BUDGET airline Ryanair has today (November 10) announced that it will close its six routes from December 2 after Basel Airport refused to lower its airport charges to reflect the lower fares being paid by passengers in the current recession.
This move will result in the loss of 18 weekly Basel flights, 250,000 passengers per annum and up to 250 local jobs.
Ryanair had offered Basel an additional 13 weekly flights and 200,000 new passengers which would have created 200 new jobs if the airport reduced its high charges. Basel rejected this offer and Ryanair's routes to/from Alicante, Cagliari, London (Stansted), Marseille, Porto and Stockholm (Skavsta) will cease from December 2.
Passengers affected will be emailed directly by Ryanair and provided with a full refund.
Ryanair's Stephen McNamara said: "Ryanair continues to lower fares to encourage travel, but with passengers paying lower fares airports must lower their charges - particularly high cost airports like Basel, London (Stansted) and Dublin.
"Ryanair had offered new routes, traffic and growth to Basel Airport but since they prefer to preserve their high cost base than to grow, Ryanair will now close all its Basel routes resulting in the loss of 250,000 passengers p.a. and up to 250 jobs at Basel.
"Ryanair will continue to grow at low cost airports which work with us to deliver the low fares required to keep passengers flying during this recession. Ryanair apologises to passengers affected by these cancellations and will contact them in the coming weeks to provide them with a full refund.
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