By Francess McDonnell
Ryanair is launching seven new direct European routes from its base in the North and increasing its daily service to London Gatwick, Michael O'Leary announced on Thursday in Belfast.
The Ryanair chief executive also urged Northern Ireland businesses to vote against Brexit in the UK’s upcoming referendum.
Mr O’Leary outlined his plans for the airline to increase the number of aircraft based in the North to three and add new routes to Alicante, Berlin, Krakow, Lanzarote, Malaga, Milan and Tenerife.
Ryanair will also increase the frequency on its London Gatwick service which he expects will in total grow customers to more than one million and “support 750 jobs at our Belfast International base”.
Graham Keddie, the managing director of Belfast International Airport believes the new routes will have a “hugely positive impact” on the North’s tourism sector and help create hundreds of additional jobs.
“To say we’re delighted with this expansion would be an understatement. For us, the inclusion of Berlin fulfils a major ambition, and is the long-awaited breakthrough we have worked to achieve.
‘Benefits’
Mr O’Leary said the airline’s investment programme in the North, which he valued at “over €300 million”, and the potential jobs it will create was the latest example of how Northern Ireland “benefits” from the UK’s membership of the EU.
He said: “Low fare air travel, which was pioneered by Ryanair in the UK and Europe, is one of the EU’s great success stories.
“We are calling on everyone in Northern Ireland to vote ‘Yes’ to Europe in the Brexit referendum in June, because staying in Europe will mean stronger economic growth, more tourism and more jobs for young people, whereas leaving will reduce the UK to the same status as Norway - namely outside the EU, but part of the single market (for which Norway still pays and still obeys the EU rules), but with no role in setting EU policy or strategy.”
Passenger traffic
Separately, Ryanair said its passenger traffic rose by 28 per cent to 7.4 million in February, new figures show.
For the same month a year earlier the airline carried 5.8 million customers.
The airline said rolling annual traffic to February grew 17 per cent to 104.6 customers.
Load factor - a measure of how full flights are - was up 4 per cent on an annual basis, from 89 per cent to 93 per cent.
IAG traffic in February increased by 15.8 per cent, the airline group said.
