Ryanair announced that it has been forced to cut its aircraft based in Lisbon from 7 to 4 for S22, causing the cancellation of 5,000 flights, 900,000 passengers, and 19 Lisbon routes for Summer ’22 due to TAP’s continued blocking of landing slots, which TAP cannot and will not use at Lisbon Portela this summer. These cancellations reduce travel options for citizens/visitors, but also results in the loss of 150 highly paid aviation jobs in Lisbon.
These avoidable cancellations come after multiple attempts by Ryanair to request the Portuguese Govt to intervene to release these unused TAP S22 slots. While Ryanair delivers growth and investment in Portugal, TAP has soaked up €3bn in State aid, cut its fleet by 20%, cut thousands of jobs but released less than 5% of its slots in Lisbon, thereby blocking growth of other airlines. Preventing competitors like Ryanair from using these unused slots negatively impacts the Lisbon economy, with 5,000 cancelled flights (over 950,000 fewer seats), 3 fewer based aircraft (a $300m investment), the loss of 150 highly paid aviation jobs and over €250m in lost tourism revenue for Lisbon this summer.
Ryanair confirmed today that these 3 aircraft and these lost 19 routes will return to Lisbon in Oct ’22 for Ryanair’s Winter schedule, since the airline already has sufficient winter slots in Lisbon for these flights.
19 LOST ROUTES IN LISBON FOR S22:
Agadir
Alghero
Alicante
Bari
Billund
Birmingham
Bournemouth
Baden-Baden
Lanzarote
Madrid
Malta
Memmingen
Oujda
Palermo
Perpignan
Poitiers
Tenerife
Wroclaw
Zaragoza
