Vigo airport could finally recover its international connections this year 2023. The “routes contest” of the City Council of Vigo, which has been talked about for many months now, became public last november and requested that an airline company take charge of a new route between the British city of London and the olive branch. would be the first international destination since the pandemicbecause in 2019 precisely this same route was eliminated, which has already been operated by Clickair, Vueling, Air Nostrum and Ryanair.
Since the publication of the public contract, several rumors have emerged, which were confirmed this Friday, January 13: Ryanairthe last company to operate this route in Peinador, is the the only one that has been submitted to the public tender who is looking for the “tourism promotion of the city of Vigo in the British tourism marketwith the aim of attracting tourists from these markets, linked to direct air connectivity with the city of London”. The new route, which is expected to start operating on April 1, it would have a frequency of two weekly flights in winter and three in summer, and will cost the Council 1.8 million euros.
If everything goes according to plan, the Peinador airport could be international again as early as Easter Thanks to the low cost irish, that, “except surprise”, will be the winner of the contract tourism promotion. Although the details of Ryanair’s offer are unknown at the moment, such as the offered seats or their prices, it is known that the proposal includes the advertising demanded by the mayor, Abel Caballero, in the announcement of the tender: the company will take care of sending newsletters to its clients, as well as to publish on social networks and carry out other promotional actions that seek to publicize Vigo as a tourist destination.
Four years without international routes
Peinador airport compete directly with the one from Lavacolla-Rosalía de Castroin Santiago, and that of Saa Carneiro, in Porto. Alvedro airport, in A Coruña, is perhaps the only one that does not exert such pressure on Vigo, both due to its proximity and the range of destinations. However, the competition exercised by the two international airports that the olive city is less than an hour and a half away has been on many occasions the culprit of the airlines did not choose to establish international destinations from Vigo.
This is how Ryanair itself recognized this medium last summer, assuring that They reinforced their commitment to Santiago “without ruling out” entering the contest of the Council of Vigo, which at that time was not yet a reality. Six months later, it seems that they have decided to bring the British back to the city, a route that already operated in 2019 and that brought 3,436 passengers to the city that year. In the absence of a few weeks to present the program of winter routes, the low cost It is already postulated as the one in charge of returning, four years later, the international routes to Peinador.
In addition to London, from Vigo airport it has also been possible to travel to cities such as Paris, which was the first destination outside of Spain, beginning with a first route Vigo-Valladolid-Orly in april 1993. It has also been possible to fly from Peinador to Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Rome, Edinburgh or Milanalthough due to the pandemic all routes had to be canceled and international destinations from Vigo have not been proposed again.
With this new contest, announced almost a year ago, the Concello intended to recover “London, a city in eastern or southern Germany or Holland, Brussels and Paris“, but for the moment it seems that only the connection with the United Kingdom will be established. At this moment, from Peinador you can fly to seven national destinations: Madrid, Bilbao, Valencia, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife North and Gran Canaria.
