Ryanair blames air tax for closing Glasgow Airport base

Estimated 300 jobs to be lost as routes are transferred to Edinburgh

Simon Calder
Travel Correspondent
Tuesday 27 February 2018 14:17 GMT
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Last call: Ryanair will axe its Glasgow base in November
Last call: Ryanair will axe its Glasgow base in November

The airline’s chief commercial officer, David O’Brien said: “Ryanair regrets these cuts in the weaker Glasgow market where efforts to stimulate low fare demand are severely hampered by the continuing burden of APD.” The £13 tax represents about one-third of Ryanair's average fare.

In 2016, the Scottish government vowed to halve APD by 2018, but has since deferred any cut.

An estimated 300 jobs at Glasgow airport will be lost as services to City of Derry, Lisbon, Sofia, Riga and Berlin are transferred to the Scottish capital.

While three routes remain at Glasgow, to Dublin, Krakow and Wroclaw, they will be operated by planes and crews based abroad.

Glasgow will have fewer routes than Prestwick, 35 miles south-west of the city, which was Ryanair’s original base in Scotland.

From Edinburgh, Ryanair is adding new routes to Gothenburg, Hamburg, Memmingen in Bavaria, Stockholm Skavsta, Seville and Tallinn.

Glasgow was also hit by the loss of Ryanair’s route from Stansted, which was abruptly cancelled last September when the issue with pilots’ rosters became apparent. All winter flights were axed.

Last week, Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, said high levels of APD were stifling the launch of the new low-cost airline, Level, from UK regional airports.

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