The Airport Coordination Netherlands (ACNL) has punished Ryanair by revoking two fixed departure and landing slots at Eindhoven Airport. Why? They’re always late.
According to the ED, the Irish budget airline constantly ran an hour behind schedule on Monday evening flights from Sofia, Bulgaria, and Thursday evening flights from Pisa, Italy, over the summer season, causing delays (and headaches) for Eindhoven.
The regularity of the delays has led ACNL to conclude that Ryanair broke the rules on purpose.
In a statement, Ryanair called the action “unprecedented, irrational and disproportionate.”
All without a fight?
Hoping to buy some time, Ryanair appealed the ACNL’s rarely given penalty at a district court in Haarlem.
The court sided with the slot coordinator, ruling that Eindhoven Airport already had a scarce number of spots that needed to be allocated fairly.
Meanwhile, ACNL had followed all procedures in good order. Ryanair was issued a warning in the middle of June for potential sanctions, and those sanctions were imposed in August.
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This is not the first time there’s trouble in Ryanair’s bargain flight fare paradise.
The airline racked up almost thirty violations over three months in 2025. Can the self-proclaimed “Europe’s favourite airline” have its cake and eat it too?
What does this mean for travellers?
Ryanair now has two options: it can reschedule its flights to Sofia and Pisa or temporarily remove the routes from its schedule.
The confiscated slots will instead be open to competing budget airlines such as Transavia and Wizzair.
The bad news? Passengers will still be expected to defy the laws of physics to squeeze their belongings into a small personal bag… A rite of passage when flying out of Eindhoven.
What do you make of this ruling? Of course, these budget airlines are beneficial for us as travellers, but at what cost? Let us know in the comments!
