The president of Visit Azores, responsible for tourism promotion in the Azores, considered this Thursday, the 20th, the announcement of Ryanair’s departure from the region as a “form of negotiating pressure”, warning that the process is not “completely closed”.
With “this type of statement from Ryanair, we, unfortunately, are already used to it. It’s the way they exert their negotiating pressure within the conversations they have in the regions where they operate”, said Luís Capdeville Botelho to the Lusa agency.
Ryanair announced today that it will cease all flights to the Azores from March 2026, citing high airport taxes and “Government inaction”.
The president of the board of directors of Visit Azores said that the association “maintains contact” with Ryanair and insisted that the low-cost airline’s position is a way of “putting pressure” on ANA and the Government of the Republic.
“Just today I had the opportunity to speak to them [Ryanair]. It’s like I told you. It is a way of putting pressure on ANA – Aeroportos regarding fees and on the central government with the fees that come under obligation from the European Union. Nothing more than that”, he added.
Luís Capdeville Botelho recalled that, in September, Ryanair also issued a statement announcing its intention to “reopen the base in Ponta Delgada” and highlighted that the company’s departure from the Azores is not a “completely closed” process.
“It’s just a way and a tool that they use in negotiation, because, in fact, they continue to talk to the company. It’s not completely closed,” he said.
Noting that it was “just a negotiating position”, the person responsible for the association that manages tourism promotion in the Azores considered that the market has the capacity to “adapt to demand” even in a “more catastrophic scenario”.
Capdeville Botelho recalled that in the winter of 2023, when Ryanair reduced 65% of its operations in the Azores, the archipelago recorded a “growth in overnight stays and guests”.
“It’s a way of putting pressure on the outside. Especially at this time of year. The ‘timing’ of communication will not be innocent. I don’t think it’s a reason, at this moment, for real concern. It’s just a way of putting pressure on at a specific moment of the year”, he reinforced.
Ryanair argues that “unfortunately, the ANA monopoly has no plan to increase low-cost connectivity with the Azores”, adding that ANA “faces no competition in Portugal – which has allowed it to make monopoly profits by increasing Portuguese airport fees without any penalty – at a time when competing airports in other EU countries are reducing fees to stimulate growth”.
The company argues that the Government “must intervene and guarantee” that national airports, “a critical part of the national infrastructure, especially in an island region like the Azores, serve to benefit the Portuguese people and not a French airport monopoly”.