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.

According to AHETA, the region’s tourism potential and the air transport business should be seen as two sides of the same coin and as such they should not only be viewed together but also walk hand-in-hand. However, in recent years the two sides of the coin have been going their separate ways and this has to be brought to a point of balance as soon as possible so as to better support the Algarve economy.

We have to mention that some measures have been taken which are meant to attract tourists to the Algarve with air companies such as Ryanair and EasyJet offering low-cost flights to Faro Airport, it has become apparent that one has to maximize the hotel and resort occupation throughout the entire year in order to keep the local economies from dipping too much during the off-season.

It is quite clear – at least to the AHETA members – that the Algarve needs to regain its level of competitiveness and profitability from a few years ago, and the focus on air flight accessibility is vital to reach this goal.

It is apparent that the Faro Airport needs to be connected to several more airport hubs in Europe, and this fundamental step must be made in order to develop and raise the profits in business tourism, golf tourism and obviously all the other related industries and activities that find it hard to keep running during the low and medium seasons. In the past couple of years, many Algarve businesses – especially hotels – have been closing their doors during the winter months due to a lack of tourists.