Ryanair announces new Palma base

Ryanair has announced the opening of its 49th European base at Palma airport in Majorca.

It will open in March next year with four aircraft based at the airport operating 47 routes, 17 of which are new.

The no-frills airline says it will deliver 2.8 million passengers annually and sustain 2,800 Spanish jobs.

The airline will open 17 new routes from Palma to destinations including Cork, Maastricht and Stockholm.

Ryanair also today announced that it was to cut by 50% the level of its summer 2012 services to and from Alicante.

The airline blamed move, which follows a 50% cut in its winter services from the Spanish airport, on the AENA Alicante airport authority's insistence that it use "unnecessary" airbridges and pay €2m per year in airbridge charges.

"As a result of these 2012 cutbacks, Ryanair’s annual traffic at Alicante will fall from 3.5m in 2010/11 to 2m in 2011/12, with the loss of 6 based aircraft, 18 routes and 1,500 jobs at Alicante," the airline claimed.

"These cuts will reduce AENA Alicante’s revenues by some €30m p.a. solely because of its attempt to impose €2m in unnecessary airbridge fees on Ryanair."