Digital Crosstalk

Ryanair to pull flights out of Manchester

Posted by Brian | Filed under air

A report in the Independent online claims that budget airline Ryanair will close or switch most of its ten routes away from Manchester airport from October. Ryanair have blamed the airport’s refusal to lower its charges as the main reason for the decision which could see as many as 600 local jobs being lost.

The cutback will see around 40 Ryanair flights per week lost at Manchester airport, while passenger footfall could drop by as much as 60,000 as a result. However, Ryanair claimed it had offered the airport an additional 28 flights which would have increased footfall by around 400,000 and created 400 jobs if the airport would reduce its charges, but this was rejected by airport bosses.

Routes which will cease to operate include flights from Manchester to/from Barcelona Girona, Bremen, Brussels Charleoi, Cagliari, Dusseldorf Weeze, Frankfurt Hahn, Marseille, Milan Bergamo and Shannon. All will stop running from 1st October this year.

Affected passengers will be contacted directly by Ryanair and offered a full refund or an alternative flight from competing, lower cost airports including East Midlands airport and Liverpool John Lennon airport.

“Ryanair continues to lower fares to encourage travel, but with passengers paying lower fares airports must lower their charges – particularly high-cost airports like Manchester, Stansted and Dublin. Ryanair had offered new routes, traffic and growth to Manchester airport but since they prefer to preserve their high-cost base than to grow, Ryanair will now switch or close nine Manchester routes,” said Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara.

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Tags: Aviation, Manchester Airport, Ryanair