Seven new Ryanair routes

Low fares giant Ryanair will fly to seven new destinations, deputy CEO Michael Cawley announced today in Malta.

They are Bournemouth and London Stansted (UK); Wroclaw (Poland): Turin (italy); Malmo (Sweden); Oslo (Norway); Kaunas (Lithuania).

The London Stansted route will fly four flights a week while the others will fly twice a week. All new routes will commence in April or May. 

It is expected that the additional routes will increase the passenger traffic to and from Malta to at least 1.1 million in the next 12 months. These new routes will mean 16 extra flights a week, which for the summer alone, are expected to generate an average of 45,000 additional tourist arrivals, given the high utilization rate usually registered by the airline.

“Malta today celebrates seven new summer 2012 routes as Ryanair’s Malta base grows to 28 routes which will deliver over one million passengers and sustain over 1,000 jobs at the airport and on the island,” Cawley said.

Sale of seats are starting at €9.99 to support the launch of the new routes. “To celebrate our 28 Malta routes we are releasing a one million seat sale, with seats from €9.99, for travel across Europe in late February. Since seats at these crazy low prices will be snapped up quickly, we urge passengers to book them immediately,” Cawley said.

Cawley said that it was uncertain whether these routes will remain all year round and it will depend on fuel prices but five out of the seven routes should remain.

Cawley also announce the opening of Ryanair’s 50^th base in Pathos, in Cyprus.

As president of the tourism, hospitality and leisure division of the GRTU, Philip Fenech thought the new routes starting in May would be positive for Malta.

"I am positively auguring these new routes that have been introduced by Ryanair because as has been proven, whenever accessibility has been increased, the number of tourists visiting the island has also increased especially those providing additional links to Italy and the UK, as well as the new routes connecting the Scandinavian market via Norway and Sweden," Fenech said.

Fenech also added: "Moreover the novel connections with Poland and Lithuania will provide a fresh impetus to the tourism sector. Every increase in accessibility to Malta results in a direct increase in the economic growth of our country."

The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association also welcomed the new routes.

"Increased arrivals is good news for Malta... This positive news is very encouraging for all tourism players and indeed the country, as it comes at a time when the industry is concerned about the potential negative effects on tourism as a result of the economic pressures prevailing in Europe, which represents Malta's main source markets."

"The MHRA has always maintained that a critical success factor to the sustainability of the tourism industry is increased accessibility. In fact the significant increases in tourist arrivals registered over recent years are indisputably linked to increases in seat capacity to our islands," MHRA president Tony Zahra said.

"These new routes will go some way towards increasing arrivals beyond the record arrivals of 2011, given that the rest of the seat capacity for this year is planned to similarly match last years figures. Tourism will remain a major driver of the economy, benefiting a large part of the population and generating substantial revenue for government, and consequently is good news for Malta in general."