Budget airline Ryanair is prepared to buy up ‘all the slots’ at Lelystad airport, ‘if the price is right’, commercial director David O’Brien has told the Telegraaf.

The government wants to turn Lelystad into a commercial airport for holiday traffic and charter airlines to relieve pressure on Schiphol. If the plan goes ahead, it will open to commercial airlines in 2018.

Ryanair could bring ‘two million passengers to Lelystad’, O’Brien told the paper.  The Irish airline currently operates one service to Dublin from Schiphol but to dozens of destinations from Eindhoven.

Schiphol director Jos Nijhuis told the Telegraaf he is pleased Ryanair is interested in Lelystad but that it will take years before capacity there is maximised.