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Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair has lost two of its landing slots at Eindhoven Airport after the flights repeatedly arrived late, Dutch newspaper Eindhovens Dagblad reported on Tuesday.
Airport Coordination Netherlands (ACNL), the body that assigns airport slots, found Ryanair had been consistently late on Monday evening flights from Sofia, Bulgaria, and Thursday evening flights from Pisa, Italy.
As a result, ACNL removed the airline from the two slots for next summer’s schedule, a penalty it rarely issues, the newspaper said.
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “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.
“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.”
ACNL did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Last month, plans were revealed for Ryanair to stop flights from more European airports next summer.
The budget airline is to leave numerous French airports as a result of what it describes as “unviable” tax hikes in the country.
Ryanair had already announced that it would be cancelling all flights to Bergerac, Brive, and Strasbourg in July.
This reduction in service follows Ryanair’s plan to slash 1.2 million seats in its Spanish flight schedule next summer and end all flights to and from Asturias airport.
A Ryanair spokesperson said the airline plans to appeal the ruling (Getty/iStock)
Speaking to French magazine, Challenges, chief commercial officer Jason McGuinness blamed a tax increase for further cuts to its schedule.
Mr McGuinness said: “They didn’t understand that when you increase taxes by 180 per cent, in Bergerac or Brive, it simply makes those airports economically unviable for us because we operate there on very tight margins.”
“Certainly, we published very good results this week, but even we, the leaders in Europe, are still going to lose money this winter.
“It therefore makes much more sense for us to allocate capacity in regional Italy, for example, because in Italy, three regions – Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Calabria, and Abruzzo – have abolished their version of aviation tax. We allocate capacity based on the lowest costs, to offer the lowest prices.”
He added: “Unfortunately, France is becoming less and less relevant for Ryanair.”
