Ryanair flights: Budget airline to scrap routes to popular European holiday destinations including Spain, France, Italy and Denmark

Ryanair is axing services across Italy, France, Spain and Denmark in a big blow for holidaymakers. CEO Eddie Wilson has spoken out over the changes for Ryanair passengers as the budget airline, which is rivalled by Jet2, Easyjet and TUI, is scrapping routes to key European destinations.

Mr Wilson said: "Excessive airport charges and lack of workable growth incentives continue to undermine Spain's regional airports, limiting their growth and leaving vast swathes of airport’s capacity underutilised." A Ryanair spokesperson said: “We are very disappointed to announce the closure of our two-aircraft Billund base and our operations at Aalborg from the end of March, but we have been left with no other choice following the Danish government’s short-sighted decision to introduce a harmful aviation tax from Jan 2025.”

Italy

Ryanair will scrap one of its Rome-based aircrafts from Fiumicino (the country's largest airport) for summer 2025. "This means no growth for Rome despite the celebrations for the Jubilee year," the airline added, blaming the news on municipal surcharges in the main Italian airports that start on April 1, 2025.

Denmark

Ryanair has scrapped all flights to and from Aalborg, after Denmark announced new aviation taxes. The new tax, which is 50DKK (£5.57), will apply to all passengers departing from Denmark and will be paid for by airlines. Ryanair is scaling back its flights to and from Denmark next year and will stop services from Aalborg Airport entirely, according to a report from Danish aviation media Check-in.

Quoting airport directors, the media writes that services from Aalborg to destinations including London and Costa Brava, which it served this year, will cease, with a March 29th flight to London marking the final Ryanair flight from the airport. Ryanair will also cut several routes from Billund next summer, while Aarhus Airport will lose its connection to Faro in Portugal, Check-in.dk reports, though the latter airport told newswire Ritzau it could not confirm this.

France

Ryanair has already closed its Bordeaux base last year, and has "backed out of operating flights to Paris". France is gearing up for a significant hike in aviation tax, with rates expected to soar by more than double come 2025 - a move that appears to be backed by the Minister of Public Accounts Amélie de Montchalin. This steep increase could potentially provoke Ryanair to scale back its French operations.

Spain

Ryanair explained that it would close its Jerez and Valladolid operations, remove one based aircraft from Santiago, and will cut traffic at five other regional airports – Vigo (-61%), Santiago (-28%), Zaragoza (-20%), Asturias (-11%) and Santander (-5%) – during this summer.