GLASGOW Airport has hailed the move by Ryanair to reintroduce four routes from the hub next year, just months after the Irish airline slashed its presence at the airport.
The Dublin-based carrier will recommence flights to Alicante, Malaga, Charleroi and Warsaw in spring in a move described by Glasgow managing director Mark Johnston as “very welcome news indeed”. It comes after Ryanair took the decision in February to shut its base at Glasgow Airport and dramatically scale back the number of flights from the airport, from 23 to just three.
Although four new routes will be reintroduced from next summer, taking the total number Ryanair operates at Glasgow to seven, no Ryanair aircraft will be based at the airport.
Mr Johnston said: “Ryanair’s decision to bring back what were four popular routes is very welcome news indeed. The introduction of these services is hopefully a first step to Ryanair re-establishing a strong presence here and we are really pleased the airline recognises our position as the West of Scotland’s principal airport and gateway to the region’s huge market.”
Mr Johnston noted that Ryanair had cited its frustration over the lack of progress in cutting Air Passenger Duty (APD) in Scotland in its decision to close its base at Glasgow. He called on the governments in Edinburgh to break the “deadlock” on the issue, which centres on Holyrood’s commitment to retaining the Highlands and Islands’ exemption from the tax. Holyrood requires legislative consent from the EU to retain the exemption, however because Scotland’s membership of the EU is through the UK it requires Westminster to seek the approval. APD would ultimately be replaced by the new Air Departure Tax in Scotland when a breakthrough to the impasse is reached.
Mr Johnston said: “This regressive tax continues to put the country’s air services at risk and action must be taken to address this.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel