Ryanair to base fourth aircraft at Shannon adding routes to Madrid and Lapland

New routes coming to the MidWest in winter

At the announcement of fourth Ryanair aircraft to be based at Shannon this winter were Ray Kelliher, Ryanair director of route development and commercial finance Ryanair; Santa Claus; Shannon Airport Group chief Mary Considine; Jason McGuinness, Ryanair chief commercial officer; Mariana Almagaro and Maciek Gladys, Ryanair crew; Ray O'Driscoll, Shannon deputy chief executive, and chief commercial officer; Lara Pereira, Ryanair crew, and Turlough O'Neill, Ryanair base captain at Shannon. Picture: Arthur Ellis

Ryanair announced on Wednesday it will add a fourth aircraft at Shannon Airport this winter, described as a ‘gamechanger’ for the region, adding 100,000 passengers.

The announcement will see three new routes this winter to Lapland, Madeira and Madrid, in addition to extra flights on six existing routes - Alicante, Edinburgh, Kraków, Lanzarote, Manchester, and Wrocław - for Winter 25/26.

The announcement will help to deliver 20% traffic growth to Shannon.

“This expansion offers even greater choice for our passengers and strengthens Shannon's position as a key gateway to and from the West of Ireland. Ryanair's investment is a powerful endorsement of the potential of Shannon, a vote of confidence in the market here, and a testament to the progress we've made growing passenger numbers,” said Shannon Airport Group chief executive Mary Considine. “We see a huge potential for growth and believe there is a real opportunity for Shannon Airport to lead the way in rebalancing the national landscape."

Ryanair's chief commercial officer Jason McGuinness said the company is investing €350m in the region.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, he said: “We’ve been here at Shannon Airport for 36 years. There’s an ambitious management team here that understands the competition they face against the 40 countries and 240 airports that Ryanair operates across Europe.

“We are probably one of the biggest single investors in regional Ireland at the moment. We’ve doubled the amount of seats we’re offering across regional Irish airports and we have doubled the number of passengers we have in Shannon from 800,000 to 1.6m.” 

Passenger numbers at Shannon Airport reached a 15-year high in 2024, surpassing 2.1m in the 12 months. The addition of a fourth aircraft will mean it will have one more than Cork Airport, which last year reported 3.1m passengers. Asked if Ryanair will also seek to increase its fleet in Cork Airport, Mr McGuinness said: “I would hope so. We are very committed to regional Irish airports. We have three aircraft based in Cork this winter, but I would hope that could increase. I’m happy to talk to anyone of our 240 airports across Europe.” 

“Both airports can grow and we can add more routes to both, but we have never been shy in saying that we allocate capacity wherever costs are best and where we can get the best long-term deals. If the DAA want to come up with something better in terms of its cost base for Cork, we’re very happy to talk to them.” “In terms of our plan to grow from 20m passengers to 30m, the majority of that growth, around 60%, was actually in regional airports, predominantly in Cork and Shannon.” The added aircraft for the 2025 Shannon Airport winter season will result in an additional $100m investment by Ryanair, which Mr McGuinness said is already investing heavily in the region.

“There will be a direct extra 30 jobs spanning across pilots and cabin crew, as well as additional in maintenance and in engineering. We’re also likely to be announcing more maintenance jobs in Shannon over the next few months.” 

Mary Considine, CEO of the Shannon Airport Group told the Irish Examiner: “This is a massive vote of confidence for us. The more aircraft we have here, the more frequency and services Ryanair can offer. In addition to increased frequencies for our six most popular routes, they have also been able to announce three new routes for the winter.”