A BUDGET airline has pulled its final route from one of the region’s airports only months after threatening to withdraw because of a controversial new charge.

Ryanair will no longer offer its summer route from Durham Tees Valley (DTV) Airport to the Spanish holiday destination of Alicante.

In November, Ryanair said it was considering withdrawing its services from the airport after a £6 passenger surcharge was introduced in a bid to save the loss-making airport from closure.

A company spokesman confirmed Ryanair would not operate from DTV this year but could not give any specific reason for its departure.

It is believed that a number of reasons have been behind the Irish low-cost airline’s decision and that the route was no longer viable.

An airport spokesman said Ryanair had decided to pull out before the new passenger surcharge was introduced in November.

He said he believed the reason was because of the air passenger excise duty which passengers flying from UK airports are charged.

The route was Ryanair’s last remaining flight from DTV following its withdrawal of services to Dublin and Barcelona Girona.

Airport spokesman Robin Tudor said its operator, Peel Airports, was in constant talks with Ryanair because it ran services from the group’s two other airports.

He said discussions were ongoing to attract replacement services but did not expect anything this summer, although he pointed out that Thomson would still be flying the same route to Alicante.

Mr Tudor said the airport would continue to lobby the Government to remove air passenger excise duty because it made airlines look abroad first.

He said: “The impact of Ryanair pulling out on the airport is not great because it was just one flight a week, although we never like to lose any business.

“We want to see more business and we are trying hard to claw it back.

“Ryanair is a very good airline and we would like to see them or others of the same ilk come to the airport.

“It is going to be a difficult winter period but we remain optimistic about the airport going forward.”

Mr Tudor did not have passenger figures for all of last year but said they were as airport bosses expected.

He added the passenger facility fee prompted an initial negative reaction but few passengers still made an issue of it and did not believe it had impacted on numbers.

Eastern Airways has also previously expressed concerns about the surcharge.

Yesterday, a KLM spokesman said the airline, which runs three flights a day to international hub Schiphol, in Amsterdam, said it would monitor the issue.

The spokesman said: “KLM does not support this additional fee and will be closely monitoring the situation to see what effect it has on bookings and passenger numbers from the region.”