Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (20 Sept) launched its Belfast summer 2017 schedule, with 11 routes including Berlin, London and Milan, which will deliver 1.1m customers p.a. and support over 800* jobs at Belfast International Airport.

Ryanair’s summer 2017 schedule will also see more frequencies to sun destinations for family holidays, lower fares (as Ryanair passes on lower fuel costs), an even better customer experience as it rolls out year 3 of its “Always Getting Better” customer experience programme, and will deliver:

· 3 based aircraft

· 10 new S17 routes including Lanzarote (2 wkly), Malaga (5 wkly), Tenerife (2 wkly) & Warsaw (2 wkly)

· 11 routes in total including London Gatwick (4 daily)

· 1.1m customers p.a.

· Over 800* “on-site” jobs p.a.

In Belfast, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“We are pleased to launch our Belfast summer 2017 schedule, which includes 10 new summer routes and our 4 times daily service to London Gatwick, which will deliver 10% growth to 1.1m customers p.a. and support over 800 jobs at Belfast Airport.

Customers can look forward to even lower fares when they make advance bookings for summer 2017. As our recent guidance confirmed, Ryanair expects average fares to fall by between 10% to 12% in the 6 months to March 2017. There’s never been a better time to book a low fare flight on Ryanair and we urge all customers who wish to book their summer 2017 holidays to do so now on the Ryanair.com website, where they can avail of the lowest fare air travel to and from Belfast.

To celebrate the launch of our Belfast summer 2017 schedule we are releasing seats for sale from just £19.99, which are available for booking until Friday (23 Sep). Since these amazing low prices will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com and avoid missing out.”

Belfast International Airport Managing Director, Graham Keddie said:

“Three based aircraft underlines Ryanair’s clear intention to go for growth in Northern Ireland. It’s a hugely significant investment in its new hub and one that is based on clear passenger demand.

Ryanair said they would carry one million passengers in the first year of operation and I’m delighted to see that figure revised upwards. The potential is considerable, but it would be much more if we dealt with the regressive Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax that serves to slow down airline expansion and growth.

Again, I make the appeal to Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive to realise the damage that APD is causing and move to reduce or remove it so that we can go on to create thousands of new jobs and open up new business opportunities.”