Beautiful island nicknamed Europe’s Hawaii loses 100,000 tourists after Ryanair scraps all flights
AN island in Europe has already lost thousands of tourists after Ryanair axed all flights there earlier this year.
The budget airline previously operated flights to the Azores in Portugal, having launched in 2015.
However, they confirmed last year that they would be scrapping them all with the last flight taking place on March 28.
The cancellations were due to airport fees, Ryanair said, as well as environment taxes in Europe.
The removal of Ryanair flights – which also included a number of routes from the UK – has left just British Airways operating flights, along with European airlines TAP and Azores Airlines.
Most of these operate from mainland Portugal.
And new figures have found that the loss of Ryanair passengers has seen a drop in tourists of 100,000 already.
According to the Regional Statistics Service of the Azores (SREA), passengers arriving at the island airport dropped by 103,766 between April and August.
And there are fears this could increase even more, with projections of up to “391,000 overnight stays” lost a year.
Brits wanting to fly to the island from the UK can now only fly with British Airways, which runes flights from London Heathrow between April and October.
Otherwise alternative routes are to fly to Portugal with a connecting flight from Lisbon or Faro.