Ryanair has warned of a worsening in the functioning of air traffic control in Spain and has urged the Government and Enaire to intervene quickly to correct this situation, after assuring that delays in its operations have increased by 47% since April 1 compared to the same period last year, with more than 17,000 flights affected and 3.1 million passengers harmed.
In a note sent to the media, the Irish airline maintains that Enaire has a structural lack of personnel and that, therefore, it is not in a position to adequately handle the volume of traffic that flies over or takes off and lands in Spain during the summer season.
"Airline schedules are not a surprise. Summer demand is not a surprise. Weather is not the cause of a 47% increase in delays. This is a management failure and urgent action is needed," said its Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon.
Ryanair acknowledges the real advances in technology and procedures implemented by the public company, but at the same time rejects the more than 70 measures presented by Enaire, including the incorporation of 79 new controllers, considering that they do not provide "any benefit."
For McMahon, Enaire's current performance is "poor," "unacceptable," and is damaging Spain's image as one of Europe's most relevant tourist destinations.
The company goes further and assures that, "surprisingly," Spain has moved ahead of France as "Europe's worst-performing air control provider," something it describes as "extraordinary" given that "France is widely seen as the country with the worst air control service in Europe."
"The Spanish Government must stop accepting excuses from Enaire and demand immediate action to ensure adequate air control staffing, better scheduling, increased capacity, and measurable reductions in avoidable air control delays during the summer period, when there is greater activity," the airline adds in its statement.
These criticisms come a few days after Ryanair also called on the French Government for an urgent reform of air traffic control in that country to protect overflights in the event of a strike, following the release of a report by Senator Vincent Capo-Canellas warning of annual costs of up to 1.7 billion euros for airlines by 2035.
For its part, Enaire reported on July 1 the deployment of more than 70 technical and operational actions, airspace reorganization, and staff reinforcement, including the hiring of 79 new controllers, with the aim of absorbing the projected 3% increase in air traffic this summer and maintaining the highest levels of safety, efficiency, and sustainability.
These initiatives are part of the entity's "Summer Plan 2026-2027" and are aimed at reinforcing safety, with up to 28 measures, and improving service quality and reducing delays, with up to 60 actions, in addition to considering projects in sustainability, efficiency, and regulatory compliance.
Likewise, the plan incorporates measures whose implementation requires a longer timeframe and which, according to Enaire, will contribute to consolidating the capacity of the air navigation system in the coming years.