Ryanair launches Belfast flights to sunspots, but says EU-wide vaccine passport is 'unrealistic'

Airline returns to the airport it exited 10 years ago with eight new summer routes from Northern Ireland to sunshine destinations

Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson poured cold water on the prospects that the EU will have rolled out a full Europe-wide vaccines passport by the holiday season. Picture: Denis Minihane

Ryanair has hugely expanded its plans for summer flights out of Belfast to Spain and other sunspots, pointedly citing the fast pace of the rollout of vaccines in the North, but the chief of the Irish airline believes the EU won't have readied a vaccines passport any time soon.

The airline said it will launch eight new summer routes from June out of Belfast City Airport, marking a return to the city airport it had exited over 10 years ago. The flights are a mixture of daily, weekday, and twice-weekly services to the Spanish destinations of Alicante, Barcelona, Ibiza, Malaga, Mallorca, and Valencia, as well as flights to Milan and Bergamo in Italy, and Faro in Portugal.