Ryanair to fly to Krakow, Liverpool and Milan Bergamo in new winter schedule

Low-fares giant Ryanair has launched its largest ever winter schedule, with 20 routes that will include new flights to Krakow in Poland, Liverpool in the UK, and Milan-Bergamo, in Italy.

The airline will fly once weekly to Krakow, twice weekly to Liverpool, and five times weekly to Milan. It will also increase the frequency of its flights to Bristol, Edinburgh, and London.

"We spoke to the Malta Tourism Authority and Malta International Airport to make Malta an all-year-round destination, and we argued that attractive prices are the way of getting more traffic to the island. More people are now switching to Ryanair because of Air Malta's high fares and fuel surcharge: we charged an average €48 fare in 2012, compared to Air Malta's €129," an airline spokesperson said.

It is thought that the increases in routes and frequencies will yield an almost 30% increase in passengers during the winter season.

GRTU vice-president Philip Fenech welcomed the move positively. "Currently the tourism sector flourishes during summer and registers loss during winter. This has to stop" it said.
 
Ryanair said the airline registered an ever-increasing traffic growth since 2005. He said that at the same time, their main competitors had either closed down or made significant losses.
 
During the media briefing, Ryanair emphasised the results the airline had achieved in the last year. "We are the airline with the greatest traffic in Europe, covering more than 1,600 routes from 57 bases," the spokesman said. The company also had the fewest mishandled bags (0.3 per 1,000 persons) and the most on-time flights.
 
Ryanair has just invested $15.6 billion on a new fleet, which will be made up of 175 next-generation Boeing aircrafts.
 
To celebrate the launch of the Malta winter schedule and the three new routes, Ryanair launched a 100,000 seat sale across its entire European network with prices starting from €22.99. This applies for travelling in July and August if booked until next Monday.