Ryanair is slashing capacity from Alicante by withdrawing half of its 62 routes from the Spanish airport.
The no frills carrier is cutting the number of aircraft based at the airport from 11 to two from October in a row over the use of facilities.
The airline claims its handling costs will rise by more than €2 million a year due to Spanish airport operator AENA forcing it to use airbridges.
Routes to be axed include Bournemouth, Cork, Derry and Knock. Frequency will be cut to destinations including Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, east Midlands, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford and Prestwick.
Ryanair has submitted a formal complaint, claiming “monopoly abuse” by AENA Alicante to the Spanish government and the European Commission.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary said: “It is time that the AENA monopoly airports in Spain stopped abusing their dominant position to force airlines like Ryanair to use unnecessary (airbridge) facilities which we neither want, nor are willing to pay for.
“Alicante Airport has opened up a new terminal building which was not needed, and to pay for it, Alicante expects efficient airlines like Ryanair to now use the same inefficient and high cost airbridges that other high fare flag carrier airlines prefer to use.”
He claimed that the airport would lose over €30 million a year in revenues, more than 2.5 million passengers and over 2,000 jobs, as Ryanair aircraft and flights are cut by up to 80% from October.
“Ryanair remains committed to serving Alicante Airport, and even with 1.5 million passengers and 31 routes, will continue to be the largest airline at Alicante,” added O’Leary.
He said the airline had “many other low cost airport alternatives across Europe if Alicante doesn’t want to provide low cost facilities”.