Ryanair is raising capacity at Manchester airport this summer by adding 300,000 seats across ten new routes.
Three additional Boeing 737s will be based at the north-west hub, bringing the low fares carrier’s fleet up to 12 aircraft.
The ten new destinations being introduced between June and September are Agadir, Almeria, Barcelona Reus, Belfast, Cagliari, Palermo, Ponta Delgada, Porto, Rhodes and Venice Treviso.
Additional flights have been scheduled on existing routes to Alicante, Bologna, Chania, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Lisbon, Malaga, Majorca, Naples and Tenerife.
The summer-only additions will bring Ryanair’s network from Manchester up to 57 routes in what the airline calculates as a $300 million investment.
The new routes go on sale today (Friday) as the carrier seeks to handle almost five million passengers through Manchester airport in 2018.
Ryanair chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said: “Over the past four years, Manchester has been one of our fastest growing bases in the UK and this year summer numbers will grow again by a further 9%.
“Ryanair will continue to connect Manchester with major leisure and business centres on high frequency, low fare services including Dublin (five daily), Madrid (daily) and Rome (ten weekly), with better timings and lower fares.”
Manchester airport’ aviation director Julian Carr said: “We are pleased to see Ryanair add three additional aircraft to Manchester airport. As well as increasing its route network and options for passengers, it also creates jobs for people here in the north-west.
“We look forward to the routes starting and the added international connectivity they offer our 27.8 million passengers.”