MADRID – The largest low-cost airline in Europe aims to operate 582 routes to and from Spain, in addition to 48 new domestic routes. With this Ryanair is committed to the recovery of travel with 2,500 weekly flights to, from and through Spain for the summer.
The Irish airline is trying to increase the demand for holidays, even though corona virus is on the rise again in large parts of Europe. Dara Brady, Ryanair’s head of marketing, announced this Wednesday at a press conference. The airline is thus responding to the expected increase in travel demand and expects massive booking to Spain for the summer.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Spain was the second most visited country in the world. “We expect a capacity increase comparable to what we expected last year without the pandemic. Our programming in Spanish territory is about 20% greater than in previous years, and certainly greater than last year,” said Brady.
‘Decent summer possible’
Although Ryanair has lowered its global passenger forecast for this fiscal year to around 26-30 million, the company expects the pace of the vaccination campaign in Europe to allow for a “decent” summer.
At another press conference, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said bookings from Germany and the UK have increased. He predicted that the British – probably Europe’s most vaccinated nationality in the summer – will go on holiday abroad.
National regulations
When asked about Germany’s recent request that airlines organise covid-19 tests for German tourists returning from the Balearic Islands, Brady said Ryanair will comply with all national regulations, but it should not be the airlines’ responsibility to carry out the tests.
Spain said on Wednesday that it will allow British travellers from March 30, although UK´s own ban on non-essential international travel makes an immediate revival of tourism unlikely.
With the larger offer of domestic flights in Spain, Ryanair also focuses on Spanish ‘staycations’. New routes are:
- Alicante – Ibiza (3x per week)
- Mallorca – Zaragoza (3x per week)
- Menorca – Seville (3x per week)
- Mallorca – Tenerife Norte (2x per week)
- Malaga – Menorca (2x per week)
- Alicante – Lanzarote (2x per week)
- Mallorca – Santander (2x per week)
- Fuerteventura – Valencia (1x per week)
Additional routes:
- Mallorca – Valencia (14 + 4 per week
- Malaga – Valencia (3 + 1 per week)
- Menorca – Valencia (7 + 4 per week)
- Gran Canaria – Valencia (3 + 1 per week)
- Seville – Valencia (5 + 1 per week)
- Malaga – Santiago (6 + 1 per week)
- Ibiza – Seville 5 + 2 per week)
- Lanzarote – Seville (3 + 1 per week)
- Fuerteventura – Seville (3 + 1 per week)
