Wizz Air has announced that it will reduce the number of flights to Spain. The Spanish government has imposed, since July 1, significantly higher airport charges, especially in Barcelona El Prat and Madrid Barajas.
This increase in taxes comes after AENA spent millions of euros on unnecessary upgrades and construction of new terminals.
The Spanish government will now force the airline passengers to pay for new extravagant terminals in the form of excessive airport charges.
Fewer Wizz Air flights to Spain
"Wizz Air regrets the fact that it has to reduce its investments in Spain, which will lead to the reduction of some flights from the winter schedule on the available routes from Romania, to Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia. It is unfortunate that the Spanish Government has imposed a tax increase at a time when passenger traffic needs to be boosted and jobs in the tourism industry are needed.
In 2012, Wizz Air expects further double-digit growth and we will move our capacity from Spain to other countries where tourism and airlines are welcome, due to low airport charges. While Spain will lose thousands of passengers, Wizz Air will continue to expand its network with new destinations in Romania ”, said Daniel de Carvalho, Corporate Communications Manager at Wizz Air.
Wizz Air is not the only low-cost carrier affected by the increase in airport charges in Spain. Blue Air is required to collect airport tax differences from passengers traveling from 2 July 2012 and who purchased their tickets up to 1 July 2012.