Ryanair to open base in Málaga in June 2010

Yesterday, in a press conference at Málaga Airport, Ryanair announced they would open their base nº 38 in Málaga in June 2010, with 4 aircraft and 19 new routes, which will add up to the 20 existing ones. The project, budgeted at US$250M, will create 200 jobs and result in 360 flights to and from Málaga a week.

Ryanair’s 19 new routes include the following destinations: Aarhus, Berlin (Schönefeld Airport), Bratislava, Eindhoven, Krakow, Gothenburg, Maastricht, Memmingen (Munich West), Oslo (Torp Airport), Paris (Beauvais Airport), Pisa, Santander, Santiago, Stockholm (Skavsta Airport ), Tampere, Valladolid, Venice (Treviso Airport), Wroclaw, and Zaragoza. They are expected to increase passenger traffic to over 2M a year, which would mean 2,000 well-paid jobs associated with the airline’s activity in Málaga Province.

To celebrate their new base, Ryanair are making 500,000 seats available in January to take any of their European flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays for just €5. The tickets will be available on www.ryanair.com until December 17 at midnight.

“Ryanair are thrilled to announce the opening of our base nº 38 in Málaga, with 19 new routes that’ll be available on www.ryanair.com as of tomorrow,” said the company’s CEO.

“With 39 low-cost routes from Málaga available next summer, both Spanish and international tourists will be able to fly despite the crisis, choosing Ryanair’s lowest fares, with no fuel surcharges, for 39 exciting destinations in France, Italy, France, and other countries,” he added.

Currently, Ryanair have 37 bases and over 1,000 low-cost routes connecting 150 destinations in 26 countries. By 2011, their fleet of new Boeing 737-800 NG will amount to 210, with others for another 102 to be delivered over the following two years and a half. With a 7,000-strong staff, they have estimated the number of passengers carried this year at about 66M.