reus

The Irish company has accused the local administration of not honouring current agreements, in place until 2013. The Catalan President has assured that the Government has absolutely “fulfilled” the current agreements and that the “problems started when these agreements wanted to be modified”. The low-cost airline is in a dispute with the Catalan Government over its continuity in Girona-Costa Brava; Ryanair is asking for an extra 7.5 million euros. The Catalan Minister for Transportation considered Ryanair’s attitude as “blackmail”. The Government announced this evening that it will freeze current negotiations with Ryanair until it has the “assurance” that the Irish company “fulfils what it signed”.

Barcelona-El Prat Airport had 29.1 million passengers, which means that Barcelona’s is Europe’s 9th airport. Girona airport saw a decrease of 8% in passenger traffic and Reus airport one of 16.7%.

The company will open a centre for industrial automation engineering in Reus. The centre is scheduled to open in 2011 and will employ around 30 qualified professionals.

International passengers increased by 22.6% and passengers within Spain by 11% in comparison to the figures of October 2009. However, these positive figures contradict those of the Girona and Reus airports, where passengers dropped by 4 and 16.5% respectively due to Ryanair’s reduction of flights and its instalment at Barcelona.

25 intercontinental destinations will be available from the Barcelona airport starting the 31st of October. In addition, many flights to current destinations will increase their frequency. However, this increase is not shared with the Girona and Reus airports, which are seeing their destination variety and frequency decrease now that Ryanair is flying out of Barcelona. Besides, operating from Girona in 2011 will be 27% cheaper, as airport taxes have been modified.

The number of travellers at the Barcelona airport grew by 2.2% during the first semester of 2010, registering more than 13 million passengers despite the volcanic ash crisis.