Ryanair has returned to Belfast International Airport with two based aircraft operating 140 flights per week on 16 routes across the UK and Europe. The new routes include Budapest, Milan, Barcelona, and Paris as well as the sunshine locations of Alicante, Malaga, Faro, and Valencia. Alongside the European destinations, Ryanair will also operate to five UK destinations; London Stansted, Manchester, East Midlands, Cardiff, and Edinburgh. These destinations will be some of the first to benefit from the UK Domestic Air Passenger Duty (APD) cut of 50% that applies from Saturday, 1st April 2023.
This week, Ryanair has announced that Elisabeth Köstinger, an Austrian citizen, and Eamonn Brennan, an Irish citizen, have agreed to join the Board of Ryanair Holdings plc as non-executive directors effective from 1 April 2023. Elisabeth Köstinger is a former Austrian politician who was an MEP from 2009 to 2017, and subsequently served as Minister for Agriculture, Sustainability, and Tourism in the Government of Chancellors Kurz, Schallenberg, and Nehammer. She retired from politics in 2022 to become CEO of an Austrian ESG-Fintech. Eamonn Brennan was formerly Chief Executive of the Irish Aviation Authority, and more recently the Director General of Eurocontrol from 2018 to 2022. Mr. Brennan has been a central figure in European aviation over the past 5 years.
Commenting on the new Ryanair base, the Business Development Director of Belfast International Airport, Uel Hoey said, “Today is a significant day on many fronts. As we continue to rebuild the business post-pandemic, to be able to welcome Ryanair back on such a significant scale is testament to the hard work that the team in Belfast has invested in securing this new base. Ryanair will bring low fares, high frequency, and a great choice to the local market and this significant investment and job creation is positive news for this region.”
Also commenting was Ryanair’s Director of Digital & Marketing, Dara Brady who said, “We are pleased to announce the start of operations at our Belfast International Airport base for Summer’23 to exciting destinations such as Budapest, Palma, Paris, and Valencia. Ryanair will operate 16 total routes this Summer with 2 based aircraft representing an investment of $200m and the creation of over 950 total jobs at Belfast International Airport. Additional investment from all airlines has been encouraged by the newly introduced APD reduction for domestic travel, but Ryanair again calls on the UK Government must immediately scrap ADP taxes for all flights, which currently puts the UK at risk of losing air traffic to competing European countries.”
