Ryanair to re-open base at Valencia airport

Ryanair plans to reopen a base at Valencia in Spain, just two years after it closed the operation amid an acrimonious fallout with the local government.

The budget airline said yesterday that it would re-establish the base from next November, with two aircraft allocated for services that will include 10 routes to and from Manises Airport.

The region's Tourism Minister, Belen Juste, was called upon to officially welcome back Ryanair. She said her department had committed to a joint promotion and advertising programme with Ryanair and she was "delighted" that "millions of high-spending Ryanair passengers will return to Valencia this year".

In 2008 a row erupted between Ryanair and Valencia's local government after the airline claimed the authority failed to develop a 'passenger growth plan' for the airport, where the carrier opened a base in 2007.

Ryanair also alleged that the authority - the Comunitat Valenciana - had granted a competitor, Air Nostrum, a €12m marketing support package despite telling Ryanair that no funds were available for such promotion.

The Comunitat Valenciana countered that Ryanair had never sought any financial assistance. At the time the Irish airline had been operating 70 flights a week at the airport, accounting for about 750,000 passengers a year, also stating how 750 jobs were supported in locally by its operation.

Ryanair has reported how it intends to operate 260 flights per week when the base reopens, delivering over two million passengers a year to the area, and sustain 2,000 jobs locally.