime, the company has announced the launch of four routes this summer (Katowice, Rome, Salerno and Volos).

Ryanair to focus more on London Stansted from the UKhis first European airport. This spring, the carrier will be relaunching two flights a week on Clermont-Ferrand. It also plans new Marseille to Stockholm-Arlanda and Toulouse to Bristol and Manchester. However, we are now waiting for the low-cost airline to withdraw from French airports with more modest passenger traffic...

Will Ryanair continue to reduce its network over the coming months? In any case, the disappearance of routes generally results in an increase in ticket prices. In fact, it remains the cheapest of all the low-cost airlines.

*Since 1 January, the air tax from Denmark has been Dkr 50 (€6.70) for Europe, Dkr 310 (€41.60) for medium-haul and Dkr 410 (€55) for long-haul.