Last week, Ryanair announced a significant reduction in the number of routes from Riga for the winter season: flights to Aarhus (Denmark), Edinburgh (United Kingdom), Gdansk (Poland), Gothenburg (Sweden), Beauvais (France), and Memmingen (Germany) will be canceled. Additionally, previously canceled flights to Berlin (Germany) will not be resumed, Latvijas Avīze reports.
Despite the cancellation of several flights, it will still be possible to fly with Ryanair from Riga to Barcelona, Malaga, Krakow, Oslo, Stockholm, Gothenburg, London, Leeds, Manchester, Dublin, Vienna, Prague, Rome, Bergamo, and a number of other destinations.
This is not unusual in the aviation business, especially when it comes to so-called low-cost carriers, which carefully assess the feasibility of flights on various routes. In other cases, travelers often learn about this by checking flight schedules themselves, but the peculiarity of Ryanair is that the company actively uses these decisions for publicity and even political pressure. This aligns well with the philosophy of this airline and its colorful CEO Michael O'Leary - to profit from everything wherever possible.
Ryanair did not just announce flight cancellations, but held special press conferences in Riga, Tallinn, and Vilnius, attended by the company's Chief Commercial Officer Jason McGuinness. The message was very similar, almost word for word, and its main idea was to reduce airport fees. But since the airports themselves would not voluntarily do this, governments would have to intervene.
"This winter our schedule will be reduced by 20%, and we will cancel seven routes. The reason is the rising costs at Riga Airport; they are increasing faster than at any other European airport where most fees are currently being reduced," McGuinness said.
It is worth noting that he then made several encouraging remarks about Riga Airport, stating that it is in a more favorable position compared to the other Baltic countries, and promised a "carrot" - new investments, more planes, and new routes. All that was needed was cooperation from Latvia.
Ryanair behaved most provocatively in Estonia, as evidenced by a photo posted on social media. In it, representatives of the airline hold a sign reading: "High airport fees = no growth, no jobs, no tourism."
Ryanair publicly announced a 40% reduction in the number of flights from Tallinn - five previous flights (to Bergamo, Treviso, and Rome-Ciampino in Italy, as well as to Vienna in Austria and Paphos in Cyprus) will be canceled at the beginning of the year. According to a Ryanair representative, Tallinn Airport raised fees by 70%.
"Do we want to leave Tallinn? No. But if airport fees continue to rise, then probably yes," McGuinness was quoted by the Estonian public broadcasting company ERR.
