RYANAIR Europe's largest low-fares airline has announced the introduction of 18 new routes from Dublin as the final part of its Summer 2006 schedule. Selecting Dublin Airport as its effective 16th European base has allowed Ryanair to open-up these new routes to Continental Europe. Until now, Ryanair, Ireland's largest airline, has largely confined its operations out of Dublin Airport to UK routes.
>From April 2006, five new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft will be based in Dublin and, it is hoped, will generate over 250 direct Ryanair jobs at Dublin Airport.
These new aircraft are to be based at the new temporary boarding facility which will be available at Dublin Airport from the end of May, 2006.
Following the completion of the new Pier D facility in 2007, these aircraft and routes will switch operations to there.
The frequency of flights will also increase on eight Dublin to Europe routes allowing Ryanair to increase it's passenger capacity on these routes from 35m to 40m passengers per annum.
The new routes from Dublin include: Marseille, Nantes and La Rochelle, France; Baden (Stuttgart) and Hamburg, Germany; Milan and Venice, Italy; Gothenburg and Malmo, Sweden; Valencia, Spain; Porto, Portugal; Salzburg, Austria; Bratislava, Slovakia; Kaunas, Lithuania; Humberside, UK. As well as the new services the frequency of flights will increase on routes out of Dublin to: Barcelona, Faro, Cardiff, Malaga, Carcassonne, Biarrritz and Lodz.
The announcement of the new routes may well come as a serious snub to Aer Lingus the airline that many still consider to be Ireland's national carrier.
Going head-to-head with Aer Lingus, Ryanair said that the new routes will afford Irish consumers and visitors the opportunity of travelling between Ireland and Europe at low fares which are half the price of Aer Lingus's tickets and with frequencies that are, in most cases, greater than the frequencies offered by Aer Lingus.
Speaking at the announcement of the new routes Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary said: "Irish consumers can now look forward to
high-frequency, low-fare access to a wide network of destinations direct from Dublin to Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
"Ryanair will continue to offer Irish consumers and visitors substantially lower fares from Dublin to Europe than the high fare services presently operated by Aer Lingus. These new routes from Dublin to Europe mean that Ryanair's operations at Dublin Airport will become substantially larger than Aer Lingus.
"Ryanair will carry over 7m passengers on 52 routes from Dublin next year compared to Aer Lingus's less than 6m passengers on just 43 year round routes. Ryanair's average fare of 39 euro is less than half Aer Lingus's average European fare of 80 euro.
"Ryanair now offers more routes and services than Aer Lingus to both the UK and now Continental Europe.
"Ryanair is now twice the size and just half the price of Aer Lingus here in Ireland, and has long since displaced any claims Aer Lingus might have had to being Ireland's national airline. Aer Lingus's only remaining title is that of Ireland's "highest fare" airline.
"Aer Lingus can't compete with Ryanair's prices, they can't match our pnctuality, and now they can't match our route network from Dublin to theUK or Europe".
"This is a momentous day for Ryanair, the Dublin Airport Authority and Irishtourism. The five new aircraft to be based in Dublin represent an investment of over $300m. The 18 new routes from Dublin to Europe, together with theadditional flights on seven existing routes will mean an additional 1.5mpassengers per annum at Dublin Airport, over one million of which will be
inbound visitors for Irish tourism," said Mr O'Leary.
The Dublin Airport Authority welcomed the announcement saying that the bsing of five new aircraft in Dublin will further enhance the existing
broad range of scheduled routes and destinations available to passengers atDublin Airport as well as underlining the critical importance of deliveringthe airport's planned new terminal, pier and airfield capacity.