Ryanair announces new routes from Ireland

Ryanair has announced its 31st new route from Shannon to Alicante and three new routes from Dublin to Palma, Santander and Zadar (Croatia), all of which start in March 2008. This will bring the number of Ryanair routes from Dublin to 83, and from Shannon to 31. Ryanair will carry over 13 million passengers on 135 Irish routes next year. No other airline carries as many passengers or offers as many routes to/from Ireland.

Speaking in Limerick today, Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

"Ryanair’s low fares are delivering record growth for Irish Tourism on 135 routes from 7 Irish airports. At a time when Aer Lingus is abandoning regional Irish airports and pulling routes such as Heathrow - Shannon and Poznan, Newcastle and Seville from Dublin, Ryanair will open 18 new routes from Cork, Dublin, Kerry, Knock and Shannon in the next two months alone.

"In two weeks time, Ryanair will open 8 new routes from Shannon, including its first domestic service from Shannon to Dublin. This new route will allow passengers from the mid-west to avoid the nightmare of traffic on the N7 and the M50, with 40 minute flights for less than the cost of a gallon of petrol. Ryanair’s 31 Shannon routes will deliver two million passengers to Shannon in the coming year, generating a visitor spend of €350m and supporting 2,000 local jobs.

"To celebrate the imminent launch of our Shannon Dublin service Ryanair is releasing 10,000 free seats* on its Shannon Dublin route for travel in November, December and January and we advise passengers to book now because these bargains will be snapped up in record time".

*Just pay the taxes and charges.