Ryanair plots winter fares war with Aer Lingus from Dublin
Ryanair is to challenge Aer Lingus by expanding services from Dublin with six new European routes this winter.
The no-frills carrier will go head to head with the Irish flag carrier on three of the routes – Budapest, Nice and Prague – while another to Basel will compete with Aer Lingus’s service to Zurich.
The Polish destinations of Katowice and Szczecin will also be served.
Frequencies are to be increased on a further 12 routes to the UK and Europe as the carrier aims to deliver an extra one million passengers a year through the airport.
Ryanair is to base an additional two Boeing 737s in Dublin to bring its fleet at the airport up to 22 aircraft.
Extra daily flights are planned from Dublin to Birmingham (4 daily), Edinburgh (4 daily) and Manchester (5 daily). Bratislava, Kaunas, Krakow and Riga frequencies are increased to daily flights, as well as extra weekly flights to Bournemouth, Gkansk, Rzeszow, Tenerife and Wroclaw.
The expansion will bring Ryanair’s total number of routes served year round from Dublin to 81 – almost double the number served by Aer Lingus.
The airline is releasing one million seats for €10 on its website for travel on flights from Dublin to Britain and Continental Europe from September to December, available until midnight today (Thursday).
Ryanair deputy CEO Michael Cawley said: “By launching these six new routes, three of which are already served by Aer Lingus, and one of which competes with Aer Lingus’s high fare route to Zurich, means that long-term access between Dublin and these cities has been secured, even if Aer Lingus decides to transfer more aircraft and more services North of the border to Belfast.
“Ryanair’s new routes will end Aer Lingus’s high fare monopoly on these routes and means that Irish passengers and visitors will no longer have to suffer €200 and €300 air fares from Dublin to Basel, Budapest, Nice and Prague.
“Our new routes to will provide new gateways and links between Ireland and Poland which have enjoyed such enormous customer support in recent years.
“With these new routes and additional flights, Ryanair expects to carry a record 10 million passengers through Dublin Airport in 2008.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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