(Alliance News) - Ryanair and Spain's left-wing government on Wednesday escalated a disagreement that has pushed the Irish budget airline to slash some regional routes and its boss to slam a minister as a "crazy communist".
Ryanair announced on January 16 that it would scrap 800,000 seats on seven of its regional Spanish routes by the summer due to "excessive" fees by state-owned airport operator Aena.
The reduction came in response to Aena "persisting with unjustified fee increases" despite the government freezing such costs until 2026, the airline said.
Aena hit back on the same day against what it called Ryanair's "notorious, dishonest, aggressive and threatening business and communications strategy, which it is difficult not to interpret as blackmail".
Its fees were among Europe's lowest and Ryanair was merely seeking to disguise its attempt to use Spanish airports for free behind "grandiloquent rhetoric", Aena said.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente waded into the row by urging Ryanair to "rethink its position", according to excerpts of a letter to the company's Chief Executive Eddie Wilson published by business daily Cinco Dias on Wednesday.
Puente chided Wilson for "the threatening and somewhat insolent tone" of a previous letter and said the government set transport policy for "the general interest, not the particular interest of specific companies".
Ryanair's outspoken Group Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Leary then intensified the turbulence over a separate row on Wednesday after the Spanish government fined five airlines in November for "abusive practices" such as charging passengers for hand luggage.
Ryanair's share of the fine was the largest at EUR107.8 million (USD112 million).
Speaking at a news conference in Brussels, O'Leary lashed out at consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy, referring to him as "a crazy communist minister" who fined airlines that "have no choice but to restrict carry-on bags".
Far from burying the hatchet, Bustinduy retorted that "no pressure, no blackmail and no insult will stop me" in his obligation to defend Spanish consumers above multinationals and magnates, "however powerful they may be".
Ryanair has in recent months said it would reduce service in Germany over fees and threatened to abandon 10 French airports in protest at a tax hike on air transport.
Ryanair was down 0.6% at EUR20.36 per share in Dublin on Wednesday afternoon.
source: AFP
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