9th Aug 2006 10:21
Ryanair Holdings PLC09 August 2006 RYANAIR ANNOUNCES BIGGEST EVER EXPANSION AT DUBLIN 12 NEW EUROPEAN ROUTES START FROM DECEMBER Ryanair, Ireland's largest airline, today (Wednesday, 9th August 2006) unveileda significant expansion of its European operations at Dublin Airport. FromDecember, Ryanair will base three new aircraft in Dublin Airport, create over200 jobs, and start services on twelve new routes from Dublin to points all overEurope. The new schedule of routes is as follows: Destination Starts Frequency Oslo (Norway) Dec Daily Madrid (Spain) Feb Daily Tampere (Finland) Dec Four Weekly Vitoria (Spain) Jan Four Weekly Billund (Denmark) Jan Four Weekly Bologna (Italy) Feb Four Weekly Grenoble (France) Dec Three Weekly Friedrichshafen (Germany) Dec Three Weekly Seville (Spain) Jan Three Weekly Pula (Croatia) Feb Three Weekly Almeria (Spain) Jan Two Weekly Rzeszow (Poland) Jan Two Weekly These new destinations start in December 2006 and will be served by Ryanair on ayear round basis. They bring to 63 the number of UK and European routes servedby Ryanair from Dublin and completes Ryanair's displacement of Aer Lingus as thenational carrier of Ireland, as demonstrated by the following facts: 1. Ryanair carries 42M pax annually, five times more than Aer Lingus' 8M. 2. Ryanair offers more routes from Dublin to the UK (18) than Aer Lingus (7). 3. Ryanair offers more routes from Dublin to Europe (45) than Aer Lingus (28). 4. Ryanair offers double the routes from Irl to UK&EUR (102) than Aer Lingus (51). 5. Ryanair carries 50% more passengers to/from Ireland (12M) than Aer Lingus (8M). 6. Ryanair's av. fare is €41. Aer Lingus's av. Eur fare is 60% higher @ €67. 7. Ryanair beats Aer Lingus on punctuality, fewer cancellations and fewer lost bags. 8. Ryanair brings more visitors to Dublin and Ireland than Aer Lingus. Announcing these new routes in Dublin this morning, Ryanair's CEO MichaelO'Leary said: "Move over Aer Lingus! Ryanair is now Ireland's national airline and AerLingus is just a distant number 2. Passengers prefer Ryanair because wegive them lower fares, many more destinations to the UK and Europe and abetter passenger service in terms of newer aircraft, better punctuality,fewer cancellations and fewer lost bags. "On every route where there they have a choice, millions more passengersprefer Ryanair to Aer Lingus. Today's twelve new routes will end AerLingus' high fare monopoly to destinations such as Madrid, Bologna,Almeria and Seville. Irish passengers who previously had no alternativeto Aer Lingus' high fares and frequent delays on these routes will nowhave a low fare, on-time option with Ryanair. Irish passengers will alsoenjoy Ryanair's low fares to new European destinations such as Norway(Oslo Torp), Denmark (Billund), Finland (Tampere) and Eastern Poland(Rzeszow) which are not currently served by Aer Lingus. "This year Ryanair will carry 42 million passengers across its network. This is five times more than the annual, 8M traffic of Aer Lingus. Ryanair also carries 50% more passengers than Aer Lingus to/from Ireland. The Irish people have voted with their feet and made Ryanair Ireland's number one airline. In the process Aer Lingus has been displaced as Ireland's national airline and now survives as just a distant number 2. "In 2007, Ryanair will deliver 9M passengers through Dublin airport, sustaining 9,000 jobs in Dublin and generating a tourist spend of €2.5BN. To celebrate these 12 new European destinations, Ryanair is launching a seat sale today with every seat on every one of these routes (except Grenoble and Friedrichshafen) being sold for just €12 one way (including taxes, fees and charges) for travel during the first month of operation. This offer will run for one week only and I urge everybody to book their seats as quickly as possible on www.ryanair.com because at such low prices, these seats will sell out fast". Ends. Wednesday, 9th August 2006 For further information: Peter Sherrard - Ryanair Pauline McAlester - Murray ConsultantsTel: 00 353 1 8121228 Tel: 00 353 1 4980300 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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