RYANAIR has introduced a giant enlargement of its operation at Bournemouth Airport, with a second plane to be primarily based on the website and new locations added for summer season.
The funds airline mentioned it will likely be flying to Carcassonne in France twice per week subsequent summer season, to Edinburgh 4 occasions per week and Venice twice per week.
Ryanair chief government Eddie Wilson flew into the Hurn website to announce the enlargement.
He mentioned the airline was delivering “excellent news and Christmas cheer.”
He mentioned: “It’s an additional plane coming right here. We’ll have extra frequencies on 4 different routes, 120 weekly flights and the spin-off in jobs.”
He mentioned Ryanair was projecting it might carry 700,000 passengers from Bournemouth within the monetary 12 months 2023-24.
“We’re main the UK’s post-Covid restoration,” he mentioned.
“Bournemouth goes to have its largest ever summer season schedule, second primarily based plane, extra jobs for pilots and cabin crew primarily based right here domestically,” he mentioned.
Bournemouth Airport managing director Steve Gill mentioned: “We see mutual alternatives in working with Europe’s primary airline and we’re completely delighted for this announcement right now to see a big progress for this airline on this area.”
He added: “It’s a unbelievable Christmas current for us and for the area.”
He mentioned the airport was heading in the right direction to have recovered 95 per cent of its pre-pandemic passenger numbers by the tip of this 12 months and to have served 800,000 passengers.
Ryanair can be operating 30 per cent extra weekly flights subsequent summer season than in 2022, he mentioned.
Requested whether or not plans to increase the runway at Southampton Airport might tempt Ryanair to direct a few of its flights, there Mr Wilson mentioned: “Whenever you’ve bought a longtime enterprise and a longtime partnership and a longtime passenger base, you don’t transfer that – we have a tendency not to try this until the connection modifications when it comes to value.
“We simply did an announcement this morning in Bristol, an additional plane right here right now in Bournemouth and we’ve introduced numerous routes into Newquay. There’s loads of room for enlargement, significantly in case you’ve bought great-value low fares, so Southampton isn’t prime of our record of what we’d or won’t do.
“We’ve bought 234 airports. We’ve sufficient on our plate in the meanwhile.”
