Irish budget carrier Ryanair has announced plans to expand its network from Luton and Stansted airports in London this summer with an additional 26 new seasonal and year-round routes set to be introduced and which are expected to deliver a total of 1.5 million additional passengers to the facilities. The airline is marketing the new flights as the opportunity for “besieged Londoners” to escape the UK capital during this summer’s Olympic Games: the airline says sales for the Olympic fortnight (July 27 – August 12) are actually up 28 per cent on last year.
At London Stansted Ryanair will add 21 new routes including year-round flights to Barcelona Girona, Barcelona Reus, Berlin, Budapest, Jerez, Malta, Toulon, Warsaw and Zadar. These will be supplemented by summer seasonal services to Almeria, Corfu, Crete, Chania, Ibiza, Kos, Paphos, Patras Araxos, Perpignan, Pula, Rhodes, Rijeka and Turku, although some of the latter routes could become winter destinations in the future, subject to their performance and expected demand. Meanwhile, from London Luton Ryanair will add new services to Barcelona Girona, Barcelona Reus and Murcia as well as seasonal links to Alghero and Trapani.
Speaking at a press conference in London this week to promote the new services, the typically outspoken Michael O’Leary, Chief Executive Officer, Ryanair played down the network growth describing it as “more muted growth” than compared with other markets due to the taxation issues in the UK. Once again he called on the UK government to scrap its Air Passenger Duty (APD) on short-haul flights claiming it as the reason for the fall in Ryanair UK traffic from 35 million passengers in 2007 to the 28 million figure expected this year.
Related Content
