RYANAIR ANNOUNCES UK GROWTH PLAN – 1,000 NEW JOBS & 22% GROWTH TO 65M PAX BY 2030

Ryanair, Europe’s largest & fastest growing airline, today (24 Apr) published an independent report by York Aviation, which shows that Ryanair contributes £14bn p.a. to UK economic growth and development as follows;

• £14bn p.a. in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy
• 98,000 UK jobs supported by Ryanair traffic
• 53m Ryanair passengers in 2023 to/from the UK (20% of UK traffic)
• 22 UK Airports
• 600 routes to/from UK
• $11.5bn investment in 115 UK-based aircraft

At today’s launch of the York Aviation Report, Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary set out ambitious growth plans in the UK for the rest of the decade, including;

1. UK traffic to grow by 22% from 53m to 65m passengers p.a. by 2030
2. Over 1,000 new jobs created for UK pilots, cabin crew, and engineers by 2030
3. New engineering training facility opens at Prestwick
4. 20 new Boeing MAX-10 aircraft (135 total) worth $2 billion based at UK airports
5. New B737 aircraft deliver 20% less fuel & 50% less noise

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“Today’s York Aviation Report quantifies the substantial contribution made by Ryanair, our people, and our passengers each year to the UK economy, including a £14bn annual contribution in Gross Value Added (GVA) while our traffic supports over 98,000 jobs across all regions of the UK.

From modest beginnings with our first 14 seat aircraft flying from Gatwick to Waterford in 1985, Ryanair has grown to become Europe’s largest airline. We plan to deliver more growth and investment in the UK over the rest of this decade, during which we expect to grow our UK traffic by 22% from 53m in 2023 to 65m by 2030 and create another 1,000 UK jobs across our 22 UK airports. These new passengers will travel on a fleet of new Boeing 737 MAX-10 aircraft, which cut fuel and CO2 emissions by 20% and reduce noise by 50%.

As an island economy on the periphery of Europe, it is vital that Ryanair continues to deliver low-cost air access to/from Europe for our UK citizens/visitors. In 2023 alone, Ryanair’s European visitors spent over £4.7bn in the UK, and we will continue to bring millions of European visitors to the UK for the benefit of UK tourism and job creation across all regions of the UK.

While halving APD on domestic flights from Apr ‘23 allowed Ryanair to add more domestic routes (and bases) to our UK schedule, UK airports and passengers are still suffering an enormous penalty when UK APD imposes £13 tax on all UK tickets for 2024. Ryanair can continue to grow UK traffic, jobs, and tourism but the Govt must scrap this unfair and unjustified tax for all travel and instead pursue air travel growth policies to promote low-fare connectivity to/from Europe, including an urgent reform of UK NATS inefficient but expensive ATC system starting with a clean out of the incompetent “leadership” of NATS.”