Ryanair boosts Birmingham with a ninth aircraft and five new routes
According to its own press release, Ryanair will base a ninth aircraft at Birmingham from the upcoming winter season and launch new routes from there to Copenhagen, Marrakesh, Rome-Fiumicino, Warsaw-Modlin and Tirana. It will also add frequencies on seven existing routes, bringing the total number of destinations served from Birmingham in winter to 40.
Ryanair has announced it is boosting its Birmingham base with a ninth aircraft, which will enter service ahead of the winter season. As a result, the airport will gain new direct routes to five destinations.
New routes from Birmingham
- Copenhagen
- Marrakesh
- Rome-Fiumicino
- Warsaw-Modlin
- Tirana
Besides the new routes, the carrier will also increase frequencies on seven existing routes, among which the source mentions Barcelona, Budapest and Poznan. Following these changes, Ryanair will fly from Birmingham to a total of 40 destinations in winter.
Despite the expanded offering, Ryanair still does not fly directly from Birmingham to Prague, Bratislava or Vienna. For travellers from Czechia, the nearest connected airports are Krakow and Wroclaw in Poland, while for Slovak travellers, Budapest is an option alongside Krakow.
The Birmingham-Prague route, however, is served by rival carriers easyJet and jet2.com, with jet2.com also flying directly between Birmingham and Vienna.
- New aircraft in Birmingham
- 9th in total
- Capacity increase
- 21%
- New jobs
- dozens
- Existing local employment
- 3,270 jobs
- Destinations in winter
- 40
Ryanair's Chief Marketing Officer Dara Brady justified the deployment of the ninth aircraft to Birmingham by citing a 21 percent growth in traffic volume and the creation of dozens of additional jobs, adding to the 3,270 positions the carrier says it already supports in the region.
Brady also criticised the British government for raising Air Passenger Duty (APD), calling it damaging to the competitiveness of regional airports in the UK. He said other European countries, namely Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia and regions of Italy, are instead abolishing or cutting aviation taxes to support operations, tourism and employment.
Current route offerings from Ryanair (FR) at Birmingham Airport (BHX) can be tracked on map.flights.