Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair (FR) has scrapped a further batch of flights from Edinburgh airport (EDI) in Scotland, in an ongoing dispute over costs with airport owner BAA.
The airline cut five routes from its summer schedule in February as part of the same dispute and warned today that yet more could be at risk if no resolution was reached.
The cuts announced Thursday are routes from EDI to Bratislava (Slovakia), Bremen and Frankfurt (Germany), Fuerteventura (Spain’s Canary Islands), Gothenburg (Sweden), Kaunas (Lithuania), Lodz and Poznan (Poland).
This will involve the loss of 60 weekly flights, 500,000 passengers per year and up to 500 onsite jobs, the airline said.
The dispute centers on FR’s five-year base agreement at EDI, where it stations six Boeing 737-800s and which ends in October. It accused BAA of artificially increasing charges at EDI “in the hope of making a killing on the sale of the airport for its Spanish shareholders.”
BAA is majority-owned by Ferrovial of Spain and operates six UK airports. UK competition authorities have instructed BAA to sell off London Stansted and EDI.
EDI managing director Jim O’Sullivan said: “Of course we are disappointed that FR has announced that it will reduce its services from Edinburgh. The numbers quoted on any passenger and job impacts are speculative and we look forward to further negotiations with FR once the sale of the airport is concluded. We have tried extremely hard to negotiate with Ryanair but sadly on many issues have not been able to find common ground. We continue not to be able to accept their wish to not pay the agreed air traffic control costs that all other airlines pay.”
Article Source : ATW Daily News
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