Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary today repeated his call for three new London runways.
He made the plea while outlining the budget airline’s 2017 summer schedule form Stansted, Gatwick and Luton.
Chief executive O’Leary said:
“Ryanair calls on the new UK Government to be radical in its decision making on new runways for London instead of picking just one – Heathrow or Gatwick – and calls on prime minister Theresa May to approve three new runways – one each at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, which will finally resolve the runway capacity issue for the next 50 years, while ensuring competition between airports delivers efficient facilities and prevents airlines and passengers being ripped off by gold-plated monopoly runways.”
The airline expects to carry 23.6 million passengers from the London area airports it operates from next summer.
Only two new routes are being added – Stansted to Strasbourg and Luton to Faro – although capacity is being raised on other services.
The carrier will run 132 routes from Stansted with increased frequency to Sofia and Nuremberg.
Luton will have 18 routes and Gatwick five – to Belfast, Cork, Dublin and Shannon.