More competition on 3 important European routes

LOW-COST carrier Ryanair yesterday announced it will go head to head with Aer Lingus on three European routes.

In the process, it will bring another million new passengers through Dublin Airport.

As a consequence, Ryanair will handle 10 million passengers next year and account for 40% of Dublin Airport traffic.

Meanwhile, it is unlikely Ryanair will be able to cater for passengers affected by the threatened 48-hour strike by Aer Lingus pilots next week.

Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley said: “Next week we are very full, obviously, as you would expect during this peak period.

“On the specific days, we would be running well over 90% full. Our own passengers are vitally important to us but we’re happy to fill every seat. But, at this time of year, there are very few empty seats.”

In this expansion, Ryanair will add two new Boeing aircraft to its Dublin-based current fleet of 22 to cater for the six new routes and an increase in the frequency of 12 existing British and Europe routes.

Mr Cawley said the planned €104 million investment would sustain an additional 1,000 new jobs.

The new routes will serve Prague, Nice, Budapest, Basel and the Polish cities of Katowice and Szczecin.

Aer Lingus also serves Basel and the two Polish cities. Ryanair will now be serving a total of 10 Polish destinations from Dublin.

Referring to the Aer Lingus shift to Belfast, Mr Cawley said Ryanair was worried about security of access to Ireland because “of the behaviour of Aer Lingus abandoning part of the country to go for more profit elsewhere”, and hence was opening up the new routes.