Airport ‘is confident’ of Ryanair remaining

CURRENTLY ON OFFER AFTER BOXING DAY

NO FLIGHTS ARE

EAST Midlands Airport says it is “confident” Ryanair will continue to operate from Castle Donington next year.

Flights with the budget airline are available from East Midlands to destinations including Ireland, Spain and the Canary Islands up until Christmas, but none beyond December 26.

Manchester and Stansted, which are also part of Manchester Airport Group (MAG), have flights with Ryanair continuing well into 2022 and are currently offering flights as late as next August.

One potential customer looking for East Midlands services said: “If you go on the Ryanair website and check any destination, nothing is scheduled from January onwards, other than a couple of flights to random airports like Knock.

“Given that Ryanair usually schedules flights at least six months in advance, and the recent news that Ryanair is pulling out of Northern Ireland, this is awfully suspicious.

“I have tried contacting Ryanair myself – customer service, complaints, Twitter – but have got nowhere.

“The best I’ve been able to get is that they can’t confirm or deny that the route I wanted to book would have flights added.”

It is understood the airline is in negotiations with several UK airports about continuing contracts into 2022.

Other airports from which Ryanair operates, including Teesside, Exeter and Newquay Cornwall, also have no confirmed flights in 2022.

A spokesman for East Midlands Airport said: “Ryanair is a valued customer of MAG, which owns and operates Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports.

“MAG has regular conversations with Ryanair about services from all three airports and we are confident that East Midlands customers will benefit from the airline’s wide network of routes in 2022.”

Ryanair was contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.