Ryanair will reopen nine routes from Billund Airport as part of a ‘summer traffic program’ next year, the aviation industry news service Check-in.dk reports.
The news follows a dramatic dispute between the airline and the Danish trade union LO that resulted in Ryanair closing its hub in Copenhagen and cancelling all of its existing routes from Billund with the exception of that to London Stansted.
READ MORE: Ryanair on the brink of closing its hub in Billund
Billund Airport had expected the cancellations to halve its annual passenger numbers from 700,000 to 350,000, but the re-openings next year are likely to mitigate this.
Jesper Klausholm, the head of marketing at Billund Airport, was surprised by the development.
“Considering that Ryanair announced it will be more or less pulling out, it’s a bit unexpected. But we will still be losing about 70,000 passengers in the winter months,” he said.
“We have a dialogue with Ryanair, but we don’t yet know precisely what will be flying. They have put some things up on their booking system that aren’t for sale yet.”
Lisa Cashin, a communications manager at Ryanair, said that we will have to wait for a confirmation of the airlines Billund plans for next year.
“We have yet to finalise our Billund summer 2016 schedule, which will be announced shortly,” she said.
