Ryanair will fly six new routes from Newcastle International Airport as part of its largest ever winter schedule from the North East.
Sun seekers and city breakers are being offered flights to Barcelona, Cork, Bergamo, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Riga. All destinations will see twice weekly flights using the airline's two aircraft that are permanently based at Newcastle.
Ryanair now flies a total of 15 routes from the airport - an expansion that means it will have doubled the number of North East passengers it carries from around 500,000 pre-Covid to nearly one million. Bosses have also praised Newcastle's handling of airport operations during Covid, marking it out as one of the best performing in the country.
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Speaking to ChronicleLive, Jason McGuinness, Ryanair director of commercial, said: "The Newcastle team are exceptionally good and exceptionally proactive. Richard Knight and his team have done a great job and they're reaping the rewards in terms of the continuation of the Ryanair two base aircraft into winter. All through summer when we had lots of chaos at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester etc - Newcastle performed exceptionally well, like ourselves. They run a very good, tight ship there."
Ryanair says its decision not to cut costs to the extent of rivals during Covid has meant it is now attracting more customers. And while sounding a note of caution about cost of living pressures, the airline said it was still confident of attracting a growing number of passengers at Newcastle.
Mr McGuinness added: "We kept all of our crew and all of our aircraft. Some would say that was a bold decision at the time, but it's really contributed to us being by far and away the UK's biggest and most reliable airline this year - and you've seen that across the UK as we've now got 440 routes, our largest ever UK schedule."
The latest winter routes build on Ryanair's investment in a new base at Newcastle comprising two Boeing 737-800s and supporting 60 direct jobs and an estimated 400 indirect jobs. Mr McGuinness told ChronicleLive that the carrier's presence at Newcastle could be significantly expanded if the new Prime Minister and her cabinet decided to scrap air passenger duty (APD), which the UK regional aviation sector says has dogged it for years.
Mr Guinness said the PM was "really serious" about levelling up she should scrap the tax, which he said could open the door to Ryanair basing four to five aircrafts from Newcastle.
He added: "It really, really does put UK regional airports at a significant disadvantage to their competitors. There are two reasons for that: one, a significant number of European airports do not have APD, which immediately puts the Newcastle management team on the back foot because they're starting £13 behind, and the other thing is the aviation market across Europe: it's roughly 20% where it was in summer 2019.
"You take Easyjet at the moment, they're probably operating in the region of 20% less than what they were. BA, who knows given the number of cancellations but probably somewhere between 30-40% less. When you have a market that is 20% smaller, it means it's more competitive from the airport side."
A HM Treasury spokesperson said: "We are absolutely committed to levelling up regions around the UK by helping their economies to grow, and that’s why we have slashed domestic Air Passenger Duty in half to support our regional airports, which in particular rely heavily on domestic flights.
"In addition, throughout the pandemic we backed airports with measures including the Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme, worth more than £160m, loan guarantees and the furlough scheme, and we will continue to stand by the sector throughout the current global economic challenges."
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