DELIVERS 1.5M ‘PROTECT CUSTOMERS’ PETITION TO EU COMMISSION

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (Thur 7^th Sept) launched its Winter 23/24 schedule for Brussels (Charleroi & Zaventem), with 93 routes incl. 7 exciting new routes to Amman, Cluj, Iasi, Milan, Nantes, Tirana and Warsaw, and increased frequencies on another 30 routes, incl. winter sun and city break destinations like Agadir, Barcelona, Dublin, Faro, Lisbon, Malta, and Rome. Ryanair will base two new B737 aircraft at Charleroi (17 total) for Winter 23/24 – another $200m investment creating over 60 new high paid jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers.

Winter 23/24 Brussels schedule delivers:

• 17 based aircraft (invest. of $1.7bn in Brussels)
• 93 routes, incl. 7 new – Amman, Cluj, Iasi, Milan, Nantes, Tirana, & Warsaw
• Increased freq. on 30 routes incl. Agadir, Barcelona, Dublin, Faro, Lisbon, Malta, & Rome
• Over 550 highly paid aviation professional jobs
• Annual traffic to grow to 10m pax p.a.

Ryanair is Belgium’s No. 1 airline operating 93 routes and carrying 10m passengers p.a. to/from its 2 Brussels airports (Charleroi & Zaventem), providing Belgian citizens/visitors with unbeatable choice of routes at the lowest fares. This new Belgian growth (+10% vs. FY23) is underpinned by Ryanair’s $1.7bn investment (17 based aircraft) in Brussels supporting over 550 high pay crew and engineering jobs.

Today’s announcement comes as Ryanair delivers its ‘Protect Overflights: Keep EU Skies Open’ petition to the EU Commission which now has over 1.5m signatures from fed-up passengers demanding that the EU Commission protect overflights and EU citizens’ freedom of movement during repeated ATC strikes.

So far in 2023, there have been 63 days of ATC strikes (12 times more than 2022) forcing EU airlines to needlessly cancel thousands of EU overflights from Germany, Spain, Italy, UK and Ireland while France uses Minimum Service Laws to protect their domestic/short-haul flights. While EU citizens flights are cancelled, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has failed to act and allowed over 1.2m EU passengers to have their flights cancelled at short notice, even when they are not flying to/from France.

Even now, French ATC unions have called yet another strike (the 64^th in 2023) for Fri, 15 Sept while Ursula von der Leyen continues to do nothing. Ryanair calls on the EU Commission to act on this 1.5m citizen petition and demand that all EU States protect overflights during ATC strikes as is already done in Greece, Italy and Spain.

To celebrate its 2 new aircraft and 7 new routes for Brussels this Winter, Ryanair has launched a 2-day seat sale with fares from €29.99 available only at Ryanair.com.

Speaking in Brussels, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“Ryanair is pleased to provide even more choice and lower fares to Belgian customers/visitors for Winter 23/24, with 93 routes, incl. 7 new routes from Charleroi to Amman, Cluj, Iasi, Milan, Nantes, Tirana and Warsaw, as well as increased frequencies on another 30 routes, incl. popular winter sun and city break destinations like Agadir, Barcelona, Dublin, Faro, Lisbon, Malta, and Rome. To support this Winter schedule, we have added 2 new aircraft at Charleroi, bringing our total based aircraft to 17 – a $1.7bn investment and creating over 60 new high pay jobs.

While Ryanair continues to grow and invest in Belgium and across Europe, ATC strikes remain the biggest threat to EU citizen’s Winter travel plans. Today we delivered a 1.5m petition from fed-up EU citizens calling on the EU Commission under Ursula von der Leyen to protect overflights during repeated ATC strikes. It is unacceptable that ATC strikes cause the unnecessary cancellation of thousands of EU passengers’ flights, while France use Minimum Service Laws to protect their domestic flights. With fresh threats of yet more French ATC strike on Fri 15 Sept, Ryanair calls again on Ursula von der Leyen to finally take action to protect overflights and EU citizens freedom of movement during repeated ATC strikes.”