Ryanair opens 19 new routes for Portugal Summer 2023

Len Varley - Assistant Editor 4 Min Read
4 Min Read

LONDONIrish low-cost carrier Ryanair has outlined its Portugal Summer 2023 schedule with 19 new routes to destinations including Barcelona, Rome, and Toulouse.

All new routes will operate from Faro and Porto in response to lower airport charges, whilst no growth will be allocated at Lisbon, the Azores or Madeira airports.

The airline states that this is “due to no slots in Lisbon, unjustified airport charges rise and ETS taxes which damage Portuguese islands tourism and jobs.”

Portugal summer 2023 schedule


In summary Ryanair’s Portugal summer schedule will deliver:

– 30 based aircraft (4 B737 Game changers)

– $3bln investment

– 19 new routes from Faro (8) and Porto (11)

– Increased frequencies on 30 other routes

– Supporting 10,000 jobs, including 900 pilot, cabin crew & engineering jobs

Lisbon growth ‘stifled’


Ryanair will operate over 1,600 weekly flights to/from Portugal in Summer 2023.

However, the airline claims that its growth at Lisbon (and Madeira/Azores) has been stifled due to increased charges and ETS fees at Portugal’s islands, making these airports totally uncompetitive.

In order to continue delivering tourism and growth across all regions of Portugal, including Lisbon, Ryanair is calling on ANAC and ANA to extend the reduction of airport charges to all Portuguese airports.

The carrier has said that this should not just extend to Faro and Porto, and has urged the Portuguese government to confirm the early opening of new Lisbon airport (Montijo) as soon as possible.

It also called for a release TAP’s unused slots in Lisbon Portela.

Ryanair also calls on the Portuguese government take immediate action against the extension of ETS taxes to Madeira and the Azores from 2024.

The airline claims that these ETS taxes exclude long haul and transfer flights (the biggest polluters), yet unfairly target short haul flights.

This, they say, will have a detrimental impact on Portugal’s tourism industry by making costs for tourists travelling to Madeira or the Azores much higher than non-EU holiday destinations like Morocco, Jordan and Turkey.

These destinations remain exempt from paying ETS taxes.

Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary said:

“As Portugal’s No.2 airline, Ryanair is pleased to announce our new Portugal schedule for Summer 2023, with 1,600 weekly flights across 164 routes, including 19 new routes from Faro and Porto to the likes of Barcelona, Belfast, Copenhagen, Rome & Stockholm for our Portuguese customers/visitors to enjoy.”

While we have been announcing further growth and investment for lower cost Portuguese airports like Faro and Porto.”

“It is regrettable that we have not been able to deliver the same growth to Lisbon because TAP refuses to release its unused slots, and due to increased airport charges and higher ETS fees making Portugal’s islands airports totally uncompetitive.”

Ryanair is once again calling on ANAC and ANA to extend the reduction of airport charges at both Faro and Porto to all Portuguese airports, including Lisbon.

This is to allow Ryanair to drive tourism recovery and growth for Portugal as we have done for the last 20 years with our economic contribution of over €1.5bn, as recently quantified by an independent report by PwC.

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