No-frills airline Ryanair said it will add more than 500 flights with a total of 100,000 seats to and from its main base at London Stansted for the October half-term break. The increase comes after Heathrow extended its cap on the number of departing passengers until the end of that month due to staff shortages.
Michael O’Leary, Ryanair chief executive, said: “While hopeless Heathrow continues to cut flights and raise fares for families, Ryanair and London Stansted continue to add flights, and offer thousands of low-fare seats for the autumn mid-term break. With over 500 additional flights, more than 100,000 additional seats and prices starting from just 29.99 euros (£25.29), Ryanair looks forward to welcoming thousands of additional families during the autumn mid-term break on its low-fare flights to/from London Stansted Airport.
“While hopeless Heathrow continues to mismanage air travel, Ryanair and London Stansted will continue to grow and deliver for London families, the way we have through all of summer 2022.”
Ryanair insisted that it and Stansted have “more than sufficient staff to handle these additional flights”. The extra flights will service airports in Greece, Spain, Portugal and France.
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye told newspapers many airlines continued to attempt to operate an unrealistic number of flights, accusing many of failing to increase ground-handling resources more than six months since the issues emerged.
“We really need to fix this. It’s not just Heathrow, it applies to all airports across Europe,” he added.
