Ryanair warns of Canary Island route closure

As a result of a dispute over funding, nine Ryanair routes to Fuerteventura are in jeopardy of being shut down.

The low-cost carrier issued a warning that it would discontinue all service from the Canary Islands from 31 January unless the local travel group AIE honoured its “commercial agreement” to promote Fuerteventura tourism.

According to Ryanair, a breach of the agreement was the cause of a flight from Dublin being cancelled earlier in November.

The carrier is now threatening to withdraw services to Fuerteventura operated from Birmingham, Bremen, Dublin, Dusseldorf, East Midlands, Frankfurt, Liverpool, London and Shannon airports if an agreement regarding the contract infringements isn’t reached by 6 December.

Ryanair has instituted legal action against the tourism group AIE and its individual members. In the lawsuit, the airline claims that passenger numbers to Fuerteventura have increased from 2,000 when it launched its services to the island to more than 250,000 currently.

Michael Cawley, the airline’s deputy chief executive, said: “At a time when Spanish tourism numbers are falling, Ryanair’s numbers continue to grow. However, the AIE continues to threaten the livelihoods of the local tourism industry by blatantly reneging on its contractual commitments.”

He added: “Ryanair has served 30 days’ notice to the AIE to comply with its contractual agreements.”

Thanks to www.travelmole.com for the quotes above, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.ryanair.com