Irish low-cost airline Ryanair has announced that it has reached a deal with national airport authority ANA to keep its base at Faro Airport open.
The closure of the base was announced in August and saw tourism authorities in the region scrambling to make sure that the airport maintained all the routes managed by the airline.
But in an unexpected turn of events, the airline sent out a statement to newsrooms today (Wednesday) saying that the base will not close although the number of planes stationed at Faro Airport will be reduced from three to two.
Around 80 people could still lose their jobs, however. Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary says in the statement that the number could be reduced to 50 if some of the employees are willing to fill the airline’s vacancies at other bases around Europe.
He also explained that the decision to keep the base open was only possible as employees agreed to new “seasonal contracts” to reflect the “seasonal nature of air traffic to and from the Algarve”.
Ryanair’s Faro base was inaugurated on March 2010, just two months after the airline launched its first base in Portugal in Porto.
