The new destinations start in December 2006 and will be served by Ryanair on a year round basis. They bring to 63 the number of UK and European routes served by Ryanair from Dublin and completes Ryanair’s displacement of Aer Lingus as the national carrier of Ireland, as demonstrated by the following facts:

From December, Ryanair will base three new aircraft in Dublin Airport, create over 200 jobs, and start services on twelve new routes from Dublin to points all over Europe. 

1.   Ryanair carries 42M pax annually, five times more than Aer Lingus’ 8M.
2.   Ryanair offers more routes from Dublin to the UK (18) than Aer Lingus (7).
3.   Ryanair offers more routes from Dublin to Europe (45) than Aer Lingus (28).
4.   Ryanair offers double the routes from Irl to UK&EUR (102) than Aer Lingus (51).
5.   Ryanair carries 50% more passengers to/from Ireland (12M) than Aer Lingus (8M).
6.   Ryanair’s av. fare is €41. Aer Lingus’s av. Eur fare is 60% higher @ €67.
7.   Ryanair beats Aer Lingus on punctuality, fewer cancellations and fewer lost bags.
8.   Ryanair brings more visitors to Dublin and Ireland than Aer Lingus.

The Irish Government plans a stock market floatation of Aer Lingus next month.

Announcing these new routes in Dublin this morning, Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“Move over Aer Lingus! Ryanair is now Ireland’s national airline and Aer Lingus is just a distant number 2.  Passengers prefer Ryanair because we give them lower fares, many more destinations to the UK and Europe and a better passenger service in terms of newer aircraft, better punctuality, fewer cancellations and fewer lost bags.  

“On every route where there they have a choice, millions  more passengers prefer Ryanair to Aer Lingus. Today’s twelve new routes will end Aer Lingus’ high fare monopoly to destinations such as Madrid, Bologna, Almeria and Seville. Irish passengers who previously had no alternative to Aer Lingus’  high fares and frequent delays on these routes will now have a low fare, on-time option with Ryanair.  Irish passengers will also enjoy Ryanair’s low fares to new European destinations such as Norway (Oslo Torp), Denmark (Billund), Finland (Tampere) and Eastern Poland (Rzeszow) which are not currently served by Aer Lingus.   

“This year Ryanair will carry 42 million passengers across its network.   This is five times more than the annual, 8M traffic of Aer Lingus.  Ryanair also carries 50% more passengers than Aer Lingus to/from Ireland. The Irish people have voted with their feet and made Ryanair Ireland’s number one airline. In the process Aer Lingus has been displaced as Ireland’s national airline and now survives as just a distant number 2. 

“In 2007, Ryanair will deliver 9M passengers through Dublin airport, sustaining 9,000 jobs in Dublin and generating a tourist spend of €2.5BN.  To celebrate these 12 new European destinations, Ryanair is launching a seat sale today with every seat on every one of these routes  (except Grenoble and Friedrichshafen)  being sold for just €12 one way (including taxes, fees and charges) for travel during the first month of operation.  This offer will run for one week only and I urge everybody to book their seats as quickly as possible on www.ryanair.com because at such low prices, these seats will sell out fast”.

O'Leary also again said that Ryanair would never impose fuel surcharges, even if the cost of oil exceeded $200 (€160) a barrel.

"Ryanair will never introduce fuel surcharges, today tomorrow or ever, even if it reaches $200 a barrel," O'Leary said. "Admittedly, if it hits $200 a barrel we'll be the only airline left flying in Europe."

In 2005, the two parties in the Irish Government only finally decided to build a second terminal at Dublin's only airport, that has experienced a huge growth in traffic in the past decade.

They spent years arguing about whether the second terminal should be run by the existing State airports management company or a private operation. A sod has not yet been turned and Ryanair's additional routes will result in at least an extra 900,000 people passing through the already congested airport.

More than 18.4 million passengers travelled through the airport last year and the numbers next year are expected to exceed 24 million.

It will be 2010 or 2011 before the chaos at peak hours abates. As the politicians argued, a long wood extension was added to Pier A at the airport.

The new second terminal will cost at least €300 million.

Last March, a low-cost terminal that can handle 10 million passengers annually, opened at Kuala Lumpur's impressive modern airport. It took less than a year to build at a cost of €27 million. 

"This existing government has broken its promise to provide us with a second terminal during the lifetime of this government," Michael O'Leary said.

"We'll be coming back to it in the run-up to the election."

The Ryanair CEO called on Dublin Airport Authority to sell its stake in Birmingham and Düsseldorf airports, as well as the Great Southern Hotel group, to fund expansion at the three main Irish airports.

"That would pay off the debt in Cork, it would pay off the debt in Shannon and it would pay for the second terminal at Dublin, and we cannot understand why these things are not being pursued."

"If someone as bright as Dermot Desmond thinks it's the right time to sell London City Airport, surely you would think that the halfwits in the Irish government would think maybe it's the right time to offload the stakes in Birmingham and Düsseldorf airports.

"Neither of them makes any contribution to Irish tourism or the Irish economy generally," O'Leary said.