Budget flight company, Ryanair, have announced they will be ceasing their services from Belfast Airport on 31st October. The Irish company is pulling out of the airport after plans promising to extend the runway a further 600m, which would enable Ryanair to serve a wider range of routes, faced yet another delay until 2012.

In a press release available on Ryanair’s website, Chief Executive Michael O’Leary has said “While we recognise the right of the Government and people of Northern Ireland to subject this small runway extension to an extended planning process, these repeated delays, the reference to a public inquiry and now the further delay to the public inquiry for spurious noise reasons, shows a lack of willingness on the part of the local authorities to grow and develop traffic, routes, tourism and jobs in Northern Ireland.”

“We will of course continue to work with Brian Ambrose and his team at Belfast City Airport, and wish them continued success in securing the runway extension, but we are not prepared to continue to operate at Belfast City with restricted routes and loads because of repeated planning delays. I would like to personally thank Brian Ambrose and his team for their help and support in developing a successful route network there in recent years, which has seen Ryanair deliver more than 3m passengers over the past 3 years at Belfast City, whilst sustaining up to 50 direct and over 1,000 indirect jobs at the airport and local support services.”

At the moment Ryanair operate flights to London Stansted, East Midlands, Glasgow Prestwick, Liverpool and Bristol from Belfast.

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