Ryanair to cancel flights to Greek islands from October

Popular budget airline Ryanair has announced plans to cancel over 80 flights to Rhodes and Kos, saying a promotion agreement with the islands has been breached.

The low fare carrier claims that the DETAP (a Greek tourism enterprise), and the Mayor of Kos, failed to honour an agreement in a joint marketing campaign to promote Ryanair routes over the summer period. The budget airline will now stop flights on 11 routes to Kos and 13 routes to Rhodes one month before the end of the summer season in October.

The popular Greek islands, which rely heavily on tourism as a source of income, will see huge losses from the 82 flight cancelations. This move by Ryanair means Rhodes and Kos will miss out on estimated 23,000 tourists, which would give an €18 million boost to the local economy in tourism revenue.

The DETAP and the Mayor of Kos had an agreement with the airline to promote these flights internationally. Ryanair claim that the promotion of these flights, combined with the lower fares, would have increased passenger growth and high-spending tourists.

“Ryanair originally intended to operate 11 Kos routes and 13 Rhodes routes to the end of the summer and these would have delivered over 23,000 passengers during October, providing increased tourism spending and sustaining local jobs,” said Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara. McNamara continues to claim that the airline was “forced to cancel flights”, which will come into immediate effect on 2 October.

“DETAP and the Mayor of Kos should now explain to Rhodes and Kos residents, why they have now refused to partner with the only airline interested in bringing new passengers, new jobs and millions in tourism revenues to the region,” he continued. Flight cancellations can happen at any time, and are a huge inconvenience to travellers. To protect yourself financially from such events, consider taking out travel insurance before you go away.

Date Created: 28/05/2012