Ryanair scraps Eindhoven flights: No chance of growth in Netherlands

Ryanair planned to grow with new routes at Eindhoven Airport this fall, but the Dutch government won't give the Irish budget airline additional takeoff and landing slots, according to the airline, ANP reports.

Ryanair is therefore forced to completely scrap three of its planned connections and move three other routes to Germany. And flights from Eindhoven to six other destinations are flown less frequently than originally intended. 

CEO Michael O'Leary is furious that the Dutch government is apparently blocking growth for his company in the Netherlands. If KLM or Transavia asked for extra capacity, it wouldn't be a problem, he believes. 

Growth at crowded Schiphol airport is also impossible. The opening of Lelystad Airport - which is intended to eventually take over a number of Schiphol's inter-European holiday flights - has also been delayed from 2018 to 2019, at the earliest. O'Leary adds that the planned capacity for Lelystad is far too limited. "Thirteen flights a day, you can't run a business on that."

The Irish airline is filing complaints to the Dutch consumer and market authority ACM and the European Commission.