14 Mar, 2010 @ 10:00
1 min read

Granada grounded by Ryanair cutbacks

THE travel plans of many Ryanair passengers have been thrown into disarray after the airline cancelled flights to four destinations that ran from Granada airport.

Amid accusations it was owed 1.3m euros by the local government, the budget airline announced it was cutting services to London, Liverpool, Girona and Madrid.

The company confirmed that as of May 3, 28 weekly flights will be lost along with 400 jobs.

The 400,000 annual Ryanair passengers carried through the Federico Garcia Lorca airport will now have to look elsewhere.

“It’s amazing how Ryanair loves to publish news of new destinations but keeps a very low profile when cancelling established routes,” explained Cassie Irene-Dawson, whose flight from Granada was among those included in the cull.

“It’s no surprise that Ryanair’s flights to and from Malaga have now doubled in price.”

Meanwhile, Carolyn Hasson, from Granada, was forced to wait ten days to receive her refund before rebooking her flights back to the UK via Malaga.

“What a nightmare, I had to apply for a refund on the Granada flights, wait up to ten days for the refund to clear, then re-book my flights,” explained Hasson.

Ryanair cited the “excessive costs” of continuing to operate at the airport.

Cash problems began two years ago when the city hall reneged paying its 15 per cent share of the subsidy towards supporting Ryanair’s operations at the airport.

Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)

Jon Clarke is a Londoner who worked at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday as an investigative journalist before moving permanently to Spain in 2003 where he helped set up the Olive Press. He is the author of three books; Costa Killer, Dining Secrets of Andalucia and My Search for Madeleine.

Do you have a story? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es

13 Comments

  1. Headlines should tell the truth.Why has Granada been grounded? Just because Ryanair has pulled out it is not the end of the world.As a matter of interest fares are cheaper to Malaga from Stansted then they were to Granada.

  2. I think its great , keeps the lowlife with their squawking brats and drunks for kids away from Granada and its lovely villages, if more places were difficult to get to they would be protected from the hordes of naffs that descend on the Sol and Blanca year after year , leave the inland Spain to the Spanish and the others who love Spain, its customs , its people and the natural beauty of the countryside !
    Easy flights means all that will go , along the way of the runed and vile coastlnes !!Best thing naff RYANAIR ever did for Granada , so all you boring old Brits who whinge that you can`t get to your holiday shacks cheaply bugger off to the coast , thats if you want cheap all your life !!

  3. It is the arrogant mindedness of people like Mr White who give the rest of the Brits a bad name. I understand that you may be a lonely old person who does not drink, has no family or friends who may want to visit you and spends all day and night sat in your little house on your own. Other people however bought a house in rural Spain to be with the local people, drink with local people and also enjoy the area with our family and friends. The main reason people are complaining about the loss of Ryanair to Granada is that in my case it now takes a hour and a half to get from the airport to my house not how much it cost. Also it is further for my family and friends to come to visit me.
    You seem to imply that the local Spanish people are against the Brits coming to the villages, spending money in the local shops and bars and paying taxes which are then spent in the local communities, I would like to assure you that in the majority of cases you are totally and utterly wrong.

    Spain is a beautiful country that deserves to be enjoyed by everyone and by the cessation on flights from the UK to Granada this has only made it possible for less people to see what real Spain we all love is all about.

  4. This is an own goal for someone. There are over 30million tourists to Andalucia every year, although mostly looking for the Sun, Sea & Sangria. I believe well over 2million of those visit Granada. Whilst Ryanair was running into Granada many will have come and stayed at least one night and seen the sights. With a proper tour of the Alhambra taking 3-4 hours if this is jammed in between and hour or two of travel to/from then they will not be staying to see the rest of the tourism spots. Same goes for those who ski on the Sierra Nevada. The university has a huge reputation and many non-Spanish attending. The language schools have residential courses. The Parque de Sciences is also a major attraction.
    Switching off flights – irrespective of who’s fault it is is bad for those who started them and also those who live in the area. The local economy is based around visitors coming and staying for a few days or weeks.
    There used to be Monarch but they were frozen out by the predatory pricing of Ryanair. Opening up Ciudad Real, a dustcropping strip in the middle of nowhere with nothing there to support it seems to be a fit of pique.
    Hopefully someone else will see sense but in the meantime its either travel to Malaga/Murcia/Seville/Madrid and catch something else but that could add another day at each end of the journey – just like it did in the UK when we only had Heathrow and Gatwick.

  5. My last flight to london I decided to compare the cost of Ryan air with a real flight from Iberia Granada via Madrid to Heathrow. The return fare in july last year was 155€ which was actually cheaper than Ryanair on the return leg. You also get 30 Kilos of baggage and free drinks. Why does anyone fly with these con men.

  6. Yes, all the time. I have been flying between Jerez and London regularly for the last 5 years and have never once found a cheaper return fare from XRY to any London airport via Madrid.
    Usually the only competitive alternative (including the train fare) is from Sevilla, also on Ryanair. Sometimes Vueling comes in under, but rarely.

    By the way, the free baggage allowance on Iberia from Granada to London is 23kg, not 30…

  7. Mr White, your comments are totally unjustified. Many of the Brits who fly over to Spain wouldn’t bother flying into Granada anyway! especially if they are spending time at the Costa’s, they would fly to Alicante or Malaga. As for our family, who live in close proximity to Granada, its a major letdown for us. We only bought our house in this region because the airport was close to us, now we have to travel hours and hours to Alicante, Murcia or Malaga. When my wife’s family come over to visit us it is nearly a day wasted in the car. It was also ideal for me visiting my sister in Madrid, not to mention all the lost revenue of people who visited the Sierra Nevada, or The Alhambra. I can only hope that another airline will see the potential this exit by Ryanair holds and commence flights soon, benefitting everyone in the process.

  8. Have you noticed Ryanair are still flying out of Granada to Bologna and Milan. Makes you think their excuse that they are owed money is just a cover.

    Miguel, tell your family to catch the bus, I did it a couple of weeks ago and it can be done Malaga airport to Granada for aroumd 20 Euros each and takes about one & a half hours. I have done a web page with a dummies guide of the trip from Malaga airport to Moraleda, very easy and the same bus goes on into Granada. http://www.gonetospain.co.uk/bus

  9. I love Granada and have been many times. I have not experienced the drunken kids or naff people that Mr White complains about. But they do say that like attracts like…

  10. It looks like that nice man Mr O’leary has scored another own goal – press reports abound about him being chased by the French authorities. Seems they employed the staff at their Marseilles hub on an Irish employment contract, contrary to French law. He is now threatening to pull out if he/company prosecuted. ISTR he has done similar elsewhere so is that another (hidden) reason for his bust up with the Junta in Granada??? I have tried the bus from Granada to Malage and it seems to work fairly well. Problem is it goes to the bus station and you have to wait for up to an hour for the bus out to the airport, so allow that in your travel plans. Believe they leave for Granada before the last plane arrives so it can mean a lonely bench, B&B or taxi if arriving on the later flight(s).

  11. “RIGHT ON” VERNON WHITE, SO MANY PEOPLE THINK LIKE US ..BUT BEING SMARTER THAN YOUR BENIDORM TYPES WE TEND TO BE LESS VOCAL..I HEAR THE CRY THEY ORDINARY PEOPLE HAVING A GOOD TIME..NO (NOT ALL) THEY COME HERE WITH UTTER CONTEMPT FOR THE PEOPLE OF SPAIN.THEY ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THEMSELVES TO US AND THE COUNTRY THEY COME FROM.THANKS

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