Low-cost carrier Ryanair will bolster operations at Venice Marco Polo airport for the upcoming winter season with plans to add a fourth aircraft and introduce 20 new routes, the airline announced this month.
The move represents an additional US$100 million investment in the carrier’s Venice base, which was established in October 2021, bringing the total investment in Italy’s Veneto region to $600 million, which includes two aircraft operating from regional Treviso Airport.
For the winter 2022/23 period, the carrier will operate 330 weekly flights from Venice Marco Polo to 27 destinations, including 20 new routes to cities such as Birmingham, Cologne, Dublin, Lanzarote, Lisbon, Madrid, Marseille and Vienna.
According to a joint statement by the carrier and SAVE Group, which manages airports in Venice and Treviso, the additional routes will “significantly strengthen” connectivity at the Venice hub, providing connections to 11 European countries.
Ryanair's director of route development, Ray Kelliher, said the carrier’s “rapid growth” will consolidate its position in the northern Italian region.
“Although other carriers have reduced their capacity by almost 50 per cent pre-Covid, the SAVE Group acted quickly and decisively to the advantage of the Veneto region, ensuring growth long-term by Ryanair… This winter we will operate more than 470 per cent compared to our pre-Covid capacity in Venice,” he said.
SAVE Group sales and marketing aviation director, Camillo Bozzolo, said the carrier’s latest investment will restore connectivity and create 120 new jobs.
"Ryanair's fourth aircraft arriving at Marco Polo will give a further boost to the resumption of traffic started in the current summer season,” he said.