Ryanair, the Irish low fares airline, has launched its biggest ever London S 2019 schedule, with 23 new routes and over 180 routes in total, from Ryanair’s four London airports – Stansted, Luton, Southend and Gatwick.
As part of the London S19 schedule, Ryanair will introduce a new three-aircraft base at Southend and two more aircraft at Luton, adding to a total of six aircraft. The airline has also announced 23 new routes including three at Stansted, viz. Kiev, Lviv and Nantes; and six at Luton, viz. Alicante, Athens, Barcelona, Bologna, Cork and Malaga. At Southend, Ryanair introduced 14 routes including to Alicante, Bilbao, Brest, Copenhagen, Cluj, Corfu, Dublin, Faro, Kosice, Malaga, Milan, Palma, Reus and Venice.
In total, the London S19 Schedule will operate over 180 routes, expected to carry over 26 million customers per annum, up five percent over the previous year.
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said: ‘Ryanair is pleased to launch our biggest ever London S 2019 schedule with over 180 routes from our 4 London airports, including 1 new base at Southend and 23 new routes to exciting destinations such as Barcelona, Bilbao, Copenhagen and Kiev. Our S2019 schedule will deliver 26m customers p.a. through Stansted, Luton, Southend and Gatwick, all at the lowest fares, as we continue to grow London traffic, tourism and jobs.
We remain concerned at the increasing risk of a hard (no-deal) Brexit in March 2019. While we hope that a 21-month transition agreement from March 2019 will be agreed, recent events in the UK have added uncertainty, and we believe that the risk of a hard Brexit (which could lead to flights being grounded for a period of days or weeks) is being underestimated.’
Separately, Ryanair also announced a new route from Cardiff to Malta, with a twice-weekly service commencing in April 2019, which will be a part of Ryanair’s summer 2019 schedule.
Commenting on the new Maltese route, Deb Barber, CEO of Cardiff Airport, said, ‘Our customers have been asking for the return of flights to Malta for some time, so we’re absolutely thrilled with today’s announcement that Ryanair will operate regular, low-cost services to this popular Mediterranean destination from early 2019.
‘South Wales is home to a thriving Maltese community and so this service makes it easier to travel between both destinations, whilst also serving as another access point for European visitors seeking to explore Wales.’
