O’Leary called the minister “a dummy” who needs to learn to add, subtract and “maybe read”. Credit: Ryanair / YouTube
Calling a government minister a ‘failure’ on camera isn’t exactly how most airlines usually try to keep their routes open. But Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary has done exactly that this week, and Spain’s transport minister hit back just as hard.
‘Fracasado’: O’Leary’s video brands Puente a failure
Michael O’Leary, chief executive of the Ryanair Group, posted a video on Wednesday August 26 accusing Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente of getting his facts wrong about the airline’s shrinking presence at the country’s regional airports. In it, O’Leary said Ryanair is flying 648 aircraft this summer, 29 more than a year earlier, and expects to carry 216 million passengers in 2026, eight million more than the 208 million it carried in 2025. However, none of that extra growth, he said, is reaching regional Spain, where he accused Puente of presiding over high aviation taxes and uneconomic airport fees at empty airports. He pointed to Slovakia, Ireland, Sweden and regional Italy scrapping aviation taxes this year, and dismissed Puente’s claim that Spain already has among the lowest in Europe as false.
He finished by saying he would send Puente a copy of “Basic Math for Dummies”, calling the minister “a dummy” who needs to learn to add, subtract and “maybe read”.
Puente hits back: ‘I know how to add perfectly’
Puente rejected the insult and turned O’Leary’s own figures back on him. He said the cuts stem from delayed deliveries of Boeing’s 737 MAX-8200 aircraft, which he said have “conditioned” Ryanair’s scheduling, since airlines plan routes six to 18 months ahead through the International Air Transport Association (IATA). He said Spanish airport fees are low enough that a Ryanair figure took home a €100 million bonus last year, according to reporting cited in his reply, and insisted he “knows how to add perfectly”.
Puente closed by telling O’Leary that if he dislikes Spain’s rules, he can fly elsewhere, echoing a line Ryanair’s own Spanish social media account once posted at customers in July 2025: “Dislike our rules? Walk to your destination.”
Could the real cost be bases and routes disappearing across regional Spain?
Behind the insults sits a genuine dispute over money. AENA raised its 2026 airport charge by 6.62 per cent, taking the average fee to around €11.03 per passenger, and Ryanair blames that rise for the cuts it is now making. The airline has already closed bases at Santiago de Compostela, Valladolid, Jerez de la Frontera, Tenerife Norte and Vigo as part of its winter 2025-26 schedule, and a further 36 direct routes are being cancelled from regional and Canary Islands airports this year.
Airports on the Peninsula are losing roughly 41 per cent of Ryanair’s seats, about 600,000 in total, while the Canary Islands lose closer to 10 per cent, or 400,000 seats. That capacity is being redirected to Morocco, Italy, Croatia and Albania, while Madrid, Barcelona, Palma and Málaga are all gaining flights instead. Ryanair has previously said it could reverse the cuts if fees at regional airports come down.
It’s not the first time O’Leary has picked a fight with a Spanish minister
This is not the first Spanish minister O’Leary has had dealings with. In February 2025, Ryanair ran an advertising campaign dressing then-Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy as a clown and branding him a “mad communist” over the fines the government had imposed on low-cost airlines for charging extra for cabin baggage. Bustinduy said at the time he was “not offended”.
O’Leary isn’t scared to put on the gloves well beyond Spain too. He has clashed publicly with Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin over airport drinking limits, dismissed Ireland’s own parliament as “full of teachers”, and once challenged Elon Musk to an arm wrestle to settle a row over Starlink.
The Ryanair boss clearly knows how and when to stand up for his company, even if the medium is a little unorthodox for a CEO. For now, the routes are the tally that matters. While the war of words plays out online, five Spanish airports have already lost their Ryanair base, and Puente’s ministry has yet to signal any change to the fees behind it.
