State-owned operator of 46 airports across Spain hits back at Ryanair and hints at 'blackmail'

Aena, Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea, is the public company that manages 46 airports and two heliports in Spain and it has responded publicly to Ryanair to deny the Irish low-cost airline's claims about the way it operates in Spain.

Ryanair has stated, as SUR's sister newspaper Ideal published on Saturday 18 January, that it does not fly to from Granada because of airport charges. In this way, the Irish airline directly confronted Aena which it blames for mismanagement of regional airports across Spain.

Aena's response to Ryanair's claims was immediate. "Ryanair does not invest in European airports, but in the aircraft it purchases for its fleet, and therefore the direct recipients of the billion-dollar investments that Ryanair recites like a litany are the companies that manufacture these aircraft (mainly Boeing), which are mostly not located in the areas to which Ryanair refers," explained Aena in a first direct response.

The statement went on to explain that investments in Spanish airports are made and financed by Aena. For this reason, Aena's airport tariffs and the commercial incentives to airlines paid by Aena are public and transparent and, therefore, can be easily consulted.

At the end of October 2024, Aena explained that it approved a new specific commercial incentive, paid for by the state-owned company, for the 17 so-called regional airports (less than three million passengers per year) that had not recovered pre-pandemic traffic levels: a 100 per cent discount to airlines for airport security and PRM (passengers with reduced mobility) for additional passengers compared to the equivalent season in 2023.

This incentive, the statement explained, was in addition to the pre-existing commercial incentive approved by Aena for the period 2024-2026 which is a 100 per cent discount to airlines on the passenger fare for all additional passengers for each airline in respect of passengers in the equivalent season in 2023.

Aena categorically stated that, at the regional airports targeted by Ryanair, the application of the Aena commercial incentives, available to all airlines, reduces the airport charges actually paid by any airline to around two euros per passenger.

Aena is categorical in its criticism of the Irish airline: "Although disguised with grandiloquent rhetoric, Ryanair's aim with its constant public 'pressing' is simple: to use a large part of Spanish airports for free, which would break the long-term financial viability of the Spanish airport system, whose current operation is considered by experts to be an example of good international management".

Aena said, "Ryanair intends to achieve a transfer of income: that Aena's shareholders - among which are all Spanish citizens, as the Spanish State owns 51 per cent of the company - transfer their money into the pockets of the airline's shareholders and managers."

Finally, Aena concluded, "We cordially urge Ryanair to abandon its inveterate and unfortunately famous mendacious, aggressive and threatening business and communication strategy, which it is very difficult not to interpret as blackmail to Aena, to the territories and, ultimately, to the Spanish people".