Ryanair threatens Fuerteventura closure

Ryanair is threatening to cancel all of its routes to Fuerteventura from January 2009, unless a local tourism group honours an agreement to promote the island as a tourist destination.

Europe's largest low-cost airline began flying to the Spanish Island in 2006 and has witnessed passenger numbers increase from 2,000 to more than 200,000.

However, Ryanair is unhappy that the local tourism group AIE has not honoured a commercial agreement to promote Fuerteventura as a holiday destination.

If an agreement is not reached, Ryanair will close all of its services to Fuerteventura from Birmingham International Airport, East Midlands, Liverpool and London.

Michael Cawley, chief operating officer of Ryanair, said: "Ryanair again calls on the AIE to honour its contractual agreement or lose Ryanair's flights and traffic to and from Fuerteventura from January 31, 2009."

Fuerteventura is one of the Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa, and is a perfect destination for sun-seekers as it has more than 3,000 hours of sunshine annually.

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