Ryanair’s threat to Catalan airports - 03.09.2010

RYANAIR chief Michael O’Leary flew into Barcelona’s main airport, El Prat, on his company’s maiden passenger trip there on Tuesday, and issued an immediate warning.

He told the authorities that his Irish airline would reduce their flights to other Catalan airports, Reus and Girona, if landing taxes were not reduced.
He called on the AENA (Spanish Airports Authority) to reduce charges at smaller airports, and noted that in Lleida the airline paid nothing, like Vueling, its only competitor there.
Ryanair already receives more than eight million euros a year in grants for its operations at secondary airports in Cataluña.
The company now flies to 23 destinations, from Barcelona’s Terminal 2 - 11 of them in Spain and 12 in Europe, including Paris and Milan.
Meanwhile, Cádiz will find itself without international air connections, despite a nine-million-euro investment by the Ministry for Development  in a new terminal at Jerez.
The terminal is intended to double the capacity of the airport to three million passengers a year.
But from November, only the Flyniki weekly flight to Vienna will remain operational because Ryanair considers Jerez unprofitable in the winter. Air Berlin is also planning to drop its services.