Ryanair to pull out of Oslo Rygge in late 2016

Irish low-cost carrier has officially announced that  on this year’s October 29, it will close its base due to the Norwegian government’s decision to introduce a new kind of tax for airports and airlines.

Thanks to the new taxation, operators should pay an additional amount of NOK 80 (8,5EUR) called as passenger surcharge.

“The illogical decision of the Norwegian Government to introduce a flat rate environmentally unfriendly tax unfairly penalizes passengers on efficient, green airlines such as Ryanair in favour of passengers on high fare, half empty, gas guzzling airlines, and destroys the cost competitiveness of privately owned Oslo Rygge Airport in favour of the state-owned Avinor monopoly. As a result, Ryanair has no choice but to close its Oslo Rygge base which will result in our Norwegian traffic being cut in half,”  – Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer, David O’Brien, said.

Ryanair is currently operating four Boeing 737-800 aircraft from Rygge airport, but soon they will be moved to other bases in the airline’s network.

Although the carrier’s traffic will be cut by approximately 50%, certain routes such as London Stansted and Vilnius will be served from Gardermoen, the Norwegian capital’s other low-cost airport.

Due to the closure Ryanair expects to lose around 900.000 customers in the region.