Ryanair announced today that it will close its base in Glasgow but will add 11 new winter routes from Edinburgh Airport later this year. The airline blames the burden of Air Passenger Duty for the need to make changes.
One aircraft and 5 routes which used to fly out of Glasgow will now leave from Edinburgh.
Although the summer routes will continue as planned this year with flights to Spain and the Canary Islands included in those schedules.
In Edinburgh, Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer, David O’Brien said: “Ryanair regrets these cuts in the weaker Glasgow market where efforts to stimulate low fare demand are severely hampered by the continuing burden of APD.
“As a result, we will transfer our Glasgow International based aircraft to Edinburgh in November where we will offer 11 new low fare routes (45 in total including London Stansted) and deliver over 3.5m passengers per annum at Edinburgh Airport.
“To celebrate our Edinburgh expansion, we are releasing seats for sale from just £16.99 for travel until the end of May and available for booking until midnight Thurs 1 March.
Since these amazing low prices will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com and avoid missing out.”
Liberal Democrat Scottish Affairs spokesperson Christine Jardine MP said that the Scottish Government’s shambolic handling of policy has undermined their credibility with businesses, after Ryanair announced that it is to cut many of its routes from Glasgow Airport.
Ms Jardine said: “This announcement will disappoint passengers and staff, many of whom will now be worried about the impact on their jobs.
“Typically the SNP made promises to Ryanair that they couldn’t keep. Opposition parties and the Scottish public were unconvinced by their pledge to cut airport taxes.
“The whole policy fell through when a close reading revealed that the whole thing had been impossible all along.
“The shambolic manner in which they have handled this policy is typical of the mismanagement we have seen elsewhere in the health service, in education and perhaps most clearly in Police Scotland.
“This latest debacle is a blow to the credibility of the Scottish Government with regards to business, at a time when the economy is facing a Brexit challenge and business needs all the support possible.”
Ryanair’s Scottish Winter 2018 schedule will go on sale from today and includes the following highlights:
- Edinburgh: 45 routes including London Stansted & 11 new routes to Berlin, Derry, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Lisbon, Memmingen, Stockholm Skavsta, Riga, Seville, Sofia, & Tallinn
- Glasgow Prestwick: 8 routes to Alicante, Faro, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Malaga, Malta, Rzeszow & Tenerife South
- Glasgow International – 3 routes to Dublin (3 times daily), Krakow (2 wkly) & Wroclaw (2 wkly)
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