Low-cost operator Ryanair, has introduced ten new services from its East Midlands base, increasing by five-fold the number of passengers carried from the airport in less than a year.
The new routes to Alghero, Bratislava, Granada, Inverness, Knock, Krakow, Milan, Pisa, Santiago and Valencia, make Ryanair the largest airline at East Midlands, with the carrier predicting it will accommodate 1.8m passengers during 2007.
”This expansion has been achieved through our $210m investment in three new aircraft,” said Ryanair sales and marketing manager, UK, Caroline Baldwin. ”Ryanair now has almost 25% of total traffic at East Midlands and these three aircraft will also create 150 new jobs.”
The East Midlands route news comes on the same day as Ryanair says it will receive ten new Boeing 737-800 aircraft during the next two months to service 50 routes, in a deal worth $700m.
”We will create 5,000 jobs across Europe as we expand our existing bases at Barcelona Girona, East Midlands, London Stansted and launch our second base in Bremen,” said Ryanair head of communications, Peter Sherrard.
”Ryanair”s no fuel surcharge guarantee is widening the gap between our low fares and the high prices of our fuel-surcharging competitors.”