Ryanair announces plan to add 40 winter routes

A DEFIANT Ryanair is adding 40 new routes this winter — saying turbulent times for the industry will not halt its expansion plans.

London Luton was the big winner — with Ryanair adding six routes there.

Stansted was handed just one new route, while Dublin was ignored.

The airline is expected to announce plans to ground 20 aircraft for the winter, mainly at Stansted and Dublin — three times more than it grounded last winter. The airline is blaming high charges at these airports for its decision.

The new routes announced yesterday include six from London Luton to Beziers, Derry, Kaunas, Rzeszow, Szczecin (Poland) and Trapani (Sicily) and one from London Stansted to Madrid. This brings the number of routes Ryanair operates from Luton to 19.

The other routes are from Bristol to Gdansk, Marrakesh and Szczecin, from Birmingham to Frankfurt and from Manchester to Brussels.

Aircraft already owned by Ryanair will be used for the operation of these routes.

Ryanair’s Bridget Dowling said: “While other airlines are busy increasing fuel surcharges, Ryanair is busy guaranteeing the lowest fares and no fuel surcharges ever on 40 new European routes.

“Passengers at 12 European bases are set to benefit from our biggest ever single expansion, and these 40 new routes will ensure passenger savings of £150m (€189m) compared to the high fares levied by Europe’s fuel surcharging flag carriers.”

Davy analyst Stephen Furlong expects Ryanair to increase its number of aircraft from 163 to 195 by the end of next year.

“Ryanair has indicated that it will ground at least 20 aircraft this winter — approximately 10% of the fleet mainly at Stansted and Dublin. As such, capacity growth should be around 17% for FY2009 versus the 20% previously indicated,” he said.

Ryanair, which reported a 20% rise in annual adjusted after-tax profit expects passenger growth for the year to the end of March 2009 to increase 17% to €59 million.