Ryanair has announced it is to close its base at Glasgow Airport (GLA/EGPF) later this year with the aircraft and routes moving to Edinburgh (EDI/EGPH).
The Irish budget carrier currently has 1 aircraft based at the Scottish airport but under its revised plans for Winter 2018 it will move the aircraft to Edinburgh along with the routes to Derry, Lisbon, Sofia, Riga and Berlin.
The airline cited Air Passenger Duty as a reason that the airline hasn’t been able to make a success of operations at Glasgow Airport. In a statement 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.”
Ryanair will still operate 3 routes at Glasgow Airport in Winter 2018. Dublin (3-times-per-day), Krakow (twice-weekly) and Wroclaw (twice-weekly). It will also operate 8 routes from Glasgow Prestwick (PIK/EGPK) to Alicante, Faro, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Malaga, Malta, Rzeszow & Tenerife South.
The closing of the Ryanair Base at Glasgow Airport puts up to 300 jobs at risk.
The news comes less than 24 hours after Ryanair pilots called on outspoken Chief Executive Michael O’Leary to resign as they warned of further cancellations and industrial action. In a letter to Ryanair, The European Employee Representative Council, or EERC, said many pilots were still leaving the airline and that Mr O’Leary had failed to resolve the problems.
The letter stated “By our assessment, it looks like further cancellations are inevitable due to the continuing resignations of pilots“.
The airline is facing industrial action across several European countries over the Easter break as talks between the representatives and Ryanair have broken down.
