Charge row brings flight to Liverpool
A ROW over rising airport charges at Manchester has led to an extra Ryanair flight for Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
The Irish carrier is angry over a "massive hike" in its airport charges at Manchester.
In protest it has reduced capacity on its Manchester to Dublin route and added an extra early morning flight on the Liverpool Dublin route.
In addition, Ryanair has raised charges on its Manchester-Dublin planes.
Ryanair's commercial director Michael Cawley said: "We are really disappointed at the small-mindedness of Manchester Airport management.
"Over several years Ryanair has supported the airport, often in difficult times. The increase in costs will result in a doubling of our charges, which is totally ridiculous."
Robin Tudor, Liverpool John Lennon Airport business services manager, welcomed the extra flight.
"It's tremendous for the business passengers who can now get into Dublin much earlier in the morning," he said.
"It's very good news for the airport. We work hard with the airlines to offer attractive charges to encourage them to put more business through here and that has clearly been successful in this case."
* Liverpool JL Airport handled a record 210,000 passengers last month which is 21% more that last November. And year-on-year passenger figures are 25% ahead with more than 2.6m customers using the airport. Bosses are confident more than 2.8m people will have passed through by the end of the year.