Ryanair Confirm end of FUE flights
Ryanair Confirms Closure of Fuerteventura Routes from January ’09
Ryanair, Europe’s largest low fares airline, today (10th Dec) confirmed that it will close all of its routes to/from Fuerteventura from 31st January after local tourism group AIE failed to honor the commercial agreement it entered into with Ryanair to promote Fuerteventura as a tourist destination.
Since Ryanair began flying to Fuerteventura in 2006 annual passenger numbers have increased over one hundred fold from just 2,000 to over 250,000. However, because of the AIE’s breach of its agreement with Ryanair one of its Dublin flights to Fuerteventura was cancelled from 6th November and Ryanair has now confirmed the closure of 23 weekly services on nine international routes to/from Fuerteventura from 31st January. This follows extensive efforts by Ryanair to encourage the AIE to honor the agreement they had signed.
Ryanair will close all services to/from Fuerteventura including Birmingham (3 per week), Bremen (2pw), Dublin (2pw), Dusseldorf (Weeze) (4pw), East Midlands (3pw), Frankfurt (2pw), Liverpool (3pw), London (3pw) and Shannon (1pw) from 31st January.
Ryanair confirmed legal action, for breach of the agreement, will continue against AIE and its individual members.
Speaking today, Ryanair’s Michael Cawley, said:
“This is a very black day for Fuerteventura and one which will have a severe impact on tourism and the livelihoods of its islanders. Ryanair’s lowest fares and no fuel surcharge have delivered huge tourism revenues and over 250,000 annual passengers will now be lost to/from Fuerteventura. At a time when Spanish tourism numbers are falling Ryanair’s passenger traffic continues to grow as our fares continue to fall. However, the AIE has now taken a huge gamble with the livelihoods of the local tourism industry by blatantly reneging on its contractual commitments and losing Ryanair’s 23 weekly services to the island.
“Ryanair previously called on the AIE to comply with its contractual agreements and provided them with 30 days notice to remedy their contract breach, this notice period has now lapsed with no action having been taken to maintain Ryanair’s presence in Fuerteventura. Therefore, we are faced with no choice but to end all Ryanair flights to Fuerteventura from 31st January”.