Those looking to book their summer getaway this bank holiday weekend may be in for a bit of a surprise as a number of popular Ryanair routes no longer exist.

Ryanair has slashed close to three million seats from its European network in 2026, and Ireland has not been spared, with routes from Cork, Dublin, and Belfast all cut.

What’s been cut from Irish airports

Ryanair has axed almost one in ten flights it had scheduled from Dublin Airport this summer.

That amounts to around 4,500 flights or up to 800,000 seats, with the airline pointing the finger at the Government’s failure to lift the 32-million-passenger annual cap.

The airline had planned to grow Dublin traffic by 10% this summer but scrapped those plans, instead keeping capacity flat year on year.

There were greater blows in Cork as, instead of reduced capacity, Ryanair completely ended routes from Cork to Rome, Gdańsk and Poznań.

The move was confirmed at the end of March after Ryanair moved one of its four Cork-based aircraft to Shannon.

Two routes between Ireland and Lithuania have also been dropped (Belfast to Kaunas and Dublin to Palanga) while the Dublin to Rodez route in France was also cut.

The European picture

The Irish cuts are part of a far wider cull across the continent.

All six Azores routes, including Ponta Delgada, were axed on March 29, wiping out around 400,000 annual seats and cutting Ryanair’s Portugal capacity by 22%.

In Spain, Ryanair has pulled out of Asturias and Vigo entirely, closed its base at Santiago de Compostela, and halted services to Tenerife North. Valladolid and Jerez have also been dropped.

In Germany, 24 routes have been cut across nine airports including Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Frankfurt-Hahn, with Dortmund, Dresden and Leipzig losing Ryanair service entirely.

In France, routes to Bergerac, Brive, Strasbourg and Clermont-Ferrand have all been cancelled, with the airline warning that further French regional withdrawals are likely.

Belgium faces 20 route cuts and the removal of one million seats from Brussels and Charleroi for winter 2026/27.

Why is this happening?

Ryanair blames rising airport charges, aviation taxes and air traffic control costs, saying certain routes are no longer commercially viable.

Governments and airport operators counter that the airline is using capacity cuts as leverage in fee disputes.

All of this comes as Aer Lingus axed more than 500 flights from its own summer schedule with the airline citing ‘mandatory maintenance on aircraft’.

The message for Irish travellers who’ve booked or are planning a summer trip? Maybe double-check, because the flight you’re counting on may no longer exist.