Ryanair had called on both the Belgian and Dutch governments to re-examine the impact their passenger tax would have on price sensitive passengers, highlighting that such a tax would severely impact tourism.

Ryanair had also recently called on the Irish government to re-examine its proposed E10 travel tax pointing out that Ryanair will reduce average fares by up to 20% this winter in order to keep passengers traveling.

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The airline's worldwide annual insurance policy covers travel for an unlimited number of trips (not exceeding 31 days) per year, with 24 days of winter sports cover.

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With the discontinuation of flights the regional economy also looses substantial tourism revenue. Michael Cawley, Ryanair's COO: "A year ago we we were negotiating with MAA to expand our offer to 10 destinations which would have given the region at least 150.000 additional tourists. These negotiations were stopped due to the ecotax. According to the Dutch tourism agency NBTC the average tourist spends over

*330 per visit. The sum than is really quite simple: 150.000 x

* 330 =

* 49,5 million in missed tourism revenue. Considering this is only the result of Ryanair's decision not to expand at Maastrichtwhile many other airlines are withholding oreven terminating services as a direct result of the Dutch tax, it is obvious that the ministry of financial affairs is causing harm to the Dutch economy. The tourism and restaurant and hotel sectorin particular are being harmed, which are industries volatile to the economy. During these times people are opting forRyanair's guaranteed lowest fares and The Netherlands is not benefiting from Ryanair's growth due to the tax.".

Sander Heijmansadds: "It is incomprehensible that the tax remains standing when it is obvious it is causing unnecessary harm to the Dutch aviation and tourism trade. People simply drive to airports abroad to start their journey there. So besides harm to the economy there is no benefit to the environment at all. We will continue to fight the tax at the Dutch High Court and Ryanair will remain involved in this. It is obvious that when transfer passengers are exempted from the tax while they share the same aircraft with passengers who do have to pay the "environment" tax, environmental reasons cannot be the motivation forthe tax. It is time the Ministry of Financial Affairs realises this and stops the harm they are causing".

A decision regarding the continuation of the routes during the 2009 summer season is expected in the next weeks.

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The new services will be: a three times weekly service to Barcelona's Reus Airport, a three times weekly service to Bratislava and a twice weekly service to Trieste.

According to Ryanair, its decision to increase services from Brussels is a result of the Belgian government cancelling plans for a proposed EUR10 tax on airline passengers.

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