Lift for Shannon as Ryanair adds five routes to schedule

Ryanair is to add five routes to its winter schedule at Shannon which the carrier says is in direct response to the Government’s decision to scrap travel tax earlier this year.

The airport’s winter schedule, which starts at the end of October, will see Ryanair retain its new Paris, Berlin, Fuerteventura, Warsaw and Krakow routes, all of which commenced in April.

In all, Ryanair will operate 10 routes this winter, five more than last year.

The other routes operated by the airline across the winter schedule will be Gatwick, Lanzarote, Liverpool, Stansted and Wroclaw

“The scrapping of the air travel tax from last April last has restored competitiveness and attractiveness to overseas visitors. We are delighted to be able to grow our Shannon operation by more than 50 per cent this winter season, and deliver over 1m customers to Irish airports in 2014 - 2015,” said Ryanair’s David O’Brien.

Shannon Airport has welcomed today’s announcement by Ryanair as another significant boost for the airport.

“This is a very important commitment by Ryanair to its Shannon schedule,”Shannon Airport CEO Neil Pakey said.

“ We are already experiencing a significant upswing in summer passenger numbers thanks to the airline’s nine new routes, which started at the beginning of April.

“A major objective of ours after securing those new summer services was to bolster the winter season and this is a significant move in that regard.”