RYANAIR DELIVERS 70% IRISH TOURISM GROWTH IN 2015

RYANAIR DELIVERS 70% OF IRISH TOURISM GROWTH IN 2015

Ryanair, Ireland's favourite airline, today (29 Dec) released its 2015 Irish traffic numbers which show it has delivered 70% of all traffic growth at Cork, Dublin, Knock and Shannon airports in 2015, a year of record growth for Irish tourism.

Following the decision of Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, to scrap air travel tax in April 2014, Ryanair has continued to roll out new routes and more frequencies on existing routes, including our new 4 x daily Dublin to Amsterdam service. The annual figures revealed that:

· Traffic growth at Irish airports in 2015 rose by 3.3m to 29.8m

· Ryanair delivered 13.1m customers though Irish airports (44% of total)

· Ryanair delivered 2.2m (70%) of this 3.3m traffic increase

With over 130 routes to/from Ireland, Ryanair will carry over 14m customers through Irish airports in 2016, on new routes including Dublin to Amsterdam, Athens and Copenhagen, as more and more visitors choose Ryanair for our lowest fares, our widest choice of routes and our unbeatable punctuality and performance.

Ryanair's Robin Kiely said:

"Before the various tourism bodies claim undue credit for a record year for Irish tourism, Ryanair is pleased to release its 2015 Irish traffic numbers, which show that Ryanair on its own delivered 70% of the growth at the main Irish airports this year, thanks to the Government's decision to scrap the air travel tax.

After 5 years of decline at Irish airports, the welcome repeal of the air travel tax has resulted in record traffic and tourism growth, demonstrating to our counterparts in the UK and Germany the enormous economic benefits removing APD brings.

Ryanair will continue to invest in our network and we look forward to welcoming more and more visitors to Ireland on Ryanair's low fare services, as millions of customers choose our low fares, the largest route network in Europe and our "Always Getting Better" customer experience."

ENDS

For further information

please contact: Robin Kiely Joe Carmody

Ryanair Ltd Edelman Ireland

Tel: +353-1-9451949 Tel: +353-1-6789 333

[email protected] [email protected]