Travel

Ryanair reveals new England to Ireland route among 14 to be launched for winter schedule

RYANAIR has announced its Winter 2021 schedule for its three London airports - which features 14 new routes, including a Luton to Shannon flight.

The routes, which make us 142 new flights in total, will create 500 jobs at the Irish no-frills airline.

When they kick off in November they will connect travellers in London with the likes of Helsinki, Gran Canaria, Naples, Turin and Stockholm.

Announcing the flights, Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary said: “Ryanair is committed to re-building the London’s tourism industry, jobs and connectivity as we grow across Europe and recover air travel to pre-Covid levels.

“As Ryanair takes delivery of 55 Boeing 737-8200 ‘Gamechanger’ aircraft this Winter, we are delighted to announce these 14 new routes from our three London airports in Stansted, Luton and Gatwick.

“We will also create over 500 new jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers this winter at our London airports as we gear up for more fleet and route growth in S2022.”

He added: “As vaccinations rise and consumer confidence returns, Ryanair again calls on the UK Govt to scrap PCR tests for fully vaccinated arrivals and also to suspend APD (air passenger duty), to allow airlines and airports quickly recover connectivity, jobs and tourism in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.

“APD makes UK airports uncompetitive against lower cost EU airports, which is why Ryanair has added capacity at other EU airports in recent months in the likes of Zagreb, Stockholm, Billund and Riga.

"While Ryanair is committed to its London airports, the lack of Govt support for aviation and tourism recovery creates further barriers to traffic and growth.”

The Dublin headquartered airline saw its August traffic rise to 11.1million passengers, with the firm operating over 71,000 flights, constituting an 82 per cent load factor.

In August 2020 the airline reported traffic of just seven million, with a 73 per cent load factor.

They credit the rise in traffic to “EU Covid certificates stimulating recovery”.