Ryanair pulls out of creating base in Fuerteventura

Ryanair announced today that it has pulled out of creating an air base in Fuerteventura, due to the ‘impossibility’ of extending the opening hours of the airport.

The representative of the Irish low cost carrier, Luis Fernández-Mellado, said ‘unfortunately, the limitations of Fuerteventura’s airport mean that it is not feasible to launch an operation on the island which we had initially planned to launch before the end of this year (2011).

Ryanair unveiled yesterday (16th Feb 2011) its new bases in Gran Canaria and Tenerife, and plans to open a third in Lanzarote in April.

Ryanair’s intention is to move some 4.2 million passengers this year on the four islands which it operates, which would almost double the figure for 2010.

The airline has insisted that is has not accepted any moeny in grants or promotion to create the three bases and has invested around $350.000.000 and will create more than 1.000 jobs both directly and indirectly.