Transport Online – Ryanair closes base on Brussels in winter season
BRUSSELS – Low cost airline Ryanair will close its base at Brussels Airport during the winter. This concretely that the Irish concern is no longer two aircraft station. Also, during that period, personnel stationed in Belgium will not be worked. Instead, flights will be flown to and from Brussels with foreign crews.
According to CEO Michael O’Leary, the reason Ryanair has taken this step has to do with the higher rates at Brussels Airport and the Belgian flight tax, which was received in April. O’Leary also cannot allow the base in Brussels to open after the winter.
Ryanair currently accounts for almost 8 percent of all passengers at Brussels Airport. The company carries out about thirty flights every day, fifteen departing and fifteen round days, at the airport in Zaventem.
Only one of the flights is carried out with aircraft stationed in Belgium, the rest with aircraft based abroad. According to Ryanair, the pilots, stewards and flight attendants involved will be able to work elsewhere within the group, including at Charleroi airport.
According to Brussels Airport, Ryanair’s decision will have limited consequences for the network of destinations at Brussels Airport. Ryanair’s way of working is not new. The price fighter closed its base in Eindhoven in 2018.