Ryanair has launched a new route from Bristol Airport to Europe - and is holding a sale on tickets to mark the occasion. The budget airline will be flying to Bydgoszcz in Poland twice a week from October 30, bringing its total number of routes to and from Bristol for the winter to 29.
The announcement comes just a month after Ryanair boosted its winter schedule by more than one million seats to and from 20 UK airports, with yearly passenger numbers rising to more than 166.5 million. It also follows the news that British Airways is cutting 10,000 flights from its winter programme from Heathrow due to staff shortages and Heathrow’s capacity restrictions.
Ryanair, which also flies to cities including Madrid and Vienna from Bristol, said it was driving traffic growth and recovery across Europe following the pandemic. To celebrate the new Bristol flight route, the carrier has launched a limited-time seat sale with fares available from just £19.99 for travel from October 2022 until the end of January 2023 - but tickets must be booked by today (Thursday, September 22).
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Ryanair’s director of commercial, Jason McGuinness, said: "As Europe’s no. one airline, Ryanair is delighted to announce a new route for our Bristol W’22 schedule to Bydgoszcz, offering over 180 weekly flights across 29 routes, including to exciting European destinations such as Madrid and Vienna, giving our customers more choice of destinations than ever before.
"To allow our customers and visitors to book their winter getaway at the lowest possible fares, we are launching a seat sale with fares available from just £19.99."
In May, the Dublin-based airline reported a full-year loss of €355m (£294m) for the financial year to the end of March. It had previously guided the market to a loss of between €250m (£210m) and €450m (£378m), according to Bristol Live's sister sister Business Live.
Although traffic recovered strongly to 97.1 million from 27.5 million the figures were still 35% behind pre-Covid levels. The airline reported at the time that average fares had fallen 27% to just €27 due to Covid, Omicron and the invasion of Ukraine.
Ryanair said earlier in the year its growth plans to 2026 would see it create more than 6,000 jobs for aviation professionals across Europe.
Last autumn the carrier invested €50m in an Aviation Skills Training Centre in Dublin and said it planned to invest over €100m in two more - one in the Iberian Peninsula and one in central and eastern Europe (CEE). It has also invested in new hangar maintenance facilities in Kaunas, in Lithuania, and Shannon, in Ireland, and agreed a five-year maintenance contract with Joramco in Jordan.
Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary said at the time: "Over the coming five years we expect our traffic to grow by 50% to 225 million per annum. This growth will be delivered at lower fares but on a fleet of new B737 'Gamechanger' aircraft, which offer 4% more seats, yet burn 16% less fuel and reduce noise emissions by 40%."
You can find the flights, including the Thursday-only deal on RyanAir
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