Ryanair adds six new destinations to its Stansted Airport summer timetable

Ryanair has announced six new routes for its summer season from Stansted Airport.

The Irish budget carrier currently operates to 180 destinations from the Uttlesford hub, Gatwick and Luton.

As well as increasing frequencies on more than 30 sunshine routes including Malaga and Mallorca in Spain and Nantes in France, Ryanair's 3,000-plus weekly flights to and from the three London airports represent 10% growth compared to last year.

The airline says it has invested $5.7bn in London, with 57 based aircraft supporting over 1,600 direct crew and engineering jobs.

Its six new services from Stansted are three daily flights to Edinburgh in Scotland and two to Belfast in Northern Ireland, plus three weekly departures to Asturias in Spain, Leipzig in Germany and to Cornwall, and two a week to Klagenfurt in Austria.

Chief executive Michael O'Leary said: "While the halving of air passenger duty (APD) on domestic flights from April 2023 has allowed Ryanair to add more domestic routes to our UK schedule for summer 23 – including Stansted to Belfast, Cornwall and Edinburgh – if we are to continue to grow and drive traffic/tourism recovery for the UK, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should immediately scrap APD for all travel and provide incentives for airlines like Ryanair to stimulate growth and recovery for the UK, including London."

The airline reported profits of £2m a day in the last three months of 2022 and filled 93% of its seats.