BEAUTIFUL islands in Europe that are often compared to Hawaii are losing all of its Ryanair flights.
The budget airline scrapped all flights, warning that they wouldn’t return unless the country scraps its increase in airport fees and taxes.
The Portuguese government has been accused of “inaction” that has seen a rise of 120 per cent in air traffic control fees.
Not only that, but a new €2 travel tax has also been introduced.
In response, Ryanair warned that all flights to and from the Azores will be cancelled from March 29.
This is because the increase in costs would mean fares would go up by as much as 35 per cent – making it unsustainable to keep flying to there.
The cancellations affect six routes, which includes London, as well as Brussels, Lisbon, and Porto.
This works out to 400,000 passengers a year who visit the islands.
Ryanair’s CCO Jason McGuinness said at the time that they were “disappointed” and were left with “no alternative”.
He added: “After 10 years of year-round Ryanair operations, one of Europe’s most remote regions will now lose direct low-fare flights to London, Brussels, Lisbon, and Porto due to ANA’s high airport fees and Portuguese Govt. inaction.”
The cancellations mean there are no budget airlines that operate flights to the Azores, flying to Ponta Delgada Airport.
This just leaves British Airways offering UK flights, which start from £113 one way. Flights from London Heathrow take around 4hr10.
Mr McGuinness also said: “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.”
The budget airline has scrapped thousands of flights in recent months due to an increase in airport costs and fees.
Earlier this month they confirmed that more than two million seats to and from Belgium would be axed up to 2027.
This means a drop from 11.6million passengers a year to 9.6million by next year.
Back in September 2026, more than two million seats were axed across Spain as well, affecting Tenerife North, Santiago and Vigo.
While the other airports still have airlines in operation, it means Brits can no longer fly direct to Vigo.
France has also been hit by Ryanair cancellations, affecting Brive and Bergerac.
Thankfully UK flights to the latter are set to resume this summer.
Here’s the UK airport getting new Ryanair flights.
And there is a Spanish city that is set to get more Ryanair flights.