29th Jan 2019 11:02
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC on Tuesday said it completed the acquisition of Laudamotion GmbH in late December.
The Irish budget airline plans to increase Laudamotion's fleet to 25 aircraft by summer, up from 19 aircraft it had in the summer of 2018. In addition, Laudamotion has signed agreements with a number of lessors to increase its fleet by summer 2020 to 30 aircraft.
As a result, Ryanair expects Laudamotion's traffic to grow to six million people by March 2020 and to 7.5 million by March 2021.
In Vienna, Austria, Laudamotion's fleet will grow to eight aircraft from four this summer, while the company will also operate seven aircraft from Dusseldorf, three from Stuttgart, and two from Palma, Spain.
In winter next year, the Vienna base will increase further to 11 aircraft, making Laudamotion Vienna's second largest airline, just behind Austrian Airlines, Ryanair highlighted.
In addition, Laudamotion will hire additional pilots, cabin crew, and engineers, and will move to a new head office at Concorde business park, Manchester, in March.
"With the backing of Ryanair, Laudamotion is set to grow strongly over the next three years to carry ten million passengers per annum," said Laudamotion Chief Executive Andreas Gruber.
"We are currently negotiating new routes and handling agreements with more than 50 new airports, all of whom want to share in Laudamotion's exciting growth plans for the coming years," added Laudamotion Deputy CEO Colin Casey.
Ryanair shares were trading 0.3% higher on Tuesday at EUR10.84 each.
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