Airline estimates 600 job losses
Ryanair has today (Aug 17) announced it is to switch nine out of ten of its routes out of Manchester Airport following a disagreement over fees.
The low cost airline claimed the airport had refused its calls for lower charges leading to lower passenger fares.
Ryanair said the move would result in the loss of 44 weekly flights out of Manchester and an estimated 600,000 passengers per year.
The airline said Manchester stands to lose 600 local jobs quoting industry statistics of 1 for every 1,000 passengers.
Manchester Airport said in reply that it believed its charges to be reasonable.
Stephen McNamara, Ryanair's spokesperson, 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 Manchester, London Stansted and Dublin," Ryanair spokesman said.
"Ryanair had offered new routes, traffic and growth to Manchester Airport but since they prefer to preserve their high cost base than to grow, Ryanair will now switch/close nine Manchester routes."
The airport's operator Manchester Airports Group (MAG) said passengers would still be able to fly direct to most of the affected destinations on other airlines.
"Not withstanding all of our investment in Manchester Airport including during the current recession, we don't believe that charges as low as £3 per passenger are unreasonable," MAG said in a statement.
"Clearly, Ryanair do and that's regrettable.
"We've consistently cut our charges for the last 15 years even when faced with increased costs such as security."
From October 1 Ryanair routes will be switched to airports which it said had lower charges, including East Midlands, Leeds Bradford and Liverpool.
The Ryanair services hit by the changes include Manchester to Barcelona Girona, Bremen, Brussels Charleroi, Cagliari, Dusseldorf Weeze, Frankfurt Hahn, Marseille, Milan Bergamo and Shannon.
Manchester currently handles 22m passengers every year, 600,000 of whom trvel with Ryanair.
In July Ryanair announced a cut in capacity at London Stansted this winter of 40% compared to the summer.
Ryanair again blamed high airport charges and said it would move services to less expensive bases in Italy and Spain.
But Stansted's managing director Stewart Wingate said it was "common practice" for Ryanair and other airlines to reduce frequency during the winter.
www.ryanair.com www.manchesterairport.co.uk