Every European flight route Ryanair will cut in 2025

Budget airline Ryanair has been busy over the past few months axeing some of its flight routes around Europe in response to government’s decisions to hike aviation taxes and charges.

Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, threatened to reduce the airline’s flights to and from France if the tax was increased.

At a press conference last week, Mr O’Leary said: “France is already a high-tax country and if it increases already high taxes further, we will probably reduce our capacity [to and from France].

The airline has made it clear it feels that air transport in Europe would be more efficient, and tourism and traffic would grow in some regions, if certain policies were abolished.

Publishing a “resolutions” manifesto on New Year’s Day, Ryanair said it is calling on governments to axe aviation taxes, reduce air traffic control (ATC) fees and try to staff ATC at full capacity in the first wave of morning departure, as well as scrapping traffic caps.

Mr O’Leary said that “2025 must be the year of competitiveness and growth across Europe.

He added: “Too many of Europe’s economies, such as France, Germany, and the UK, are stagnating under the dead hand of regulation, higher taxes and Govt mismanagement.

“It is time to return to deregulation and focus on those policies that deliver growth.”

Here is a rundown of the routes Ryanair has pulled so far.

Denmark

At the end of January, the budget carrier announced it would close its two-aircraft base at Billund airport, which it says would be a loss of a $200m (£158m) investment.

The airline added it would cut all routes to and from Aalborg, a city in northern Denmark by the end of March.

Ryanair said these decisions came as a result of the Danish government’s plans to introduce an aviation tax of up to DKK 50 (£5.58) per departing passenger from January 2025, as well as Billund’s failure to agree on a competitive long-term agreement.

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 Govt’s short-sighted decision to introduce a harmful aviation tax from Jan 2025.

“Unfortunately, this harmful aviation tax makes Denmark (especially regional Denmark)…