Ryanair poised to expand Dublin services

Ryanair

will announce the launch of new routes from Dublin today as part of a significant expansion of its services from the Republic’s busiest airport.

The airline yesterday said it will boost the number of flights from London Stansted Airport to more than 700 a-week from 490 this winter in a move that will bring an extra two million passengers through the hub every year.

The company is set to announce details of an expansion of its existing Dublin services early today at a launch at which the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, is due to attend.

The planned expansion of its services from the airport will be significant and is expected to include details of new routes.

Relations between Ryanair and both the Dublin Airport Authority and Government thawed last year following the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan's axing of the €3 per passenger travel tax in October's budget. Within weeks of the announcement, Ryanair announced the introduction of eight new routes from Shannon and nine from Dublin.

300 new jobs
It also said that it planned to create 300 new jobs in the capital, half of which were a direct result of the Government's decision to drop the travel tax.

That announcement brought to 85 the number of routes that the airline operates from Dublin and today's expansion is likely to increase that number further.

1.3m passengers
The latest figures show that almost 1.3 million passengers passed through Dublin Airport in February, 8 per cent more than during the same month last year.

Meanwhile yesterday, the airline confirmed that it planned to increase flights between Cork and Stansted over the winter. The airline released its London Stansted winter schedule for 2014 showing that it plans to add eight new routes from there to destinations including Athens and Prague.

Ryanair chief executive, Michael O’Leary said that the airline would release 100,000 seats for sale for travel during April and May.