ALBAWABA — Irish airline Ryanair on Wednesday announced it will close its Brussels Zaventem base to protest the operator's price increases.
Ryanair criticized the airport's decision "to jack up prices yet again... making it even more uncompetitive compared to other Belgian and European Union airports", especially at a time when most E.U. airports are reducing prices to recover traffic lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Despite recent rumors, we will not be reopening our Brussels Zaventem base in summer 2023 due to Zaventem Airport's decision to increase prices by 11 percent for airlines and passengers from April 2023," the airline's chief executive Michael O'Leary said in a statement.
Europe's largest budget airline said flights to 12 destinations from Zaventem will continue on aircraft that are not based there.
Ryanair's decision will have a limited impact, Zaventem management said, noting that the airport was forced to raise costs after "the sharp rise in energy prices" and "very high inflation".
Ryanair also operates 17 airplanes out of Belgium's South Charleroi Airport which it said would be unaffected by its Zaventem decision.
The airline's share price rose 16 percent since the start of the year after it reported last week on sales over the Christmas holiday season.
