Ryanair loses two Eindhoven landing rights over "repeated, deliberate" late flights

Ryanair has lost two important landing and departure rights at Eindhoven Airport. The slot coordinator ACNL forced the Irish budget airline to relinquish these rights because flights on these two routes were “repeatedly and deliberately” late over the summer season, Eindhovens Dagblad reports.

The slots involved are the Ryanair arrivals from Sofia, Bulgaria, on Monday evenings and from Pisa, Italy, on Thursday evenings, both around 8:00 p.m. The ACNL identified over 30 late flights on these routes in a three-month period during the past summer season. The flights arrived an average of almost an hour late, and therefore also departed from Eindhoven delayed.

Because the flights were late dozens of times, the slot coordinator concluded that Ryanair deliberately flouted the rules. The ACNL has therefore eliminated the airline’s two fixed slots from Eindhoven Airport’s schedule for next summer, a sanction rarely imposed. Ryanair will now have to operate its routes to Sofia and Pisa at different times or cut them from the schedule.

Ryanair appealed against the decision and recently took the matter to court. The court ruled against the budget airline. According to the court, the slot coordinator’s interest in allocating Eindhoven Airport’s scarce slot space in a timely and fair manner outweighs Ryanair’s situation. The ACNL followed the correct procedures, and Ryanair failed to improve after a warning in mid-June and sanctions in August.

Historical rights are crucial for airlines because they guarantee the right to maintain their schedules year after year. Ryanair held these two slots for years. Other competing airlines, like Transavia or Wizz Air, can now bid for them.