Ryanair to launch nine new routes from Dublin from Apr-2014, to deliver additional 700,000 pax

Ryanair announced (14-Nov-2013) it will open nine new routes from Ireland's Dublin Airport from Apr-2014 as well as increase frequency on eight existing routes, which will deliver an additional 700,000 passengers p/a and support 700 new on-site jobs at Dublin Airport. This new capacity is the final part of the 1 million passenger growth that Ryanair promised to deliver at the main Irish airports as a direct result of the Government's decision to eliminate the EUR3 travel tax from Apr-2014. Ryanair's growth at Dublin from Apr-2014 will deliver, according to the LCC:

• New routes to Almeria (four times weekly), Bari (four times weekly), Basel (six times weekly), Bucharest (eight times weekly), Chania (four times weekly), Comiso (four times weekly), Lisbon (14 times weekly), Marrakesh (four times weekly), and Prague (10 times weekly);
• 85 Dublin routes in total;
• More frequency on the Birmingham (for six to eight times daily), Bristol (from four to six times daily), Edinburgh (from four to eight times daily), Glasgow Prestwick (from four to six times daily), London Stansted (from 16 to 18 times daily), Madrid (from 14 to 18 times weekly), Manchester (from eight to 10 times weekly) and Nice (from four to six times weekly) routes, from 300 to 400 weekly services;
• Over 700,000 new Ryanair passengers p/a at Dublin for a total of 8.25 million;
• One million new customers which will create over 1,000* jobs at Ireland's airports.

Ryanair also announced that it will create over 300 new direct jobs in Ireland in 2014, for pilots, cabin crew, customer service specialists and software developers as the airline rolls out an extensive programme of customer service and website improvements. These 300 new Ryanair jobs will be in addition to the 1000 indirect jobs that will be created at Dublin, Knock and Shannon airports to cater for the 1 million passenger growth which Ryanair will deliver from Apr-2014 following the scrapping of the travel tax. This will be achieved as follows:

• Dublin: 7.55 million passengers in 2013/2014, increasing to an estimated 8.24 million in 2014/2015 for growth of 700,000;
• Cork: Annual passengers of 865,000 in 2013/2014 and 2014/2015;
• Kerry: Annual passengers of 270,000 in 2013/2014 and 2014/2015;
• Knock: 500,000 passengers in 2013/2014, increasing by 80,000 annual passengers to 580,000 in 2014/2015;
• Shannon: 450,000 passengers in 2013/2014, increasing to 750,000 in 2014/2015 for an annual 300,00 increase;
• Total: From 9.635 million in 2013/2014 to 10.715 million in 2014/2014 for growth of 1.08 million.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said: "Ryanair is pleased to deliver 9 new Europe routes to/from Dublin and over 1m new passengers for Ireland (which will create over 1,000 new jobs at the Irish airports) in direct response to the Government's welcome initiative to scrap the €3 air travel tax from April 2014. A critical component of this growth will be 100 extra weekly flights into Dublin from Britain, which will reverse the recent tourism declines in UK visitors coming to Ireland. Ryanair's fares on these new Europe routes start from €29.99, which is half the price of Aer Lingus' lowest fares (€60) to Lisbon, Madrid, Nice and Prague. We are also proud to confirm that we will create over 300 new direct jobs in Ryanair in Ireland in 2014 to crew our new based aircraft and to help us roll out our very exciting growth plans, which will include significant improvements to the Ryanair.com website". daa's Kevin Toland said: "Daa is pleased by Ryanair's decision to accelerate its growth at Dublin Airport in response to the Government's decision on the air travel tax and the attractive suite of incentives we offer to airlines launching new services or increasing passenger numbers. This year represents the third successive year of growth at Dublin Airport on both short and long haul services, which is very positive for tourism and the overall economy, and today's announcement provides a strong platform for continuation of this trend." [more - original PR]