Ryanair has announced a new London-Belfast route due to start in the upcoming Winter 2023/’24 schedule.
In all, Ryanair has announced 7 new routes as part of an expansion in London. That expansion will also see it base 2 new planes at its London Stansted base.
The airline will now operate 162 routes in and out of London, with increased frequency on 30 of them. Its London traffic will also grow to more than 27 million passengers on the back of this latest move.
Speaking in London, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:
“Ryanair is pleased to add 7 new routes this winter from London to Belfast, Basel, Poprad, Ouarzazate, Tirana, Treviso and Vigo, as well as increased frequencies on another 30 Winter sun and city break routes. To support this growing Winter schedule, we have based 2 new aircraft at Stansted, bringing our total London-based fleet to 50 aircraft (a $5bn investment) and creating over 60 new high pay jobs.
“Ryanair is the UK’s number 1 airline, and while we continue to grow and provide unbeatable route choice and low fares to our 52 million per annum UK customers, NATS are busy writing “whitewash” reports to cover up their inexplicable incompetence which led to the cancellation of over 2,000 flights (over 360,000 passengers) and long delays to more than 5,000 flights (900,000 passengers) on Monday 28/Tuesday 29 August last.“
Earlier this week, Ryanair said it was making cuts to its Autumn/Winter flight schedule out of Dublin and other European cities due to a delay in the delivery of a new plane order from Boeing.
Meanwhile, Ryanair has also boosted its board of directors by adding French citizen Bertrand Grabowski as a non-executive member.
Mr Grabowski has had a long career in investment banking and aviation. He is currently an aviation consultant – with a particular expertise in aviation finance – and is a non-executive director of Jazeera Airways in Kuwait.
Ryanair’s Chairman Stan McCarthy said:
“We are pleased that Bertrand Grabowski has accepted our invitation to join the Board of Ryanair Holdings plc from 1 October 2023. Bertrand has considerable experience and skills in the field of aviation finance, coupled with a detailed knowledge of global aviation, and will, we believe, make a significant contribution to both our Board and our Audit Committee. We look forward to working with him to achieve Ryanair’s exciting and ambitious goals over the coming decade of Ryanair growth.”
