300 jobs are at risk as budget airline Ryanair is to close its Glasgow Airport base.
23 routes are currently operated from the city’s airport, but that will be reduced to three.
One aircraft and 5 routes (Derry, Lisbon, Sofia, Riga and Berlin) will switch from Glasgow to Edinburgh Airport.
Chief commercial officer David O’Brien said Edinburgh has a stronger “inbound component” than Glasgow with Ryanair flights.
He said 300 jobs could be lost at Glasgow due to the move with a potential fall in around 500,000 passengers.
He added the decision was down to Air Passenger Duty, but also said Brexit was a threat to Scottish tourism and the airline industry.
Glasgow Airport said they were ‘bitterly disappointed’ at the decision and also strongly criticised the Scottish Government for their part in the loss of the routes.
A spokesperson said: “This is a result of the airline’s review of its single aircraft bases, however, we have been left in no doubt it is also a consequence of the Scottish Government’s inability to introduce its proposed 50% cut in Air Departure Tax (ADT).
“Despite clear and repeated warnings from both airports and airlines about the potential impact of this policy not being implemented, we are now faced with a stark scenario that includes the loss of 20 services and a significant number of jobs.
“This is the second example in as many months of an airline cutting capacity in Scotland because of the lack of movement on ADT. The reality is this capacity will be reallocated elsewhere in Europe to countries with more favourable aviation taxation policies to Scotland’s detriment.
“We cannot sit back and risk Scotland’s connectivity being further eroded. It is imperative there is immediate action on ADT.”
Edinburgh Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar said: “I find myself torn between the pleasure of the new routes and the relief really that these cuts being seen at Glasgow are not being suffered in Edinburgh.
“I think that’s a wake up call for the government.
“We’d hoped our growth would be incremental to Scotland but it would appear at last half of this year’s growth is actually at the expense of Glasgow and that can’t be god for the Scottish market and he economic development of our country.”
Ryanair will only fly to Dublin, Krakow and Wroclaw from Glasgow in its winter 2018 schedule with its base at the airport closing.
It will host 45 routes from Edinburgh including 11 new routes.
The schedule will go on sale from today and includes the following:
Edinburgh: 45 routes including London Stansted & 11 new routes to Berlin, Derry, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Lisbon, Memmingen, Stockholm Skavsta, Riga, Seville, Sofia, & Tallinn
Glasgow Prestwick: 8 routes to Alicante, Faro, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Malaga, Malta, Rzeszow & Tenerife South
Glasgow International – 3 routes to Dublin (3 times daily), Krakow (2 wkly) & Wroclaw (2 wkly)
Ryanair’s Glasgow International Summer 2018 schedule will operate as planned, which offers a total of 23 routes to destinations such as Alicante, Gran Canaria and Malaga.
The airline opened a new base at Glasgow Airport in autumn 2014, one of several new bases opened across Europe that year.
At the time it said it remained committed to Prestwick Airport, continuing to offer flights from there.
Describing itself as Europe’s first and largest low fares airline, Ryanair carries more than 130 million customers a year on more than 2,000 daily flights from 87 bases.
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