Ryanair cancels 19 routes

Ryanair has cancelled 19 of its summer routes in and out of Portugal and has blamed the Government and the national carrier TAP for blocking slots.

The decision was announced on Tuesday and affects three planes which the company says it will deploy elsewhere, but they will return in the winter.
The company also says that passengers will be refunded for tickets that have already been paid or be compensated with alternative flights.
Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary had already issued an ultimatum at a press conference in February when he made several demands to the Portuguese government to stop TAP from blocking slots at Lisbon airport.
The company states that this decision represents a “loss of 5000 flights and 150 jobs and that the number of planes based in Lisbon will be reduced from seven to four with an estimated reduction in passenger capacity of 900,000.
Ryanair also states that this will result in a loss of tourism revenues for the Portuguese tourism industry.
These planes, which had been introduced in November last year, (when Ryanair announced 22 new routes at Lisbon for the summer this year).
“We’ve taken this action because TAP continues to block slots at Lisbon airport which they won’t even use this summer”, states the airline.
“These cancellations, that could have been avoided, have happened after countless attempts by Ryanair to ask the Portuguese Government to intervene in freeing up slots that are not being used by TAP in the summer of 2022”.