Ryanair: ‘the Dutch authorities are holding us back’

Photo: Ryanair.com

Irish budget airline Ryanair want to expands its services in the Netherlands but feels that the Dutch authorities are holding it back, the Telegraaf said on Wednesday.

Ryanair’s colourful chairman Michael O’Leary said the delay in opening the expanded Lelystad airport and the limited number of slots at Amsterdam’s Schiphol curbed its expansion plans.

‘We need more room both at Schiphol and at Lelystad. But the Dutch government blocks the competition,’ he said. The opening of the expanded Lelystad has been put back by a year to 2019, but O’Leary said this was unnecessary.

‘This situation only benefits KLM and its high prices. Real growth in the Dutch aviation industry will come from Ryanair and other low-fare carriers,’ he said at a press conference at Schiphol on Tuesday.

O’Leary was in the Netherlands to present the expansion of Ryanair services from Eindhoven. The Irish airline is adding nine new routes, bringing the total of its services at the airport to 42.

Ryanair operates only two flights from Schiphol: Dublin and Malaga. It also flies twice a week from Maastricht to Alicante.

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