Europe’s largest budget airline, Ryanair, has announced that at the end of October it will be pulling operations out of George Best Belfast City Airport. The move has been brought about by further delays being announced for runway expansion. The airline has been flying services from the airport since 2007.

Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive, said he was extremely disappointed that extensions to the runway at City Airport had never materialised. Ryanair’s decision to pull out will disappoint the 800,000 passengers-a-year it flies from Belfast, but is excellent news for local residents according to Belfast City Airport Watch spokeswoman, Liz Fawcett.

The campaigner said residents would be particularly pleased that the 6:30AM departure is to be no more. The news is not so good for the 50 people at Belfast City who will lose their jobs because of the decision. Ryanair has confirmed that all employees will be offered alternative positions at its operations elsewhere in the UK and Europe.

Mr O’Leary explained that rather than stay at Belfast and wait for permission to eventually be granted for a larger runway, it makes more sense to deploy the aircraft based at Belfast to other locations around Europe where there is better infrastructure, lower ground rents and cheaper facilities. He confirmed that if Belfast ever did manage to expand its existing runway, Ryanair would be back.

Belfast Airport admitted it was disappointed by Ryanair’s decision. However, business development director for the airport, Katy Best, said she was sure passenger demand was high enough to mean other airlines would come to fill the space left by Ryanair.