Biggest ever schedule Ryanair expands its city operation with six new routes
BUDGET airline Ryanair has announced six new routes from Bristol Airport for the summer. The carrier, which has five aircraft based at the transport hub, now flies to 36 destinations from the city. Ryanair said its schedule of flight routes from Bristol for 2024 was its “biggest ever”.
The new locations are to Copenhagen, in Denmark; Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands; Marrakesh, in Morocco; Prague, in the Czech Republic; Sofia, in Bulgaria; and Tirana, in Albania.
According to Ryanair, it has invested $500m in Bristol, supporting more than 1,400 regional jobs, including 150 pilot, cabin crew and engineer roles It said its passenger numbers from Bristol had also grown to 2.1 million a year.
Ryanair’s head of communications
Jade Kirwan said: “We’re delighted to officially launch Ryanair’s biggest ever schedule for Bristol this summer with 36 routes.
“Our first summer 24 flights to Copenhagen, Marrakesh, Sofia, and Tirana took off just last week, performing phenomenally well, and we look forward to carrying more passengers onboard our first flights to Fuerteventura and Prague when they commence this July.”
Two of Ryanair’s aircraft at Bristol Airport are Boeing 737 Gamechanger planes – new hightech jets which the budget carrier said reduced CO2 emission by 16% and noise emissions by 40%. Bristol Airport’s chief executive Dave Lees said: “We very much welcome the deployment of the more efficient ‘Gamechanger’ aircraft from Bristol Airport and look forward to working with Ryanair on developing their route network and ensuring the increased use of quieter aircraft and more environmentally efficient operations in the future.”
Mr Lees said the airport was also “delighted” with Ryanair increasing its 2024 flight programme. He added: “It is a clear demonstration of confidence in the region for air travel. Expanding Ryanair’s route network and adding new routes including to Tirana, Albania, offers customers a wider choice of destinations and flexibility of stay lengths, without the need to travel to other airports for their flights.”
Ryanair operates some 615 routes to and from Britain ever year on its fleet of 118 UK-based aircraft.