Birmingham to become 25th base for Ryanair

Ryanair will expand their capacity at Birmingham from mid-June 2008, making it their 25th base. During this time of expansion they will add flights to Biarritz, Billund, Bologna (Forli), Bratislava, Bydgoszcz, Dinard, Gdansk, Olbia, Oporto, Oslo (Torp), Perpignan, Poitiers, Reus, Rzeszow, Stockholm (Skavsta), Trapani and Trieste.

easyJet to expand in France

easyJet will expand their operation in France next year, with the announcement that they will open bases at Paris (Charles de Gaulle) and Lyon. For the summer 2008 season, they will begin flying from Lyon to Bordeaux, Toulouse, Venice (Marco Polo), Oporto, Lisbon, Casablanca and Marrakech. They will also launch flights from Paris (Charles de Gaulle) to Biarritz, Oporto, Venice (Marco Polo), Marrakech, Krakow and Hamburg (Fuhlsbuettel).

Volareweb adds flights from Milan

Volareweb will begin flying from Milan (Malpensa) this winter with ten new routes, adding to their operation at Milan (Linate). From the end of October 2007 they will begin flying from Milan (Malpensa) to Alghero, Cagliari, Helsinki, Lodz, Maastricht, Manchester, Oporto, Pescara, Rotterdam and Wroclaw.

These are available to book now at www.volareweb.com.

Valencia and Alicante to become Ryanair bases

Ryanair will open their 21st and 22nd bases this year at Alicante and Valencia airports, in Spain. They will add new routes from Alicante during November and December 2007, including flights to Karlsruhe-Baden, Basel, Billund, Bournemouth, Brussels (Charleroi), Doncaster, East Midlands, Gothenburg (Saeve), Maastricht, Milan (Orio al Serio) and Paris (Beauvais).

They will add new routes from Valencia in October, to make this their 22nd base. The new routes include flights to Karlsruhe-Baden, Basel, Billund, Bologna (Forli), Eindhoven, Liverpool, Malta, Maastricht, Paris (Beauvais), Oporto and Santiago de Compostela.

easyJet to fly to Bulgaria and seven new routes

easyJet will begin flying to the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, this winter. They will begin flying three times per week from London (Gatwick) 06 November 2007. They have also put new routes on sale from Liverpool to Innsbruck and Lisbon, from Basel to Marrakech and Oporto and from both Milan (Malpensa) and Geneva to Marrakech.

13 new Ryanair routes from Stockholm

Ryanair will increase capacity at their Stockholm (Skavsta) base this October. They will begin flights from Stockholm (Skavsta) to Alicante, Basel, Berlin (Schoenefeld), Bratislava, Eindhoven, Karlsruhe-Baden, Liverpool, Malta, Pisa, Oporto, Salzburg (from December 2007), Trapani and Valencia.

Ryanair makes Bristol their 20th base

Today, Ryanair announced that Bristol would become their 20th European base. They announced 13 new routes from their airport, which will begin from November 2007. These include flights from Bristol to Bratislava, Riga, Katowice, Rzeszow, Wroclaw, Poznan, Budapest, Salzburg, Oporto, Knock, Milan (Orio al Serio) and Dinard. This move may surprise some, given that Bristol is a well established easyJet base, and has been for many years.

Ryanair had also announced a new route from Bristol to Derry, but the future of Derry became uncertain today when it had its license to operate flights revoked by the UK Civil Aviation Authority. All flights to Derry are suspended with immediate effect.

Ryanair to launch 9 new routes from Milan

Ryanair continues their expansion, as they have announced that they will add nine new routes from their Milan (Orio al Serio) base during December 2007/January 2008. They will begin flying from Milan (Orio al Serio) to Alghero, Bari, Cagliari, Billund, Santander, Oporto, Riga and Gothenburg (Saeve).

Transavia to open Paris base

Transavia will begin flying from Paris (Orly) this summer. They will begin flying routes from 12 May 2007 (to Oporto), with further expansion during the summer to include flights to Catania, Palermo, Girona, Agadir, OUJ and Heraklion. Flights can be booked now at www.transavia.com.

Paris to Oporto link from Transavia

Transavia, the Dutch low-cost airline, will begin flying from Oporto to Paris (Orly). They will fly twice per day on this route from 12 May 2007. This announcement appears surprising, given that they do not currently fly to either airport. Flights can be booked already at www.transavia.com.

easyJet expansion at Edinburgh

easyJet will expand their operation at Edinburgh by adding three new routes. They will begin flying to Madrid (from 25 February 2007), Milan (Malpensa) (from 21 May) and Palma (from 10 June). Separately, they have also announced that they will also begin flying between Geneva and Oporto from 29 June.

Clickair to expand flights to London and Barcelona

clickair, the new Spanish low-cost airline, will begin flying to London (Heathrow) on 01 February 2007, and will launch an extensive operation from Barcelona in the first quarter of 2007.

They will fly from London (Heathrow) to Valencia and Seville. From Barcelona they will launch nine new routes, including flights to Malaga, Oporto, Frankfurt (International), Munich, Berlin (Tegel), Basel, Amsterdam, Dublin and Prague. This will come as a major challenge to Vueling, whose main base is at Barcelona.

Ryanair expansion at Madrid airport

Ryanair will make Madrid their 18th European base, and from 22 November 2006 will begin flying 14 new routes. They will begin flying to Dublin, Shannon, Eindhoven, Faro, Oporto, Marseille, Paris (Beauvais), Billund, Brussels (Charleroi), East Midlands, Oslo (Torp), Bournemouth, Gothenburg (Saeve) and Malmo.

This expansion at Madrid may come as a surprise, given that only 2 weeks ago easyJet announced that they would expand their operation from Madrid from February 2007.

Massive Ryanair expansion at Girona

Ryanair will add 17 new routes from their Girona base in February and March 2007. These new routes include flights to the Canary Islands and North Africa, with flights to Tenerife (North), Fuerteventura and Marrakech. They will also add flights to other European cities, including Bristol, Newcastle and Durham Tees Valley in the UK, Oporto and Faro in Portugal, Trapani, Bologna (Forli), Pescara and Verona (Brescia) in Italy, Gothenburg (Saeve) and Malmo in Sweden, Aarhus (Denmark), Oslo (Torp) (Norway) and Altenburg (Germany). Flights are on sale now.

Ryanair launch Marseille base

From 06 November 2006, Ryanair will launch a major operation at Marseille and will make it a hub airport in their network. In addition to flights to Dublin and Glasgow (Prestwick), they will operate new routes to London (Stansted), Oporto, Brussels (Charleroi), Aer Lingus, Karlsruhe-Baden, Oslo (Torp), Rome (Ciampino) and Frankfurt (Hahn).

Following their recent announcement to fly to Marrakech, they will also add 3 routes from Marseille to Morocco, including Marrakech, Fez and Oujda. These flights will be of concern to Moroccan low-cost airline Atlas Blue, who already fly from Marrakech to Marseille, and were previously the only low-cost airline to fly to Oujda.

Ryanair to launch 16 new routes from Dublin

From April 2006, Ryanair will base 5 new aircraft at Dublin airport and will launch 16 new routes. They will also increase flight frequencies on 8 other routes from Dublin.

The new routes from Dublin will include Kaunas, Bratislava, Krakow, Wroclaw, Poznan, Malmo, Gothenburg, Venice (Treviso), Milan (Orio al Serio), Salzburg, Oporto, Valencia, Marseille, Nantes, La Rochelle, Hamburg (Luebeck) and Karlsruhe-Baden.

Ryanair will also launch a flight between Dublin and Humberside, which will become the first low-cost route from Humberside airport.

Ryanair February 2006 expansion

Ryanair will add 6 new routes to their network from 22 February 2006, including Liverpool to Oporto and Seville, Glasgow (Prestwick) to Marseille and Reus, Paris (Beauvis) to Oporto and Frankfurt (Hahn) to Bari.

Flights are already available to book on these new routes.

Ryanair expands at Frankfurt

Ryanair will expand at Frankfurt (Hahn), adding 4 new routes. This will also see the introduction of a new airport to the low-cost map of Europe, as Ryanair will begin flying to Rzeszow in Poland.

They will also begin flying for the first time to Bratislava and Gdansk and will add a route to Oporto. It may come as a surprise to many that Ryanair will launch a route to Gdansk, as Michael O’Leary had previously criticised competing airlines for flying to Gdansk.

These routes will be launched for the winter season, commencing at the end of October 2005. Ryanair will fly a total of 27 routes from Frankfurt (Hahn).

Ryanair announces 4 new routes

Ryanair have announced that they will begin flying from London (Stansted) to Oporto from 19 January 2005. This will be their first route to Portugal. In addition, they have announced further expansion in Spain with new routes from Stansted to Valencia (commencing 02 November 2004), Almeria (19 January 2005) and Seville (25 February 2005).

It is expected that they will announced a further 4 new routes in western Europe next week.