Ryanair News

News Release

12.04.12

Edinburgh winter cuts due to high BAA costs

RYANAIR ANNOUNCES FURTHER CUTS AT EDINBURGH

AS BAA FAILS TO OFFER COMPETITIVE COSTS

8 ROUTES, 500,000 PASSENGERS & 500 JOBS LOST AT EDINBURGH

RYANAIR, the world’s favourite airline, today (12 April) announced further cuts at its Edinburgh base with the closure of 8 routes and 60 weekly flights from October 2012 as BAA Edinburgh refuses to offer a competitive cost base for more Ryanair growth.

Ryanair’s Edinburgh traffic will now fall by 500,000 pax per annum (from 1.8m to 1.3m) passengers), leading to the loss of up to 500 “on-site” jobs according to ACI figures.

Today’s route cuts (to Bratislava, Bremen, Frankfurt, Fuerteventura, Gothenburg, Kaunas, Lodz and Poznan) follow the closure of 5 routes from Ryanair’s Edinburgh summer schedule and Ryanair warned that deeper cuts to its winter schedule may be inevitable if BAA Edinburgh fails to agree an extension to its 5 year base agreement (which expires in Oct 2012) on more competitive terms. The BAA’s failure to secure a long-term growth deal, with Europe’s largest airline, is further proof that the BAA has no interest in securing the future of Scottish tourism, traffic and jobs as it artificially increases charges in the hope of making a killing on the sale of the airport for its Spanish shareholders.

These latest Edinburgh cuts become effective in October 2012 for the Ryanair winter schedule, and include:

From 25 to 17 winter routes (down 32%).
From 168 to 108 weekly flights (down 36%).
From 1.8M to under 1.3M pax p.a (down 28%).
Cuts on 10 other routes
The loss of 500,000 pax p.a. and 500 “on-site” jobs at Edinburgh Airport.

Ryanair regrets these cuts and confirms that they can be reversed if a competitive and realistic cost offer becomes available from BAA Edinburgh.

In Edinburgh today, Michael Cawley said:

“Ryanair regrets BAA Edinburgh Airport’s rejection of our proposals for a competitive cost base which would allow Ryanair to further grow our traffic and routes for winter 2012 and beyond. Sadly, BAA Edinburgh seems to prefer higher costs, even if it means fewer passengers and jobs at Edinburgh.

“While Ryanair remains committed to Edinburgh Airport (with 1.3m passengers and 17 routes this winter, we remain one of the largest airlines operating to/from Edinburgh), the BAA Edinburgh monopoly cannot continue to ignore the competitive marketplace, where airports all over the UK and Europe have been reducing costs and lowering charges in return for traffic growth. We hope there is a way to reverse these cuts to ensure further Ryanair growth at Edinburgh.”