Ryanair flights to major European airport banned in ruling airline calls ‘out of whack’

Ryanair will no longer be able to fly planes to an airport in the Netherlands at certain times of the week, due to an ‘unprecedented’ ban.

The official body that assigns landing slots to airlines at Eindhoven Airport, a hub around 60 miles south of Amsterdam, found that Ryanair had been consistently late to touch down on Monday and Thursday evenings.

In particular, the late flights were:

• Monday evening flights from Sofia, Bulgaria.
• Thursday evening flights from Pisa, Italy.

As a result, the official body, the Airport Coordination Netherlands (ACNL), has removed Ryanair from these two slots for next summer’s schedule.

A Ryanair spokesperson told Metro: ‘Ryanair is the most punctual airline in Europe. We have appealed this unprecedented, irrational and disproportionate decision by ACNL to the European Commission and the Dutch courts, where we expect it will be overturned.’

The ACNL said delays were an hour on average, and even issued a warning to Ryanair in June – but said the hold ups continued to be ‘repeated and deliberate’.

Ryanair, however, insisted that their delays at Eindhoven, the largest Dutch airport, second only to Amsterdam Schiphol, were relatively short.

‘ACNL are penalising airlines for ATC [air-traffic control] delays that push flights just 15 minutes over their scheduled arrival time which is completely out of whack with the vast majority of European airports where the threshold is much higher and more reasonable,’ the spokesperson added.

In the same statement, Ryanair also took a swipe at the President of the EU Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen.

‘Ryanair has long campaigned for ATC [air traffic control] reform, but EU Commission President, Ursula von “Derlayed-Again”, has failed to take action.’

Earlier this month CEO Michael O’Leary confirmed that Ryanair will be further scaling back in France.

This comes just a few months after Ryanair cancelled all services to three French destinations – a move that is now evidently part of the airline’s massive pushback against air tax costs.

At the time, a statement from Ryanair said: ‘Unless the government changes course and abolishes this unfair air tax, Ryanair’s capacity and investment in France will inevitably be redirected to more competitive European markets such as Sweden, Hungary, or parts of Italy.’

Flights to Spain have also taken a hit. Ryanair cut 1.2 million seats to the country for next summer. 

Thankfully, UK travellers heading to Eindhoven can still get to the city, with direct Ryanair flights from London Stansted.

Metro has approached the ACNL for further comment. 

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