Travel body ABTA say Ryanair’s new flights from Newcastle Airport will have the added benefit of bringing more tourists into the North East.
Ryanair’s new winter schedule this week will provide additional routes to Tenerife, Malaga and Lanzarote as well as extra flights to Alicante and Dublin, delivering 330,000 passengers and supporting more than 250 jobs.
Sean Tipton, from ABTA, said: “These additional routes provide easy access to very popular holiday destinations across Europe. All of the choices are great places to visit, especially during the winter months where the temperature is still in the mid 20s and sunny and pleasant.
“Of course for the economy, it means there will be an abundance of new jobs created and great for businesses looking to set up in the North East and will provide good travel connections for them to market themselves.
“It also works both ways as it means people from these countries have the opportunity to experience places the North East like Sunderland and Newcastle at a great time of the year.”
These extra flights are part of Ryanair’s Always Getting Better programme which includes more routes, a new app and cabin crew interiors and uniforms.
Ryanair’s Head of Communications Robin Kiely said: “We are pleased to launch our biggest ever Newcastle winter 2016 schedule, which includes two new routes to Lanzarote and Tenerife, a new winter service to Malaga, and more flights to Alicante and Dublin, which moves to a double daily service from June, which will deliver 330,000 customers per annum and support 250 jobs at Newcastle Airport, as we double our Newcastle traffic.
“To celebrate the launch of our Newcastle winter 2016 schedule, we are releasing 100,000 seats for sale across our European network from just £19.99, which are available for booking until Monday (Mar 7).
“Since these amazing low prices will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com and avoid missing out.”
SR news reporter Clinton Forde asked readers which of the new destinations they would prefer to fly to. The results can be found via the link below:
In light of @Ryanair new winter routes schedule via @NCLairport, which destination are you most likely to travel to?
— #FordeHaveMercy (@FordeEsq) March 3, 2016