Ryanair is to expand operations at Manchester this summer, with three additional aircraft being based at the airport and ten new summer routes.
The low-cost carrier will add flights to Agadir, Almeria, Barcelona Reus, Belfast, Cagliari, Palermo, Ponta Delgada, Porto, Rhodes, and Venice Treviso.
The routes will operate twice weekly, with the exception of Belfast which will be served daily from March, Ponta Delgada which will be weekly, and Porto / Venice Treviso which will be thrice weekly.
In addition Ryanair says it will increase frequencies on routes from Manchester to Alicante, Bologna, Chania, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Lisbon, Malaga, Mallorca, Naples and Tenerife this summer.
In total 12 aircraft will be based at the airport, serving 57 summer routes. Commenting on the news Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said:
“Ryanair is delighted to announce an additional investment of $300 million at Manchester with three extra based aircraft for our peak summer 2018 schedule, bringing the total investment at Manchester to $1.2bn.
“We will deliver an exciting set of ten new Manchester summer routes, some of which are connecting with Manchester for the first time, and add an extra 300,000 summer seats to the schedule.”
This week Ryanair announced a new travel credit programme, offering accommodation customers a 10 per cent credit against flight purchases.