Ryanair ties the continuation of 43 new routes to the abolition of taxes

Ryanair today introduced 43 new routes that will connect Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Tenerife with various European cities, from which two million passengers will travel, and said that their continuation will be tied to an extension of existing abolition of airport charges on the Islands, which expires in March 2010.

This was stated in a press conference by the Marketing and Sales Executive of Ryanair for Spain and Portugal, Luis Fernandez, who said the airline's decision to open 18 new routes from Gran Canaria, 16 from Lanzarote, and to increase by 9 the routes operated since 2006 from Tenerife was taken after the Spanish government has extended until the end of March 2010 the abolition of airport charges affecting passengers travelling to the Islands.

However, he believed that if the abolition is not extended beyond March 2010, which would prevent the airline "maintain a low cost structure, many of these new routes will be unsustainable and will have to be removed.

For this reason Fernandez hoped that the Spanish government meets the demands of the Canarian people and will extend until 2012 the elimination of airport charges, which he also considered necessary to apply in the peninsula, as this measure will not only allow Ryanair to assure the operation of these 43 new routes to the Canary Islands, but also encourage other airlines to increase their flights to the archipelago.

Ryanair today opened new connections between Gran Canaria and Madrid, Porto, London, Liverpool, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt, to which will be added, starting tomorrow new routes to and from Girona, Bristol, Brussels, Dublin, Glasgow, Birmingham, East Midlands, Shannon, Bournemouth, Edinburgh and Pisa.

Lanzarote flights start tomorrow with connections to and from Madrid, London, Liverpool, Brussels and Frankfurt to be joined within days, with links between the island and Girona, Bournemouth, Bristol, Dusseldorf, Glasgow, Birmingham, Shannon and Edinburgh.

Ryanair already operates flights to Tenerife and will add, from today, new routes that will connect the island with Girona, Bournemouth, Madrid, Birmingham, Brussels, London, Porto, Bristol and Edinburgh.

Fernandez reported that the airline's goal is to have transported 66 million passengers by the end of 2009, via132 routes, and achieve a growth of nine million passengers annually in the period 2010-2012.

With regard to the Canaries, the head of Ryanair said the company, which ceased operating in late January this year in Fuerteventura due to differences with the Agrupación de Intereses Económicos Fomento del Desarrollo Económico de Fuerteventura (AIE), stated "there is no intention of returning"to the island.

However, he stressed that the 43 new routes that will be inaugurated in the next few days with the archipelago will create 2,000 jobs and generate tourist spending to the Islands worth 390 million euros.

In particular, it is expected that connections involving Gran Canaria to transport 700,000 passengers a year, a figure that is also predicted for flights to Tenerife with the total of nine routes, while for Lanzarote is estimated that Ryanair flights will the arrival of 600,000 visitors a year.

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