Ryanair announced last Tuesday that seven routes they operate from San Javier airport will be stopped for the time-being. Those routes are to Birmingham, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Glasgow, Leeds, East Midlands, Luton. The only two flights which will continue throughout the winter are those between San Javier and Dublin and Stansted.

Ryanair blame the regional government of Murcia, who have been unwilling to negotiate a deal with the Irish company, for the reason the flights will stop.

This will mean that 120,000 fewer passengers will fly into Murcia this winter, as 76 weekly flights stop. The number of visitors to the region always lowers by 20% in the winter months, for which reason Ryanair had offered to promote Murcia in a bid to entice more British and Irish tourists to the area. However their meeting with Murcia’s Tourism Chief, Marina Garcia, last May, proved fruitless. They then approached Murcia’s Councillor for Tourism and Culture, Pedro Alberto Cruz, who also appeared to have no interest in their suggestions whatsoever.

Ryanair flights make up almost 50% of the commercial flights in and out of San Javier airport.  The fact that this is going to go down so dramatically will mean a huge loss of tourist income in the area and a loss of jobs too. It has been calculated this decision could mean 60 million euros less will be spent in Murcia this winter.  

Ryanair’s Luis Fernández-Mellado made the announcement on the same day that the company announced in Dublin that their sales for the first three months of 2010 had risen by 16%, to a total of 900 million euros. 

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