Ryanair said on 8 May it will close its three-aircraft base in Thessaloniki for Winter '26, cut 700,000 seats across Greece and suspend off-peak operations at Chania and Heraklion. The move also removes 12 routes nationwide.

The sharpest blow falls on Thessaloniki, where Ryanair said 500,000 seats and 10 routes will disappear as it trims back three based aircraft. Jason McGuinness said the company regrets the reductions and that they will hit the city and region hard because Ryanair provided 90% of international capacity to Thessaloniki last winter.

The cuts come after the Greek government reduced the Airport Development Fee by 75%, from €12 per passenger to €3 from November 2024. Ryanair said the airports did not pass that reduction on to travelers, while Fraport Greece charges remained 66% above pre-Covid levels and Athens Airport is set to raise charges this winter.

McGuinness said the airport fees left the airline no choice but to move capacity elsewhere, and Ryanair said it will reallocate seats to Albania, regional Italy and Sweden instead. He said the company had already presented a growth plan for Greece that would have lifted traffic to 12 million passengers a year over five years, with 10 additional aircraft, 50 new routes and US$1 billion in incremental investment.

The dispute leaves Greece with a familiar problem: a carrier that once delivered huge volumes to secondary airports is now pulling back just as winter demand weakens. Ryanair says the reductions were preventable, but unless airport charges are passed through more fully, the airline is making clear it will put its planes where it says the costs make more sense.