On September 27th, Ryanair unveiled its Winter 2023/2024 schedule for London, encompassing Gatwick, Luton, and Stansted airports. This exciting release includes the introduction of seven new routes connecting London to Belfast, Basel, Ouarzazate, Tatry, Tirana, Treviso, and Vigo. Furthermore, they have amplified flight frequencies on 30 additional routes, such as Alicante, Athens, Bratislava, Cologne, and Faro, to facilitate a remarkable 15% growth in London’s air traffic.
In preparation for the Winter 2023/2024 season, Ryanair will station two new Boeing 737 aircraft at Stansted, representing a $200 million investment. This move expands Ryanair’s London-based fleet to an impressive total of 50 aircraft. In tandem with this expansion, the company anticipates generating over 60 well-compensated job opportunities for pilots, cabin crew, and engineers at London’s rapidly burgeoning airport.
Ryanair’s Winter 2023/2024 London schedule delivers:
- Introduction of 7 new routes: Belfast, Basel, Poprad, Ouarzazate, Tirana, Treviso, and Vigo.
- Inclusion of 2 new Boeing 737 aircraft, bringing the London fleet to 50.
- A comprehensive network of 162 routes serving London.
- Enhanced flight frequencies on 30 routes.
- Creation of over 1,500 highly paid positions in the aviation and professional sectors.
- Anticipated growth of London’s passenger traffic to over 27 million travelers annually.
Notably, Ryanair maintains its status as the United Kingdom’s premier airline, with an extensive network of over 440 routes and an annual passenger volume exceeding 52 million. This is facilitated by its fleet of 107 aircraft based in the UK, representing a substantial $10.7 billion investment. Ryanair is committed to delivering exceptional route choices at the most competitive fares, contributing to year-round connectivity and inbound tourism that, in turn, sustains more than 37,000 jobs in the UK.
Despite Ryanair’s continued investment and expansion in the United Kingdom, the UK NATS Air Traffic Control (ATC) system remains a significant concern for passenger travel plans. Ryanair currently pays nearly €100 million per annum for ATC services, which have frequently suffered from understaffing issues. On August 28th, the ATC system experienced a complete collapse, resulting in the cancellation of over 2,000 flights (affecting more than 360,000 passengers) and significant delays for more than 5,000 flights (impacting 900,000 passengers), all without a satisfactory explanation.
Following this incident, NATS once again caused flight disruptions at Gatwick on September 14th due to staff shortages. Ryanair urges Transport Minister Mark Harper to promptly instruct NATS, in which the UK Government holds a majority stake, to reimburse all airlines for the expenses they incurred due to NATS’ incompetence on August 28th. Furthermore, Ryanair calls for urgent reforms in the UK’s Air Traffic Control system to prevent such avoidable system failures from recurring.
To celebrate the addition of two new aircraft and the introduction of seven new routes for London this winter, Ryanair has launched a two-day seat sale with fares starting from £29.99, exclusively available at Ryanair.com.
In London, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:
“Ryanair is pleased to add 7 new routes this winter from London to Belfast, Basel, Poprad, Ouarzazate, Tirana, Treviso & Vigo, as well as increased frequencies on another 30 Winter sun and city break routes. To support this growing Winter schedule, we have based 2 new aircraft at Stansted, bringing our total London-based fleet to 50 aircraft (a $5bn investment) and creating over 60 new high pay jobs.
Ryanair is the UK’s No.1 airline, and while we continue to grow and provide unbeatable route choice and low fares to our 52m p.a. UK customers, NATS are busy writing “whitewash” reports to cover up their inexplicable incompetence which led to the cancellation of over 2,000 flights (over 360,000 passengers) and long delays to more than 5,000 flights (900,000 passengers) on Mon 28/Tues 29 Aug last.
Ryanair calls on Transport Minister, Mark Harper, and the UK Govt to urgently reform ATC and guarantee UK passengers that they will not suffer any more disruptions as a result of repeated NATS failures, mismanagement & incompetence.”
