Ryanair announces two new bases

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 low fares airline, today (Thursday, 4th December 2003) announced the launch of two new bases in Rome (commencing 28th January 2004) and Barcelona (commencing 5th February 2004). Ryanair celebrated this major new expansion for low fares in Europe with a massive 1 Million seat sale for travel in December and January where Ryanair will pay all Government taxes on every seat on every flight!

Rome Ciampino will become Ryanair’s 10th European base when it opens on 28th January 2004, with 4 aircraft serving 8 routes as follows:

ROME ROUTES
From Rome to:
London and Stockholm (Sweden) – daily from 15th Jan
Brussels Charleroi and Paris (France) – daily from 28th Jan
Frankfurt Hahn and Karlsruhe Baden(Germany)- daily from 28th Jan
Klagenfurt (Austria) – daily from 28th Jan
Barcelona (Spain) – daily from 5th Feb

Girona Barcelona will become Ryanair’s 11th European Base, which opens on 5th February 2004, with 5 aircraft serving 16 routes as follows:

BARCELONA ROUTES
From Barcelona to:
London and Paris (France) – 2 x daily from 5th Feb
Glasgow Prestwick and Liverpool (UK) – daily from 5th Feb
Brussels Charleroi and Eindhoven ( Holland) – daily from 5th Feb
Frankfurt Hahn and Venice (Italy) – daily from 5th Feb
Milan and Alghero (Italy) – daily from 5th Feb
Birmingham and Turin ( Italy) – daily from 5th Feb 03
Bournemouth and Karlsruhe Baden (Germ) – daily from 5th Feb

This latest news comes only 1 day after Ryanair announced 9 new daily routes: 4 new routes from London Stansted to LINZ (Austria), BARI (Italy), ERFURT (Germany) & JEREZ (Spain), and 2 new routes from Stockholm Skavsta to ROME & MILAN (Italy), 2 new routes from Frankfurt Hahn base to REUS (Spain) & TAMPERE (Finland) and a new route linking Brussels & VALLADOLID(Spain).

Announcing the new bases in London today, Ryanair’s Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary said:

“Rome and Barcelona will be our 10th and 11th European
bases and Ryanair will invest $540 Million in new Boeing 737-800 aircraft for these 2 new bases.

“These new routes and the new European bases demonstrate yet
again the enormous demand that exists all over Europe at both private and publicly owned airports for low fare air travel and rapid traffic and job growth. There has been far too much inaccurate speculation that the EU investigation will bring an end to Ryanair’s growth. It won’t. We have lots of new route and new base opportunities at privately owned airports.
However, it is vital that Commissioner Loyola de Palacio and her colleagues in the EU Commission stand up to the enormous – anti consumer – lobby of the high fares airlines and high cost airports and allow publicly owned airports such as Charleroi (in the case of Ryanair) and Berlin Schonefeld (in the case of Easyjet) to enter into 20 year discounted deals on a similar but level playing field as the privately owned airports already offer.