Ryanair has helped celebrate 70 years of flight at London Stansted, by flying a Ryanair Boeing 737-800 aircraft into Stansted for a special ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Stansted’s runway.

Ryanair positioned one of its Boeing 737-800 aircraft alongside a P-47 Thunderbolt fighterplane, which had originally been based at Stansted during World War II. 70 years later, Ryanair is now Stansted’s largest airline having grown to operate 118 routes, carrying over 170m passengers to/from Stansted since first arriving there in June 1987. This year, Ryanair will carry over 13m passengers to/from Stansted, sustaining over 13,000* “on-site” jobs at Stansted Airport.

To celebrate 70 years of flight at Stansted, Ryanair is releasing 100,000 seats across its entire European network at prices starting from just £19.99 for travel on Mon, Tue, Wed & Thur in September and October and these “all in” low fares will be available on over 1,000 of Ryanair’s European routes, but must be booked on www.ryanair.com before midnight (24:00hrs) Mon, 29 July.

Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said: “Ryanair is pleased to join in today’s celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of flights at London Stansted. In just 26 years, Ryanair has carried 170m passengers to and from Stansted and we currently operate 118 routes. We look forward to bringing even more passengers to and from Stansted throughout 2013 and beyond.

To celebrate, Ryanair is launching a 100,000 seat sale on over 1,000 European routes at prices starting from just £19.99, for travel in September and October. These seats are only available until midnight (24:00hrs) Monday (29 July) and are sure to be snapped up fast, so we urge passengers to book them on www.ryanair.com before they sell out.”