Low-cost airline Ryanair has criticised ANA’s proposal to raise fees at airports for 2024 and threatened to close its Madeira base if costs do not come down.
In the note, the carrier said that ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal, operated by France’s Vinci, “is trying to increase rates excessively and unjustifiably throughout the country, including Lisbon (+18%), Porto (+13%), Faro (+12%), Azores (+8%) and Madeira (+9%)”, and warned that this will have “a very negative impact on connectivity, tourism and employment in Portugal, particularly in island economies.”
Ryanair considers that “there is no justification for these excessive price increases beyond ANA’s already high airport charges,” noting that the manager “has no competition in Portugal.”
For Ryanair, this increase “is the exact opposite of what Portuguese airports need”, particularly “those in Madeira and the Azores, which rely on low airport charges to boost” connectivity and tourism.
“Surprisingly, instead of seeking to reduce the costs of access to the islands, ANA is trying to make access even more expensive,” he said, referring to the increases in fees in Madeira and the Azores, “in addition to the excessive increases applied last year, irreparably damaging the competitiveness of Madeira and the Azores.”
In the statement, Ryanair said that “it has already been forced to close its base in the Azores following ANA’s previous rate increases,” and called on the concessionaire “to reduce airport charges in order to avoid the same fate for Madeira.”
The carrier also pointed to “a new threat to the growth of tourism in Portugal,” indicating the “costs of the European Union [EU] emissions trading scheme that unfairly targets short-haul flights and which, inexplicably, will include the EU’s outermost regions (including the Azores and Madeira) from 2024.”
The airline said that “therefore, tourists will have to bear higher costs when visiting Madeira compared to other non-European holiday destinations.”
“While other EU airports reduce charges to promote traffic recovery, ANA has been increasing fees year after year, which has led to the airport passenger fee at Lisbon Airport having increased by 50% since 2019,” he said.
Ryanair therefore calls on the National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC) “to intervene urgently and protect Portuguese passengers and island economies” from ANA’s “excessive” prices.
ANA defended the increases in airport fares it proposed for 2024, most of them less than one euro, justifying them with inflation and increases from previous years, according to a note sent to Lusa on the 19th of September.
In the document, the manager indicated that the “definition of the rates results from the application of the economic regulation formulas of Annex 12 of the concession contract, which has been public knowledge since 2012.”
According to ANA, the contract provides for “an evolution globally aligned with inflation, adding the fees that were not charged in previous years,” and highlights that “the context of high inflation significantly impacts the operating and investment costs of airports.”
Lusa contacted the Regional Secretary of Tourism and Culture of Madeira, who said that his department is analysing ANA’s proposal for 2024, as it does every year when the tariff consultation process is triggered.
The guardianship stated, in writing, that, within the stipulated period, the executive “will respond, as it has always done, to the management company of the national airports, with regard to the airports of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, taking due account of the defence of the legitimate interests of residents,” as well as visitors and operators of the air transport market.
Later on in a statement, the Secretary for Tourism and Culture, Eduardo Jesus stated. “We want, of course, that the company continues to operate for Madeira and that it finds in Madeira all the necessary conditions for this operation. Naturally, we want to create all the conditions so that it is possible for the airline to continue to operate here without unnecessary impediments.”
And, faced with this specific situation, “we are on the ground, in contact with the company itself, with the concessionaire, with Turismo de Portugal… we have also expressed our position to the Minister of Infrastructure, which has the responsibility of ANAC and also to ANAC. Therefore, Madeira has made it very clear what its position is regarding this matter.”
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
