Ryanair Opens New Base in Madeira

Today, popular budget airline, Ryanair, opened a brand new base in Madeira, Portugal, connecting Madeira with mainland Portugal and with 6 other European countries, positioning the region as a leading tourism destination. This comes together with 10 new routes, with a grand total of 40 departing flights per week and 60 new jobs.

These new routes include Madeira to Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, London Stansted, Manchester, Marseille, Milan, Nuremberg, Paris and Porto. Due to the addition of these routes, Ryanair will operate twice as many flights as TAP Air Portugal, the countries' main airline. Ryanair states that this will make them "Portugal's number one carrier for choice, fares and on time performance"

In addition, to celebrate the opening of its new Madeira base, Ryanair is launching an exciting seat sale with fares from just €29.99 for next Summer, which is fantastic news for those planning a relaxing summer holiday or an adventurous weekend excursion to Madeira.

Ryanair's CEO Eddie Wilson said:

"We are delighted to announce the opening of our new base in Madeira, which will deliver increased connectivity with 2 based aircraft and 40 weekly flights across 10 new routes, connecting Madeira with cities such as London, Paris, Dublin, Milan and Manchester on a year round basis. This $200m investment will not only boost Portugal's economy by driving vital tourism but will also create more than 60 direct jobs in the region and over 400 on-site jobs in Madeira.

Efficient operations and competitive airport charges provide the foundation from which Ryanair can deliver long-term traffic growth and increased connectivity. We worked closely with our partners in Madeira airport, Tourism de Portugal and APM to secure this growth and improve the services for those that live, work, or wish to visit the region.

At a time when other airlines are reducing their fleets and closing bases, we are delighted to continue to invest in both our people and airports in Portugal. We urge the Portuguese Govt. to do likewise by opening Lisbon-Montijo, scrapping the ill-timed aviation tax (which is a direct tax on tourism) and introducing a non-discriminatory traffic recovery scheme. All of which could be easily funded with the €3.2bn of wasteful state aid granted to the small zombie airline TAP, by the Portuguese Govt.

Ryanair will operate over 160 Portuguese routes next Summer (over twice as many as TAP), to 15 countries, making Ryanair Portugal's number one carrier for choice, fares and on time performance. To celebrate, we are launching a seat sale with fares available from €29.99 for travel next Summer, which must be booked by Thursday 25th November. Since these amazing low fares will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com now to avoid missing out."

ANA- VINCI Airports CEO, Thierry Ligonniere, said:

"The announcement of Ryanair's base in Madeira for the summer of 2022 is excellent news for the Autonomous Region of Madeira. This base is the result of a partnership with Ryanair, the Madeira Tourism Promotion Association and the Portuguese Tourism Board. In addition to reinforcing the existing partnership between VINCI and Ryanair, this base will allow, through the opening of 5 new routes in 2022, a significant increase in Madeira's connectivity, boosting the diversification of tourist markets, so important for the recovery and growth of tourism in the region."

What is Ryanair?

Ryanair Holdings plc, Europe's largest airline group, is the parent company of Buzz, Lauda, Malta Air and Ryanair. Carrying 149m guests p.a. (pre Covid-19) on more than 2,500 daily flights from over 80 bases, the Group connects over 225 destinations in 37 countries on a fleet of 450 aircraft, with a further 210 Boeing 737s on order, which will enable the Ryanair Group to lower fares and grow traffic to 200m p.a. over the next 5 years. Ryanair has a team of over 16,000 highly skilled aviation professionals delivering Europe's No.1 on-time performance, and an industry leading 35-year safety record. Ryanair is Europe's greenest cleanest airline group and customers switching to fly Ryanair can reduce their CO2 emissions by up to 50% compared to the other Big 4 European major airlines.

Image: © Ryanair

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Written by: Sohail Sawlani
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