Ryanair plans to shift some of the planes now serving its Finnish destinations to its new Copenhagen and Berlin routes.
“Unfortunately we have a plane shortage, which won’t be resolved until 2016,” says Elina Hakkarainen, Ryanair’s sales and marketing director for the Nordic region.
During the winter months, Europe’s largest cut-rate airline will only have one Finnish route. That twice-a-week route links the eastern city of Lappeenranta with Bergamo, near Milan, Italy. The company says that route has one of its best seat occupancy rates in the Nordic area.
Empty new €3m terminal?
Next year, Ryanair plans to take delivery of 40 new planes, some of which will begin plying Nordic routes. The Dublin-based company will not confirm its summer 2016 routes until next autumn, but says it plans to resume at least its current Tampere service.
During the current summer aviation season, Ryanair links Tampere to seven airports in Britain, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Spain. The airline is negotiating with the city of Tampere about possibly opening new routes.
The timing of Ryanair’s announcement about grounding winter flights comes at an inopportune time. Tampere airport’s new Terminal 2, which was renovated at a cost of three million euros to accommodate the airline, opens on Tuesday.
