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Major airline Ryanair will be axing a number of flights across popular destinations this year. It comes as the airline made several changes and announcements last year, including expanding its winter schedule in certain locations, reducing the number of seats in others, and eliminating printed boarding passes.

While Ryanair continues to work in an effort to boost passenger numbers and invest in new regions, the airline has also decided to cut several routes across the likes of Spain, France, Germany and Portugal.

France is one of the countries being hit by Ryanair's cuts this year. Last year, the airline axed 750,000 seats and 25 routes to France, including stopping all services to Bergerac, Brive and Strasbourg as a result of higher France airline taxes.

Despite plans to restart flights to Bergerac in summer 2026, the airline has warned that further cancellations are possible for this year, reports Euro News.

Jason McGuinness, Ryanair's chief commercial officer, revealed in Parisian business magazine Challenges that "Ryanair will leave French regional airports in the summer of 2026". Though details regarding which additional airports will be affected are yet to be disclosed.

Ryanair has announced that it will be cutting 24 routes to and from Germany, resulting in a reduction of around 800,000 seats for the winter 2025/26 schedule.

The change has already impacted nine airports, including Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Memmingen, Frankfurt-Hahn, Dresden, Dortmund and Leipzig, with operations at Leipzig, Dresden, and Dortmund airports remaining ceased after the winter schedule.

Details are yet to be released regarding any other airport that could also be impacted throughout the year.

The budget airline has claimed that high aviation taxes and multiple airport changes are part of the reason for its cuts. It also blamed high air traffic control (ATC) and security fees.

All six routes to and from the Azores will be axed from March 29, 2026 as a result of high airport fees and the Portuguese Government inaction, which has led to an increase of air traffic control charges by 120%.

Mr McGuinness said: "We are disappointed that the French airport monopoly ANA continues to raise Portuguese airport fees to line its pockets, at the expense of Portuguese tourism and jobs, particularly on the Portuguese islands.

"As a direct result of these rising costs, we have been left with no alternative other than to cancel all Azores flights from 29 March 2026 onwards and relocate this capacity to lower cost airports elsewhere in the extensive Ryanair Group network across Europe."

Ryanair's changes to Spanish routes are the biggest of them all. The airline already cut around one million seats for the 2025 winter schedule, but plans to follow up with a further 1.2 million seats from this year's summer schedule for regional Spain.

All flights to Austria and Vigo will be stopped, and Ryanair's base at Santiago de Compostela will also be closed. Additionally, the capacity for Santander and Zaragoza will be reduced, while links to the Canary Islands will be cut.

The airline has already stopped all flights for Tenerife North this winter and closed its Jerez airport base, which will remain shut throughout the year.

Similar to the other destinations, Ryanair has put the axe to airport fee increases, and claims that the Spanish government have been issuing "illegal bag fines".