The Government should expand the State’s regional airports programme, Ryanair argued after announcing that it will base a new aircraft at Shannon and offer new routes from the mid-western gateway this winter.
The carrier said it would base one of its new Boeing 737 “gamechanger” aircraft at Shannon for winter 2025/26, calculating that this should boost passenger numbers there by 100,000.
Ryanair will add new routes to Lapland, Madeira and Spanish capital Madrid.
The airline intends to increase the number of flights a-week to existing destinations including Alicante in Spain, Lanzarote in the Canaries, Kraków and Wroclaw in Poland, and Edinburgh and Manchester.
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Ryanair estimates that the additional jet amounts a $400 million (€350 million) investment in Shannon.
The additional 100,000 passengers will bring the airline’s numbers at Shannon to 1.6 million a-year, a statement said. It will also add more than 1,500 jobs, including 350 pilots, cabin crew and engineers.
Jason McGuinness, Ryanair’s chief commercial officer, said the airline wanted to grow business at Shannon, Knock and Kerry.
But he argued that the Government needed to support these gateways by expanding its regional airports programme to cover those that handle up to three million passengers a-year.
Mr McGuinness added that this would allow regional airports to “grow traffic without being penalised for doing so”.
Currently the programme is limited to airports with scheduled services that handle up to one million passengers a-year.
Mary Considine, chief executive, Shannon Airport Group, said Ryanair’s investment was a powerful endorsement of its potential.
“We see a huge potential for growth and believe there is a real opportunity for Shannon Airport to lead the way in re-balancing the national landscape,” she said.
Shannon grew passengers by 7 per cent to 2.1 million in 2024, the first time it passed the two-million mark in 15 years.
