|
Ryanair, Europe's largest low fares airline today responded to the comments made by Snr Fernando Echegaray, Director of Barcelona El Prat Airport, who claimed that it was "very difficult" to reach an agreement with Ryanair on a base at El Prat. Ryanair also rejected Mr Echegaray's false claims that Ryanair was seeking "preferential treatment". Responding today, Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said: "For an airport like El Pratt which is facing a loss of up to 6 million passengers this year (from 30 million last year to as little as 24 million this year) Snr Echegaray has a strange view on what's "difficult". Many airports all over Europe are now lowering costs in order to grow their routes and traffic, whereas Barcelona El Prat seems to prefer high costs and an enormous traffic collapse. Ryanair is responsible for almost all of the growth at Spanish airports this year and our airports in Barcelona Girona and Barcelona Reus will again see traffic growth in 2009, during a year when traffic at Barcelona El Prat has collapsed by as much as 20%. "Ryanair has proposed that Barcelona El Prat Airport introduce a substantial discount scheme for any airline which delivers significant growth. These schemes are not discriminatory, and nor are they "very difficult". All across Europe this year airports in the UK, Italy, Germany and elsewhere in Spain are lowering charges and delivering traffic growth. Snr Echegerary and Barcelona El Prat can join in this growth, but only when they reduce their high and uncompetitive airport charges. "We believe that Ryanair could deliver significant traffic growth at Barcelona El Prat, without compromising or altering our successful operations at Barcelona Girona or Reus. As far as Ryanair is concerned, Barcelona Girona and Reus come first, in much the same way that Stansted and Luton come first for Ryanair in London, despite the fact that we fly to Gatwick as well". Sobre Ryanair Ryanair es la mayor aerolínea europea de tarifas bajas con 31 bases y más de 830 rutas de bajo coste, conectando 145 destinos. Desde finales de Marzo de 2009 Ryanair cuenta con una flota de 200 nuevos Boeing 737-800 NG con pedidos en firme para otros 111 nuevos aviones que se entregarán durante los próximos 3 años. Ryanair cuenta en la actualidad con más de 6.000 empleados y la previsión de transportar alrededor de 67 millones de pasajeros en 2009.
