Ryanair unveils 39 new routes to Canary Islands

Ryanair has added 39 routes to the Canary Islands in its winter 2009 schedule, opening up links from across Europe including several UK airports.

The low-cost carrier appears to be seeing good on its pledge to strengthen operations in countries where airport operator charges are kept to a minimum.

Under the new winter timetable, Ryanair will carry up to two million passengers on 16 new routes to Gran Canaria, 15 to Lanzarote and eight to Tenerife.

Outbound services will depart from Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, East Midlands, Glasgow Prestwick, Liverpool, London Luton and London Stansted airports.

"Ryanair is delighted to open 39 new routes to / from the Canary Islands in October which will allow us to bring more low fares, more competition and choice to even more consumers / visitors of the Canary Islands," commented spokesman Michael Cawley said.

Praising Spanish operator AENA for cutting airport taxes, he added: "The continuation of these routes past March 31, 2010 will be dependent on the extension of these vital discounts."

Earlier this month, Ryanair confirmed that it is cutting winter capacity at London Stansted by 40 per cent. The no-frills airline had previously lodged a series of complaints with UK airport regular BAA about the "high airport charges" it imposes on carriers.

© Cheapflights Ltd

Comments

[Roman]

We know that in the past when Ryanair closed other bases - some in Spain others in France, for instance - they just open routes and close them once they are no longer profitable. Ryanair receives public subsidiaries, and it is known that they sometimes cash them in and then leave the scene.

So there is no reason to be happy. O'Leary will scrap these routes as soon as they stop being beneficial.