Ryanair at odds with Portugal tourism board
It’s true that we focus on Algarve related news and reports here, but this particular subject has Faro at its middle, Algarve so it’s quite pertinent to our subject matter.
A bitter exchange of statements and counter-statements has broken out recently between the Turismo de Portugal board and the low-cost, Irish airline, Ryanair, over the claims that the Portuguesse authorities have rejected the company’s proposal for increasing winter flights to Faro Airport in order to boost the number of off-season visitors.
According to the airline, it planned to introduce three new winter routes to Faro Airport, which would increase weekly flights by 35% thus increasing the traffic in Faro by about 70,000 passengers.
Then, in a press release, the Portugal tourism board said that it doesn’t have the authority to decide on such matters and that Ryanair could invest into its Faro routes however, the board did admit that it refused to pay the airline the amount of money requested in order to strengthen its presence in the Algarve because it considered it to be ‘disproportionate’ to the plan’s real value.
But it didn’t end there, it couldn’t really end there, with Ryanair then stating that with this new plan the company can cause a rapid increase in winter tourism and traffic – which would result in more jobs – because the travel sector reacts very quickly to stimulus, and then jabbed at the Turismo de Portugal saying that for an organization whose brief is to promote the Algarve, they shouldn’t ignore the continent’s largest carrier and Faro’s main airline, especially when considering that the country’s unemployment rate is at 18%
Then of course the board counter-attacked saying that they are committed to increase winter traffic to the Algarve however, this must be accomplished via correct and adequate management of public funds and a balanced strategy. They continued to say that the Irish company had already benefitted from public funds in the past, and that even though Ryanair had proposed creating new routes for the Algarve during the winter in the past, it had cancelled those plans even when funding was made available.
So it’s a giant game of ‘he said, she said’ and it remains to be seen what will happen in the future.
