Ryanair will restore a second aircraft at Shannon Airport and add six new routes to its winter schedule.
The carrier has already added two new services to its summer schedule at Shannon and today confirmed and an additional $100m (€84m) investment in Shannon Airport. This will included basing a second aircraft there from Winter ‘21 and launching a total of 8 new routes.
This tourism recovery schedule for Shannon will result in Ryanair operating 16 routes from the Mid-West airport this summer including two new services, as well as 18 routes for winter ‘21/22. Six of these will be new and include to Corfu and Gran Canaria (which commence this week) as well as Birmingham, Budapest, Edinburgh, Fuerteventura, London Luton and Turin.
Ryanair will operate 85 departing flights across the 34 routes and the second based aircraft will support these expanded schedules.
Shannon Airport worked closely with Ryanair in delivering incentives to rebuild traffic for this Summer 21 & Winter 21/22, restoring full pre-pandemic capacity and securing Ryanair pilot and crew jobs. Ryanair’s expanded presence will underpin the recovery of the tourism industry in the South-West (supporting over 600 jobs in the region) – improving connectivity as travel reopens across Europe.
Ryanair calls on Taoiseach Micheál Martin to urgently implement the recommendations from the Aviation Taskforce (which has been sitting on Transport Minister Ryan’s desk for over a year). Ryanair’s based aircraft at Cork airport have sadly not returned due to a lack of incentives, resulting in the loss of connectivity and jobs in the Cork region. If traffic and jobs are to return to Dublin and Cork airports, the Taoiseach must urgently implement incentives to attract Ryanair and other airlines to restore pre-pandemic capacity as Ryanair has done in Shannon airport.
To celebrate the return of the second based aircraft, 8 new routes and the restoration of Ryanair jobs, Ryanair has launched a seat sale with fares available from just €19.99 for travel until the end of March 2022, which must be booked by midnight Sunday, 8th August, only on the Ryanair.com website.
Ryanair’s CEO Eddie Wilson, said: “We are delighted to announce our expansion plans for Shannon with the restoration of its 2-aircraft base and 8 new routes to exciting destinations including Corfu, Gran Canaria, Budapest, Fuerteventura and more. As vaccination rollout programmes continue in the coming months, air traffic is set to return to pre-pandemic levels and we are delighted to announce extra flights from Shannon across Europe, connecting a total of 34 destinations.
Ryanair has worked closely with Shannon Airport, which has seen the restoration of its 2 aircraft base, traffic, connectivity and jobs which is in stark contrast to Cork and Dublin airports, which continue to lose passengers and jobs at a time when other EU countries, regions and airports are growing and recovering connectivity. We call on Taoiseach Micheál Martin to urgently implement a traffic recovery scheme for Dublin and Cork airports before they lose out to other EU countries that are prioritising the recovery of aircraft capacity, connectivity, tourism and jobs. Ryanair is uniquely placed to deliver this as it takes delivery of 210 aircraft over the next 5 years.”
Welcoming the announcement, Mary Considine, CEO, Shannon Group, which operates the airport said: “We are delighted with today’s announcement by Ryanair. It is another important step on our road to recovery. Restoring its second based aircraft here at Shannon demonstrates Ryanair’s continued commitment to our airport. The confirmation of 18 routes from Shannon for Winter including exciting new destinations such as Budapest and Turin, is very positive news for the airport and for this region after what has been a very difficult period for the aviation industry.”
“There is intense competition globally for air services as countries try to recover from the virtual closing down of international travel. Recovery from the devastation caused by the pandemic will take time, with aviation analysts predicting that it will take a number of years for passenger numbers to recover to anything like 2019 levels. As we work to rebuild our air services, I am proud of our team who have worked closely with Ryanair to secure these latest Winter air services to London Luton, Budapest, Fuerteventura, Edinburgh, Turin and Birmingham, for the people of our region to enjoy. In addition, our existing services to London Stansted, London Gatwick, Manchester, Krakow, Wroclaw, Warsaw, Kaunas, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Malaga, Alicante and Gran Canaria (Las Palmas), will continue to operate throughout the Winter.
“When people are ready to travel, our airport staff are ready to welcome them back. We want our passengers to experience that first flight delight which was evident this week with the inaugural Corfu service. The excitement expressed by passengers heading off on their first overseas trip in quite a while has given our airport employees a real boost as they begin to return to doing what they do best, which is to look after our passengers and make their experience at the airport enjoyable, memorable and easy,” said Ms. Considine.
Shannon Summer 2021
Total Routes 16
Total Weekly Flights 36
New Routes – Corfu (twice weekly) Gran Canaria (once weekly
Shannon Winter 2021/22
Total Routes 18
Total Weekly Flights 49
New Routes – London Luton (4 weekly); Budapest (2 weekly); Edinburgh (2 weekly); Birmingham (2 weekly); Fuerteventura (1 weekly); Turin (1 weekly).