Ryanair Announces New Routes From Belfast

Ryanair has announced seven new routes from Belfast International Airport as part of its winter 2016 schedule. The new routes are to Alicante, Berlin, Krakow, Lanzarote, Malaga, Milan and Tenerife, while the airline also announced an additional five daily flights to London Gatwick.

The company's Belfast winter 2016 schedule will deliver three based aircraft and seven new routes to Alicante (3 weekly), Berlin (3 weekly), Krakow (3 weekly), Lanzarote (2 weekly), Malaga (4 weekly), Milan (2 weekly) & Tenerife (2 weekly).

Making the announcement in Belfast, Michael O'Leary, Ryanair, said: "We are pleased to launch our Belfast winter 2016 schedule, which grows to 3 based aircraft, 7 new routes to Alicante, Berlin, Krakow, Lanzarote, Malaga, Milan and Tenerife, as well as extra flights to London Gatwick (5 x daily), and will deliver over 1m customers p.a. and support 750 jobs at our Belfast International base.

"Our 5 times daily London Gatwick service will be perfect for both business and leisure customers and we look forward to growing routes, traffic and jobs in Belfast in the coming months and years.

"This large inward investment (over $300m) and new job creation is the latest example of how Northern Ireland benefits from the UK's membership of the European Union. Low fare air travel, which was pioneered by Ryanair in the UK and Europe, is one of the EU's great success stories."

Ulster Unionist Party South Antrim representative Danny Kinahan MP said: "This is tremendous news for South Antrim and Northern Ireland. There are so many benefits to come from the addition of these routes in terms of business and tourism. I particularly welcome the opening up of the lucrative German and Italian domestic tourism markets. The routes to the Med and Poland will bring obvious benefits to tourism for visitors and locals alike. In the case of Berlin and Milan we are linking our capital to two of the economic and creative power-houses of mainland Europe. Imagine the investment we could attract with these routes if we had an enterprise zone in South Antrim.

"This also provides another opportunity to raise the issue of the imposition of Air Passenger Duty on short-haul flights. As I have said previously, Belfast International Airport is doing a sterling job in attracting airlines and bringing new routes to Northern Ireland and they are managing to do this in spite of a self-defeating tax. The destinations announced today are a really positive sign of what is to come and an outward sign of the excellent work done by all at Belfast International. However I can't help but think that we would be having many more of these announcements if APD were scrapped altogether. I look forward to seeing the benefits of the addition of these destinations over the coming months and years.”

(JP)