Ryanair has cancelled bookings for passengers traveling from Billund Airport after April 1, 2024, vreating uncertainty about the future of 24 routes.
The airline’s decision to close its two-aircraft base at Billund is influenced by a new air travel tax introduced by the Danish government set for 2025.
A passenger who booked a flight from Billund to London Stansted is among those affected, receiving cancellation notifications via email.
Ryanair has not provided clarity on the situation despite inquiries, leaving passengers in doubt about the continuity of their flights from Billund this summer.
A written statement shared: Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Fri, 31 Jan) announced that it will close its 2 aircraft Billund base (a loss of $200m investment) and cut all routes to/from Aalborg from the end of March, in response to the Govt’s short-sighted decision to introduce an aviation tax of up to DKK 50 per departing passenger from Jan 2025, coupled with Billund’s failure to agree a competitive long-term agreement.
Denmark is one of the few EU countries that has yet to recover its pre-Covid traffic at just 95% of 2019 levels. This harmful aviation tax will further damage Denmark’s connectivity, tourism jobs and economy by making Denmark (particularly regional airports) hopelessly uncompetitive compared to competing EU countries like Sweden, Italy, and Hungary who are abolishing their aviation taxes to promote connectivity, traffic, jobs, and economic growth. In stark contrast, Denmark has bizarrely introduced an aviation tax, which has resulted in the loss of over 1.7m seats, 32 routes and 2 aircraft, as well as associated investment and jobs.
