Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (05 Aug) announced an additional $100m investment in Shannon Airport basing a second aircraft from Winter ‘21, launching 8 new routes (34 total) as part of its Shannon tourism recovery schedule.

This expansion will result in Ryanair operating 16 routes from Shannon this summer (2 new) and 18 routes for winter ‘21/22 (6 new) to Corfu, Gran Canaria, Birmingham, Budapest, Edinburgh, Fuerteventura, London Luton and Turin. The airline will operate 85 departing flights across the 34 routes and the second based aircraft will support these expanded schedules.

Shannon Airport worked closely with Ryanair in delivering incentives to rebuild traffic for this Summer 21 & Winter 21/22, restoring full pre-pandemic capacity and securing Ryanair pilot and crew jobs. Ryanair’s expanded presence will underpin the recovery of the tourism industry in the South-West (supporting over 600 jobs in the region) – improving connectivity as travel reopens across Europe.

Ryanair calls on Taoiseach Micheál Martin to urgently implement the recommendations from the Aviation Taskforce (which has been sitting on Transport Minister Ryan’s desk for over a year). Ryanair’s based aircraft at Cork airport have sadly not returned due to a lack of incentives, resulting in the loss of connectivity and jobs in the Cork region. If traffic and jobs are to return to Dublin and Cork airports, the Taoiseach must urgently implement incentives to attract Ryanair and other airlines to restore pre-pandemic capacity as Ryanair has done in Shannon airport.

To celebrate the return of the second based aircraft, 8 new routes and the restoration of Ryanair jobs, Ryanair has launched a seat sale with fares available from just €19.99 for travel until the end of March 2022, which must be booked by midnight Sunday, 8^th August, only on the Ryanair.com website.

Ryanair’s Shannon Summer and Winter 2021 recovery schedule will deliver:

Ryanair’s CEO Eddie Wilson, said:

“We are delighted to announce our expansion plans for Shannon with the restoration of its 2-aircraft base and 8 new routes to exciting destinations including Corfu, Gran Canaria, Budapest, Fuerteventura and more. As vaccination rollout programmes continue in the coming months, air traffic is set to return to pre-pandemic levels and we are delighted to announce extra flights from Shannon across Europe, connecting a total of 34 destinations.

Ryanair has worked closely with Shannon Airport, which has seen the restoration of its 2 aircraft base, traffic, connectivity and jobs which is in stark contrast to Cork and Dublin airports, which continue to lose  passengers and jobs at a time when other EU countries, regions and airports are growing and recovering connectivity. We call on Taoiseach Micheál Martin to urgently implement a traffic recovery scheme for Dublin and Cork airports before they lose out to other EU countries that are prioritising the recovery of aircraft capacity, connectivity, tourism and jobs. Ryanair is uniquely placed to deliver this as it takes delivery of 210 aircraft over the next 5 years.

Mary Considine, CEO, Shannon Group which operates Shannon Airport said:

“We are delighted with today’s announcement by Ryanair. It is another important step on our road to recovery. Restoring its second based aircraft here at Shannon demonstrates Ryanair’s continued commitment to our airport. The confirmation of 18 routes from Shannon for Winter including exciting new destinations such as Budapest and Turin, is very positive news for the airport and for this region after what has been a very difficult period for the aviation industry.”