Ryanair Announces Temporary B

RNS Number : 2894Z

Ryanair Holdings PLC

17 July 2008

 



RYANAIR ANNOUNCES TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF OPERATIONS AT SEVEN BASES

Ryanair, Europe's leading low fares airline, today, Thursday, 17th July 2008, announced the temporary closure of its operations at the following airports for the period from Tuesday, 4th November until Friday, 19th December:

• Basel

• Budapest

• Krakow

• Palma

• Rzeszow

• Salzburg 

• Valencia

Ryanair explained the decision to close its operations and cancel these flights for the following reasons;

• Costs at these airports are amongst the most expensive in Europe and far outweigh the potential revenue which passengers are prepared to pay, particularly during the off peak winter period.

• With oil at $140 a barrel, flights at expensive airports must be reduced this winter when fares are very low.

Ryanair confirmed that it had written to the airports seeking a reduction on the costs of these flights this winter but their response was wholly inadequate. The loss of this passenger traffic will now cost the airport authority significant commercial revenue and 

Announcing this closure, Ryanair's Deputy Chief Executive, Michael Cawley, said;

'We very much regret temporarily closing our operations at these airports during this November and December period. However, a combination of high airport charges and the massive increases which we face in fuel prices, makes it more profitable for Ryanair to ground aircraft rather than fly them at these airports during this period.

'These flights the passengers would not be lost to these cities or tourism if they had responded adequately to Ryanair's proposals for cost reductions on these flights for the winter season.

'Ryanair, with the lowest costs and lowest guaranteed fares in Europe, is the only airline capable of retaining year round international tourism and business links for such regional cities. However, low airport costs and local support are required to sustain these operations, particularly through the low yielding months in the winter. In the absence of this support, Ryanair has no alternative but to cancel these routes and develop its business elsewhere.

'We will continue our discussions with the airport authorities in order to convince them that this type of interruption to our services need not happen in the future if costs are reduced and hopefully we can develop an agreement on how they can support the year round continuation of our services on a viable basis for the benefit of the airports and the regions they serve'.

The lost passenger traffic and numbers of flights is outlined as follows:

Airport	Lost Flights	Lost Passengers
Basel	204	31,000
Budapest	180	27,000
Krakow	444	67,000
Palma	372	56,000
Rzeszow	192	29,000
Salzburg	84	12,500
Valencia	504	80,000

Ends.                                                   Thursday, 17th July 2008

For further information

please contact:

                                                           Stephen McNamara                Pauline McAlester

                                                           Ryanair Ltd                             Murray Consultants

                                                           Tel: [phone]               Tel. [phone]

 

END

 

 

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