Ryanair to boost Stansted traffic by 50%

Ryanair has agreed a new 10-year growth plan with Stansted Airport which will see it increase the number of passengers it carries from the London airport by 50 per cent to over 20 million a year. This will account for up to 25 per cent of Ryanair's overall five year growth plans to 2019.

The low-cost airline’s expansion plan is the result of an agreement with the operators of Stansted, Manchester Airports Group (MAG) “for lower costs and more efficient facilities at Stansted”.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said that the agreement will create over 7,000 jobs and “ proves how UK airports can flourish when released from the dead hand of the BAA monopoly”.

Mr O’Leary added that the move is also “ the first dramatic initiative by MAG to reverse seven years of decline, during which Stansted’s traffic fell from 23.8 million to 17.5 million.”

Ken O’Toole, chief commercial officer with MAG, said that the deal shows that “competition really does work”.

Ryanair expects that its traffic at Stansted will grow to 14.5 million, up from 13.2 million, in the first year of the agreement, and its 2014 summer schedule will include four new routes: Bordeaux, Dortmund, Lisbon and Rabat. This brings the airline's total routes from Stansted up to 120 over 2,000 weekly flights, and the airport will be the base for many of the airline's newly purchased Boeing 737S.