Ryanair announce HUGE expansion at Gerona!

Hi guys. Ryanair this morning have announced 17 (!) new routes from Gerona. The press release is below:

RYANAIR INVESTS $280M IN ITS BIGGEST EVER EXPANSION FROM BARCELONA

4 NEW AIRCRAFT AND 17 NEW ROUTES FROM MARCH 2007

Ryanair, Europe’s largest low fares airline today (28 th Sept) announced its biggest ever expansion from Barcelona Girona. From March 2007, Ryanair will invest $280M in 4 new Boeing 737-800 aircraft and 17 new routes that will deliver 1M additional passengers p.a. This expansion brings to 40 the number of Ryanair routes from Barcelona.

Altenburg 3 x wk 1 Mar
Brescia 3 x wk 9 Mar
Fuerteventura 3 x wk 8 Mar
Gothenburg 3 x wk 27 Mar
Marrakech 3 x wk 27 Mar
Pescara 3 x wk 27 Mar
Teesside 3 x wk 12 Feb
Trapani 3 x wk 27 Mar
Aarhus 4 x wk 25 Mar
Bologna 4 x wk 9 Mar
Bristol 4 x wk 25 Mar
Faro 4 x wk 2 Mar
Malmo 4 x wk 25 Mar
Newcastle 4 x wk 25 Mar
Oslo 4 x wk 25 Mar
Tenerife 4 x wk 9 Mar
Porto 1 x daily 2 Mar

Announcing this expansion in Barcelona, Michael Cawley, Ryanair’s Deputy CEO said;

“Ryanair’s Barcelona base has performed very strongly this summer and has firmly established itself as an important driver of both tourism and business in the region. Today’s 17 new route announcements will allow Catalan passengers to enjoy the lowest fares and best punctuality to even more destinations. Ryanair now connects Barcelona to 40 destinations, delivering 4M passengers p.a. and sustaining 4,000 Catalan jobs.

“As part of this expansion, Ryanair will also add a 3 rd daily flight on its routes to Paris, Milan and Rome which will increase to 1M passengers per annum the number of passengers travelling from Barcelona with Ryanair to these cities alone.

“Ryanair’s 17 new routes will significantly expand the Catalan region’s catchment area and our low fares and no fuel surcharge guarantee will deliver millions of additional visitors who were previously put off coming to the region by the prohibitively high fares charged by Iberia.

“These new routes are available for booking today from just €10 on http://www.ryanair.com and we advise passengers to book early as demand will be very strong”.

Mr Manel Nadal, Secretary General for Transport of the Catalan region said:

“Ryanair’s decision to add 4 aircraft and 17 routes to its base in Girona is great news and will act as a powerful catalyst to drive tourism and business in the whole area of influence covered by Girona airport”.

Fantastic news for Gerona, and some good news at last for ‘Teeside’ (As Ryanair still call it ;)).

The rumour going round was that they were to pick either DTV or NCL but they’ve picked both!