Published on
September 6, 2025
Ryanair, one of Europe’s biggest budget airlines, has announced that it will shut down its base in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and will cut flight capacity in Spain as part of its plan to reshape its route map. This change is expected to start within the next few months and will impact local tourism as well as travellers coming to the area from other countries.
Losing the Santiago base will hit air travel services in northwestern Spain hard. Santiago de Compostela is a major airport for residents of Spain and for foreigners heading to Galicia. This region is famous for its rich culture and well-known spots like the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage and the vineyards of the Rías Baixas area.
Impact on Santiago’s Tourism and Connectivity
Santiago de Compostela, a UNESCO World Heritage treasure, is a cornerstone of Spanish tourism. The city pulses with history, centred around its towering cathedral, and welcomes travellers from all over, especially Camino de Santiago pilgrims and culture lovers. The storybook Galician coastline, just a bus ride away, also adds to its charm. Recently, the Ryanair base closure at Lavacolla Airport has cast a shadow. Pilgrims and casual visitors from Ryanair’s key hubs—London, Rome, and Paris—now face sudden changes in their travel plans.
The vanishing Santiago hub means that the city has lost a chunk of its low-cost, direct flight feed. That push from a base with usually low fares isn’t there anymore, leaving travellers with fewer direct options. Many now must find connecting flights, and even that is trickier. The fallout may push visitors to longer, usually pricier, travel routes rather than the well-trodden Ryanair A to B. Without a simple, inexpensive flight, newcomers might take the bus from Porto, a train from Madrid, or even find a shared ride—steps that can inflate the travel time, dampen the excitement, and erode the charm that spontaneity used to provide.
Impact of Ryanair Cuts on Santiago Tourism
As one of Spain’s top pilgrimage spots, Santiago de Compostela leans on low-cost air travel to lure visitors all year long. Ryanair’s operations from the city have been a game-changer, making the region a must-visit for both Santiago-bound pilgrims and families headed for key spots like the iconic Cathedral and souvenir-lined Alameda Park. Losing the airline’s local base would send ripples through Avenida’s cafés, hostels, and guided tours that count on, and plan for, busloads of bargain-fare travellers arriving from across Europe. Still, the downturn might soon widen to the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Waving Rosy Prospects of Visitors
Ryanair’s decision to pull capacity hardly comes as a shock. The firm has been pruning routes across Europe ever since the pandemic paused growth. While Spain is still a draw, the airline is spacing flights so travellers find the same bargain values only during peak summer. Pilots, gates, and terminals are now being shuttled trademark-style between hubs. Low-cost rivals are mimicking parts of this shuffle; one rival shifted five flights from Valencia to Palma, so passengers only get the second bathroom on overcrowded Borbón J-120 charters. Santiago, Asturias, and the León Cathedral—all beautiful and second-tier—are at risk of being the first attractions shelved for the next travel planner.
Spain’s tourism sector, a vital engine for its economy, is still rebounding from the COVID-19 crisis. A recent slowdown in low-cost flight options could make that recovery even tougher, especially for regions like Galicia. Fewer available flights may push up ticket prices, making trips to Spain pricier for many and nudging budget-aware travellers to consider other destinations.
Ryanair’s Fine-Tuning of Flight Plans
Ryanair’s decision to shrink capacity and close its Santiago de Compostela base fits a larger effort to sharpen its focus on the markets with the biggest appetite. Rather than spreading its resources too thin, the airline is repositioning assets toward profitable routes, leaving underperforming destinations to find other partners.
While Ryanair continues to streamline its European network, the move serves as a signal to mainland Spain: Airlines across the sector are reevaluating growth plans in the shadow of substantial shifts in passenger behaviour. This alteration provides the tourism sector a fresh chance to innovate. Hoteliers, promoters, and local authorities may wish to pursue partnerships with other budget carriers, enhance bus and rail links that connect key tourist sites, and shine a spotlight on Spain’s lesser-known regions in global marketing efforts. After all, filling that Santiago gap does not have to mean a larger plane by another airline—it could mean a well-timed, low-cost ride linking nearby coastal regions to international hubs, reinforcing Galicia’s appeal without hitching the entire strategy to one brand.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Travel and Tourism in Galicia
Given that Galicia may soon lose direct flights to Santiago, it’s high time the region teams up to keep its shine as a tourist hotspot. Authorities in Galician tourism will want to partner with airlines, train companies, and local businesses to keep visitors coming in, whether that’s by promoting quicker rail trips, tweaking travel packages with nearby airports, or by spotlighting travel that’s kinder to the planet.
Meanwhile, both the Spanish central government and regional tourism boards should ramp up ad campaigns that remind the world that Galicia is still worth the journey. Focusing efforts on markets that traditionally send visitors to Santiago—like the U.K. or Ireland—could help soften any drop in tourist numbers caused by Ryanair’s cuts, keeping the region’s world-famous landscapes, cuisine, and cultural treasures front and centre even without certain flights.
