Ryanair and the Generalitat of Catalonia have reached a tentative agreement for the Irish low-cost company to receive about €8 million each year for the next five years (€40 million total) in exchange for continuing to operate at the airports of Girona and Reus, reports in the Catalan media said.

Specifically, the airline is committed to maintain three million passengers a year in Girona and a half million in Reus.

Both figures are far from over the seven million passengers carried by Ryanair in 2009, before there was a change of strategy in Catalonia that has given priority to its operation at the airport of El Prat in Barcelona.

The draft agreement, however, will only be ratified if Aena (the public company that owns both facilities) agrees not to raise rates at these two airports, because otherwise “the draft agreements will be cancelled”.

The tentative agreement comes just 15 days after Ryanair operated its last flight from Reus airport. The Irish low cost carrier, in the last year, cancelled 39 flights from Girona airport, which during the last decade has been its main base of operations in Spain.