Over the last two years, budget airline Ryanair has battled over airport taxes with regulators in multiple European countries.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary, who in aviation circles is known for a fiery temper and making provocative statements about the industry, repeatedly criticized the German government for raising the Luftverkehrsabgabe air passenger tax by 20% since 2024.
Citing such increases as unsustainable to its low-cost airline model, Ryanair is closing its base at Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) later this October after having exited the German cities of Dresden, Leipzig, and Dortmund over the last two years.
Ryanair cuts 20 routes from Brussels, blasts Belgian airport tax increase as “failed and stupid”
With Belgium also preparing to raise its airport tax from €2 to €7 per ticket on the first day of 2027, Ryanair just announced plans to axe 20 of its routes from the country over what O’Leary classified as a “failed and stupid initiative” on the part of Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever.
As the main and largest airport in Belgium, Brussels Airport (BRU) charges the highest airport taxes. With the timeline for the pullout expected for early 2027 but yet to be confirmed, Ryanair will stop flying to the airport known locally as Zaventem from eight cities among which are Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and Málaga in Spain as well as Porto and Marrakech.
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With Ryanair keeping only one route to BRU from its main base at Dublin Airport (DUB), this marks a near-exit from the market.
Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL), which is located 60 kilometers from the capital in the Wallonian town of Gosselies, will lose 12 routes from cities like Dubrovnik in Croatia, Nîmes in France, and Katowice and Lodz in Poland but retain more of Ryanair’s network as a smaller airport with lower airport taxes.
“Ryanair has switched six aircraft, over one million seats and 20 routes out of Belgium”
O’Leary threatened more cuts if Belgian authorities do not take steps to make the tax situation more favorable for low-cost airlines, citing “competitor EU States [Slovakia, Sweden, Hungary and Italy], who have abolished aviation taxes and are lowering costs to improve their competitiveness and stimulate rapid traffic and tourism growth.”
“Taxing air traffic does not deliver growth; it simply sends it elsewhere,” the executive said in a statement. “As a result of PM De Wever’s failed high-tax, anti-growth aviation policy, Ryanair has switched six aircraft, over one million seats, and 20 routes out of Belgium in our Brussels Winter 2026 schedule and send them instead to tax free, lower cost destinations elsewhere in Europe.”
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In the same press release, O’Leary teased a seven-year growth plan for Belgium in which the airline could introduce 100 new routes into Brussels from different European capitals and tourist destinations into the 2030s if the taxation situation is made more favorable toward it.
Belgian lawmakers have not publicly responded to O’Leary’s statements but officials in Germany previously criticized Ryanair for weaponizing its bargaining power as the largest player in the low-cost space.
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