Ryanair in airport expansion talks despite Covid restrictions ‘shambles’
Bullish budget airline Ryanair yesterday revealed it is in talks with Edinburgh Airport over further expansion despite the “utter shambles” of the Covid traffic light system which has hit demand for holiday flights.
The Irish carrier said it was looking to further increase the eight aircraft due to based in the capital by this winter, with more new routes to be announced in the interim. Director of commercial Jason Mcguinness told The Scotsman: “We are very much in growth mode.”
He said an unspecified number of the 2,000 extra pilots Ryanair plans to recruit over the next three years would be based in Edinburgh if an expansion deal is struck.
Mr Mcguinness said: “That really depends on where our Edinburgh negotiations go. We are currently in discussions with Gordon [Dewar, Edinburgh Airport chief executive] and his team, which are progressing very well.
"We would certainly hope to be adding new aircraft at Edinburgh over the coming years.
"We’ll be back no doubt very soon to hopefully announce more routes and frequencies, not just Edinburgh but all of our Scottish airports.
However, Mr Mcguinness said the traffic light travel system was “an utter shambles in creating utter confusion among everyone. I work in the industry and I would struggle to explain it.
"Last week, the scheme suddenly had a new colour – amber plus. Fully vaccinated travellers should be allowed to travel to Europe without all the restrictions.”
By contrast, he said Ryanair was flying more passengers on more routes elsewhere in Europe than before the pandemic.
Ryanair plans to fly 4.7 million people into and out of Scotland over the next year, with 245 flights a week on 78 routes this summer and 203 flights on 55 routes this winter.
Mr Mcguinness said these would also boost the Scottish economy by bringing in visitors at a time when Edinburgh hotel occupancy rates were as low as 10-20 per cent.
The routes include 58 routes from Edinburgh this summer.