Airline ends speculation over its EMA future as it unveils 31 destinations for summer 2022
RYANAIR has announced its Summer 2022 schedule from East Midlands Airport, and will be operating more than 130 weekly flights to and from 31 European destinations from April.
It follows concerns over the budget airline’s future at the airport with potential customers finding they could only schedule flights with the airline from EMA for a very limited number of destinations.
Summer holidays can now be booked to European hotspots such as Alicante, Barcelona, Lanzarote, Malaga, Mallorca, Rhodes and Tenerife.
Ryanair’s commercial director, Jason McGuinness, said: “We are pleased to extend our partnership with East Midlands Airport and announce our summer 2022 schedule, connecting UK families to a host of European hotspots for their much deserved summer 2022 holiday.
“Ryanair remains committed to rebuilding Europe’s aviation and tourism industries by restoring connectivity and growing our network of passengers to over 225 million per annum by 2026.
“We are delighted to have extended our long-term partnership with East Midlands, Manchester and Stansted airports, who will now all benefit from Ryanair’s delivery of 210 Boeing “gamechanger” aircraft.
“Our customers can now book a summer getaway to the likes of Alicante, Chania, Lanzarote, Malaga, Mallorca, Rome, Tenerife and many more on amazing low fares.”
In his budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a cut to airport duty (APD) on flights within the UK from 2023 but Mr McGuinness said that would not be soon enough to help restart the tourism industry after the pandemic.
He said: “While Ryanair welcomes the UK government’s decision to reduce domestic APD from summer 2023, it is neither sufficient nor timely enough to kickstart the UK’s tourism recovery, particularly for summer 2022.
“Unfortunately, this delay will only damage the airline industry’s ability to rapidly rebuild connectivity, jobs and tourism.
“Ryanair calls on the UK government to immediately abolish APD for all travel, which would give both tourism and domestic UK connectivity a much-needed boost for this winter and next summer.”