Ryanair targets 30m UK passengers this year

Ryanair is aiming to carry 30 million passengers in the UK this year as it steps up its campaign to lure business travellers away from rivals such as Easyjet.

Speaking after the airline announced new routes in Ireland and Britain yesterday, chief executive Michael O'Leary said the numbers of passengers flying with the low-cost carrier grew "very strongly" in June.

Ryanair is due to publish official traffic figures for the month.

In June last year, over 7.69 million people few with the airline.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs, said the airline intends to grow numbers in the UK, its biggest single market, by about 7 per cent to 30 million this year.

Glasgow

From next October, the company will fly three times a day from Dublin to a new base at Glasgow International Airport .

Ryanair said the new service will allow it to boost traffic on its routes between Dublin and the Scottish city to 300,000 passengers a year from 100,000.

It is dropping its existing service between the capital and Glasgow Prestwick. However, it will continue to fly from the west of Scotland airport, where it also has a maintenance facility, to seven European destinations.

British market

The airline is re-entering the British domestic market following an absence of three years.

In October it will launch new services connecting both Edinburgh and Glasgow with London Stansted, which Mr Jacobs said are specifically aimed at business travellers.

Overall, it expects to carry a total of 3.15 million passengers a year to and from the three Scottish airports.

The airline also expects its total Stansted traffic to increase to 15.7 million this year from 13 million in 2013.

Ryanair pulled out of the British domestic market in 2011 in a move that was partly prompted by the UK’s high travel tax, which comes to £13 sterling a head.

Mr Jacobs said the airline is lobbying the British government to drop the charge.