Ryanair to have 19 new routes between Porto and Faro, but taxes impact growth in Portugal

Ryanair has scheduled for Portugal’s 2023 summer season a total of 19 new routes including to popular destinations such as Barcelona, Rome and Stockholm. All these services will be operated from Faro and Porto, in response to low taxes.

On the other hand, the carrier will not allocate growth in Lisbon, Madeira and the Azores, due to the restriction of slots at Portela Airport (LIS) and the increase in airport taxes and charges on Portugal’s islands, making these destinations uncompetitive for the company.

At Porto (OPO), the airline will offer new services to Bristol (BRS), Castellon (CDT), Leeds/Bradford (LBA), Nimes (FNI), Shannon (SNN), Stockholm – Arlanda (ARN), Turin (TRN), Trapani (TPS), Maastricht (MST), Strasbourg (SXB) and Wroclaw (WRO).

At Faro (FAO) there will be new routes to Aarhus (AAR), Barcelona (BCN), Belfast (BFS), Copenhagen (CPH), Rome – Fiumicino (FCO), Toulouse (TLS), Exeter (EXT) and Frankfurt – Hahn (HHN).

For the 2023 summer schedule in Portugal, Ryanair will offer:

30 aircraft (including 4 737-8200).
3 billion in investment.
19 new routes from Faro (8) and Porto (11).
Increased operations on another 30 routes.
10,000 jobs, including 900 jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers.
More than 1,600 weekly flights in Portugal.

To continue growing in the region, Ryanair is asking the National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC) and ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal to extend the reduction of airport charges to all Portuguese airports, not just Faro (FAO) and Porto (OPO) and is urging the Portuguese government to confirm the early opening of Montijo Airport and to free up unused TAP slots at Lisbon (LIS).

The low-cost airline also asks the Portuguese authorities to act against the extension of carbon emission taxes to Madeira and the Azores from 2024.

«Ryanair is once again asking ANAC and ANA to extend the reduction of airport charges at both Faro and Porto to all Portuguese airports, including. Lisbon, to allow Ryanair to drive the recovery and growth of tourism in Portugal as we have done for the past 20 years with our economic contribution of over €1.5 billion» said Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair.