Ryanair has announced expansion plans in the Italian market following the collapse of no-frills Italian airline Volare this week. Ryanair's Deputy Chief Executive, Michael Cawley unveiled the plans at a press conference in Milan today.
Ryanair is launching a new service from Paris (Beauvais) to Venice (Treviso), the airline's 65th international route to and from Italy. Ryanair now flies on nine of the eleven international routes previously flown by Volare from Italy to other EU destinations.
As part of its expansion plan, Ryanair has invited all of the Italian airports affected by the collapse of Volare to meetings in Milan on Wednesday and Thursday of this week to discuss the possibility of Ryanair operating flights within Italy on those routes that were previously operated by Volare.
Ryanair have offered free flights to passangers already booked on Volare flights over the period from 1st December to March 17th next. However, passengers will still have to pay government taxes and airport charges for each of the relevant routes.
Announcing details of the package, Ryanair's Deputy Chief Executive, Michael Cawley said:
"Even before the collapse of Volare, Ryanair was already Italy's second largest and lowest fares airline. Our comprehensive network of international routes to and from Italy with the addition of this new Venice-Paris service means that we can offer all international passengers stranded by Volare a flight on a similar international route.
Meanwhile, Italian prosecutors probing possible false accounting at Volare are set to question the grounded airline's managers, including those who left this year to set up rival Myair.com, the chief investigating magistrate said.
Volare , which runs Italy's best known no-frills airline, is seeking insolvency status, having last week suspended all flights in a move that shocked its 1,400 employees and left thousands of passengers stranded.