Ryanair's plan to help Scottish tourism

Ryanair announced today that it had made a proposal to Scotland's Finance Minister John Swinney whereby it would help the country achieve it's targeted growth in tourist numbers of 50% between now and 2015. Citing the precedent of a route development support program which operated from 2002 to 2007 Ryanair says that it will grow passenger numbers and reverse the downward trend in passengers arising from the £10 APD passenger tax. In the first 8 months of this year passenger numbers at Scotland's airports fell by 6.3% YoY to 15m whilst in the same time frame those at Ryanair grew 12% to 43m. In the event of the route support program being implemented Ryanair has pledged to add an additional 1.5m passengers per annum which would have the knock on effect of creating 1,500 jobs. The APD tax is due to increase to £11 on November 1st next.