Ryanair announces zero growth from Brussels for winter schedule 2025/2026
Europe’s low-cost giant Ryanair announced its winter 2025/2026 schedule on August 27 for Belgium.
The carrier will fly from both Brussels Zaventem and Brussels-Charleroi. From the latter, it will serve 119 routes, including three new services to Katowice (Poland), Salerno (Italy), and Volos (Greece). Out of Zaventem airport (Brussels National), the carrier will fly 11 routes. However, to accommodate the new Charleroi routes, Ryanair will cut its Zaventem traffic by 6% this winter.
The carrier warned there will be no overall growth in Belgium this winter. Management is blaming Zaventem Airport’s rising fees and what it called the Belgian government’s “stupid” decision to raise the aviation tax by 150% to €5 per passenger. This decision makes Belgium even less competitive for tourism compared to other EU countries, told the airline’s management.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary also renewed its demand for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to address Europe’s competitiveness challenges. O’Leary, who seems to increasingly emulate Donald Trump’s speech-style towards his opponents, mocked her as “Von Derlayed-Again”.
O’Leary urged Brussels to align EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) costs with the ones of the international Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) framework. And to push through long-delayed reforms of Europe’s air traffic control system.
Blaming the EU (as usual)
Specifically, Ryanair is calling for mandatory full staffing of national air navigation service providers during the morning departure wave and protection of overflights during ATC strikes.
The airline underscored the urgency by pointing to July’s disruptions. More than 600 Ryanair flights—affecting over 100,000 passengers—were canceled by then, largely due to two days of French ATC strikes on July 3 and 4. Ryanair blamed the European Commission for failing to safeguard overflights and protect the single market during national strikes.
The airline further criticized the Commission’s lack of action on the Draghi Report, published in September 2024.
The EU endorsed report highlighted inefficiencies costing Europe’s aviation sector more than €6 billion annually. “One year later, Ursula von der Leyen has done nothing to improve aviation competitiveness,” O’Leary charged. “There’s lots of speeches, lots of platitudes, but no action. It is time for the new Commission to deliver real reform”.
More growth out of London
Meanwhile, in another development, Ryanair announced further new routes out of London. The airline will add Wroclaw from Luton as well as 4 new routes from Stansted to Lübeck, Münster, Murcia and Trapani. Ryanair now connects Stansted with more European destinations than are served from Heathrow.
The carrier expects 60 million passengers in 2025. It claims to be now the UK’s biggest passenger airline, carrying almost double BA’s traffic to/from the UK.
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