Ryanair announced its intention to base two new aircraft at Dublin from November 2007 (making a total of 22 Dublin based aircraft), to launch 6 new European routes and to increase frequencies on a further 12 routes to the UK and Europe, all of which will deliver an extra 1 million passengers annually for tourism and the Irish economy. Ryanair will invest $140m in these two new Boeing 737-800 aircraft which will deliver 1m extra passengers p.a. This will sustain an additional 1,000 new jobs in North Dublin.

It will bring Ryanair’s total number of routes served year round from Dublin to 81 - almost double the number served by Aer Lingus - and will next year see Ryanair deliver 10m passengers p.a. to/from Dublin Airport, which is over 40% of Dublin’s total traffic.

These new aircraft and routes have been facilitated by the recent opening of Check-in Area 14, and the opening of Pier D in October. These facilities will provide the additional ramp capacity needed to accommodate these new aircraft, new routes and new visitors to Dublin.

Announcing this further growth at Dublin Airport, Ryanair’s Deputy CEO, Michael Cawley said:

  “The events of this past week confirm that Aer Lingus cannot be trusted or
  relied upon to secure access to/from the Republic of Ireland on key routes
  to the UK and Europe. By launching these 6 new routes, 3 of which (Budapest,
  Nice and Prague) are already served by Aer Lingus, and 1 of which (Basel)
  competes with Aer Lingus’s high fare route to Zurich, means that long-term
  access between Dublin and these cities has been secured, even if Aer Lingus
  decides to transfer more aircraft and more services North of the border to
  Belfast. Ryanair’s new routes will end Aer Lingus’s high fare monopoly on
  these routes and means that Irish passengers and visitors will no longer
  have to suffer €200 and €300 air fares from Dublin to Basel, Budapest, Nice
  and Prague. Our new routes to Katowice and Szczecin will provide new
  gateways and links between Ireland and Poland which have enjoyed such
  enormous customer support in recent years.
  “These new aircraft will enable Ryanair this Winter to significantly
  increase frequencies and services on 12 of Ryanair’s existing routes at
  Dublin. There will now be extra daily flights from Dublin to Birmingham (4
  daily), Edinburgh (4 daily) and Manchester (5 daily) for time sensitive
  business passengers who are presently underserved by Aer Lingus. Bratislava,
  Kaunas, Krakow and Riga frequencies are increased to daily flights, as well
  as extra weekly flights to Bournemouth, Gkansk, Rzeszow, Tenerife and
  Wroclaw. Ryanair’s combination of guaranteed lowest fares, best on-time
  performance, fewest lost bags, fewest cancelled flights continues to attract
  record passenger numbers and growth.
  “With these new routes and additional flights, Ryanair expects to carry a
  record 10m passengers through Dublin Airport in 2008. The message today is
  clear, the people of Ireland can no longer trust Aer Lingus to provide
  secure access to/from this country. Thankfully Ryanair can be relied on, not
  just to provide access, but to do so on brand new aircraft, with the lowest
  fares, the best passenger service, and a guarantee of no fuel surcharge.
  “To celebrate this substantial expansion of Ryanair’s business at Dublin
  Airport, we are today releasing 1 million seats on our website at
    www.ryanair.com   for €10 all in (including taxes and charges) for travel on
  flights from Dublin to Britain and Continental Europe from September to
  December. These seats will remain on sale until midnight Thursday 16 August,
  so I would urge everybody to snap them up before they are gone”.
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