Budget airline Ryanair has slammed Cornwall County Council over the temporary closure of Newquay Airport and has cancelled all Christmas and New Year flights.

chaos has been caused for thousands of passengers after council bosses failed to meet the handover date agreed with the Ministry of Defence because of problems over its licence.

The Irish no-frills carrier blamed delays involving the new ownership of the airport for its decision to cease all flights to and from Newquay from December 1.

It had been agreed that Cornwall County Council would take over the airfield from RAF St Mawgan.

The handover was supposed to take place on Monday but the airport cannot operate without a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) licence, which means the airfield will be closed until December 19, when it is hoped the new traffic control tower will be ready.

Ryanair, which flies from Newquay to Stansted and to Girona and Alicante in Spain, said it had been told the airport would close from Sunday until at least December 19.

Farce

The airline said it had no confidence in the county council making the expected reopening date and it would not relaunch services until the council had 'proved the airport had reopened'.

Ryanair's spokesman Stephen McNamara added: 'The situation at Newquay has descended into farce. It is simply unacceptable that Ryanair and its passengers are given just four days' notice of the closure of Newquay Airport for the month of December.

'We will now have to contact thousands of passengers over the coming days (many of whom will be abroad and will be unable to travel back to Newquay) and tell them that the airport has been closed due to the incompetence of Cornwall County Council and the unwillingness of the RAF to keep the airport open for a couple of weeks.'

An MoD spokesperson said: 'The MoD has planned to vacate the airfield on December 1 in accordance with our agreement with Newquay Cornwall Airport. 

'We regret that we have not been able to agree to the request to extend our support to the airport, this is because the RAF personnel who are employed at the airfield are required for operational posts elsewhere.'