RIGA, Oct 9 (LETA) - Irish low-cost airline Ryanair will reduce its winter schedule by 20 percent or 160,000 seats and cancel seven destinations from Riga Airport, Ryanair's Chief Commercial Officer Jason McGuinness told a press conference on Thursday.

Among them, flights from Riga to Aarhus in Denmark, Edinburgh in the UK, Gdansk in Poland, Gothenburg in Sweden, Paris Beauvais Airport in France, Memmingen in Germany and flights to Berlin in Germany will not be resumed in the winter season.

McGuinness explained that the winter schedule is being reduced due to rising airport charges, which make Riga less competitive as passenger traffic is still lower than before the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the same time, he explained that Ryanair's team met with the Latvian Ministry of Transport on Thursday and presented a plan to double passenger traffic, which would provide an additional investment of USD 200 million and the airline would open 14 new routes over the next five years.

"However, this growth is only possible if Riga Airport and the Latvian government reduce airport charges," he added.

He stressed that these cancellations are a direct consequence of rising costs at Riga Airport, which have increased by 15 percent since Ryanair's base opened in 2021.

As reported, Ryanair will also reduce the number of flights in other countries, including Estonia and Lithuania, during the winter season.

Ryanair said earlier that it does not plan to resume flights on five routes from Tallinn in the winter season, which were closed in February due to increased airport charges.

Meanwhile, Tallinn Airport called the statement regrettable, saying it is misleading because of factual inaccuracies and malicious conclusions.

"This is an example of how Ryanair uses public pressure and distorted information to influence public-sector decisions and gain short-term economic advantages at the expense of other market participants," the airport said in its public response to Ryanair.

"Ryanair's claim that Tallinn Airport has increased its fees by 70 percent is, in our view, unfounded and constitutes 'old news.' It is true that Tallinn Airport introduced a security charge on April 1, 2025, which all airlines were informed of in fall 2024, and the public was also notified at the same time. This is not an increase in airport fees but a charge introduced to comply with a national security requirement, which is a standard fee in aviation," Tallinn Airport explained.

"In September this year, we informed all airlines, including Ryanair, that Tallinn Airport does not plan to raise airport fees in either 2026 or 2027," the airport said, adding that the destinations listed in Ryanair's statement -- Milan Bergamo, Paphos, Rome, Venice, and Vienna -- are routes Ryanair has not flown from Tallinn since April 2025.

"It is therefore unclear how it is possible to suspend flights to destinations where the airline has not flown for more than half a year and, to our knowledge, has not planned to resume operations during the 2025 winter season," the airport's response stated.

"Public pressure and intimidation tactics are Ryanair's usual practice in several European countries. We have seen similar behavior recently in Latvia, as well as in Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and elsewhere, where the company threatens to close routes to pressure airports or governments into granting discounts or subsidies," Tallinn Airport continued.

Tallinn Airport said it has deliberately chosen to keep its portfolio of airlines diverse and not overly dependent on a single carrier.