Ryanair invests £210m in fleet and services at Manchester Airport

Irish carrier Ryanair has announced a nine-figure investment to boost its fleet and services at Manchester Airport.

The airline confirmed it is investing $300m (around £210m) in an extra three aircraft for its peak Summer 2018 schedule, running from June to September.

Ryanair will operate 10 new summer routes from Manchester this year, including flights to Agadir in Morocco, Ponta Delgada in Portugal and Northern Irish capital Belfast, as well as additional flights on existing routes.

In total, Summer 2018 will see the airline offer 300,000 extra seats on 57 routes operated by 12 aircraft.

Kenny Jacobs, Ryanair’s chief marketing officer, said: “Ryanair is delighted to announce an additional investment of $300m at Manchester with three extra based aircraft for our peak Summer 2018 schedule, bringing the total investment at Manchester to $1.2bn.

“We will deliver an exciting set of 10 new Manchester summer routes, some of which are connecting with Manchester for the first time, and add an extra 300,000 summer seats to the schedule. These new summer routes will go on sale on Ryanair.com from tomorrow (January 26).”

He continued: “Over the past four years, Manchester has been one of our fastest growing bases in the UK and this year summer numbers will grow again by a further 9%.

“Ryanair will continue to connect Manchester with major leisure and business centres on high frequency, low fare services including Dublin (five daily), Madrid (daily) and Rome (10 weekly) with better timings and lower fares, making Ryanair the ideal choice for Manchester business and leisure customers.”

Julian Carr, aviation director at Manchester Airport, commented: “We are pleased to see Ryanair add three additional aircraft to Manchester Airport.

“As well as increasing its route network and options for passengers, it also creates jobs for people here in the North West.”

He added: “We look forward to the routes starting and the added international connectivity they offer our 27.8m passengers.”