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Ryanair to axe two million seats to European country by early 2027

The budget airline has confirmed it'll be cutting the number of aircraft from one of its city bases by five, and its schedule will have two million fewer seats to a popular city break destination as of winter 2026

[A Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS]

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Two million seats will be cut from Ryanair's schedule(Image: Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Ryanair has slashed the number of seats from its schedule for a city break destination that's famous for its Christmas market and historic sites, as well as being a major business hub.

The decision was made in response to the country's decision to raise aviation taxes, with Ryanair releasing a strongly-worded statement to announce they would be cutting two million seats from two of the capital's airports.

The Federal Government of Belgium announced plans to raise the country's aviation tax from 5 (about 4.20) to 7 (about 6) as of January 2027. This was erroneously described by Ryanair in a statement as a "250% increase since 2025."

As a result, the budget carrier plans to cut five aircraft from its base at Brussels South Charleroi Airport, and reduce capacity by two million seats overall from Belgium's Charleroi and Zaventem airports. The reductions will be applied to the winter 2026 and summer 2027 schedule.

[A passenger aircraft taxis on a runway at Brussels Airport in Brussels, Belgium]

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Ryanair will cut the number of seats from two Brussels airports(Image: Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Brussels is not the first destination to see a cut in the number of Ryanair seats this year. Earlier this year it announced reductions in services to Spain and Portugal, with smaller regional airports the most affected.

Valladolid and Jerez saw cuts to their services, while scrapped routes included Asturias and Vigo. A service to Tenerife North was also scrapped as a result of a dispute over airport fee hikes, leaving the airport with no alternative direct UK routes. Ryanair also closed its two aircraft base at Santiago de Compostela which reduced capacity.

As a result over one million seats were taken from the winter 2025 routes, and 1.2 million cut from the summer 2026 schedule. Another cut was to a Portugal service, with Ryanair cutting six routes to and from the Azores, an emerging tourist destination. It was estimated the cuts affected around 400,000 passengers.

At the time, Ryanair blamed this cutback on growing airport charges set by Portuguese authorities and environmental taxes linked to the EU Emissions Trading System. John Paul II Ponta Delgada Airport, the islands' main airport, now only has a single seasonal UK route from London Heathrow operated by British Airways.

Speaking about the cuts in Belgium, Ryanair CEO, Eddie Wilson, said in a statement: Its absurd that the Federal Govt have decided to increase Belgiums aviation tax by 250% from Jan 27, especially when competing EU countries, like Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia, regional Italy, and Albania are abolishing aviation taxes to grow traffic, tourism and jobs.

"We warned Prime Minister De Wever that increasing Belgiums aviation tax would result in traffic cuts, but he failed to listen. As a result, Ryanair will now remove 5 aircraft from our Charleroi base and 2m seats from our Brussels schedules (Charleroi and Zaventem) for Winter 26/Summer 27 and relocate to more competitive economies.

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