Ryanair has confirmed that it will be forced to close its base in Oslo Rygge as of Saturday, October 29, 2016 and reduce its traffic in Norway by approximately 50 percent after the government of Norway confirmed the introduction of a new tax of 80 Norwegian kroner to be paid by all airline passengers departing from any airport in Norway on both domestic and international flights.
That 50 percent reduction in traffic translates to 900,000 fewer passengers and a loss of approximately 1,000 jobs as a result of the tax, which Ryanair labels as “environmentally unfriendly”.
In Oslo, Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer, David O’Brien said: “The illogical decision of the Norwegian Government to introduce a flat rate environmentally unfriendly tax unfairly penalises passengers on efficient, green, airlines such as Ryanair in favour of passengers on high fare, half empty, gas guzzling airlines, and destroys the cost competitiveness of privately owned Oslo Rygge Airport in favour of the state owned Avinor monopoly.
“As a result, Ryanair has no choice but to close its Oslo Rygge base which will result in our Norwegian traffic being cut in half. Since Oslo Rygge has confirmed it will be unable to sustain reduced non-based services offered by Ryanair, we will move our remaining 8 Rygge routes to Oslo Torp from 30th October.”
“We will also move our London route to Oslo Gardermoen (where we avail of a low cost agreement at Stansted) which will increase to a 3 times daily service and our daily Vilnius service will also switch to Gardermoen, from 30th October. We will then move our Rygge-based aircraft, pilots and cabin crew to other bases in Ryanair’s 33 country network. This retrograde tax will result in the loss of 900,000 passengers per annum and 1,000 jobs for Oslo Rygge.
“This tax will severely damage Norwegian tourism, particularly around regional airports. The Norwegian Government has instantly made Norway uncompetitive and less attractive to airlines and tourists. The Italian Government, which hiked passenger taxes in January, has already said it will review its decision, given the impact its tax will have on its airports. Sadly, the Norwegian Government have chosen to sacrifice 1,000 jobs at Oslo Rygge for reasons which defy explanation. This is a black day for Oslo Rygge, for Norway and for Norwegian tourism.”
Ryanair forced to cancel 16 routes in Norway | News | Breaking Travel News
No comments:
Post a Comment