Ryanair to add fourth aircraft to Prague Airport and launch six new routes

Low-cost carrier Ryanair will add a fourth aircraft to Prague Airport for the winter season and launch six new routes. In total, it will operate 27 routes. It will also increase the frequency of existing routes. The carrier plans to carry 2.4 million passengers at Prague Airport this year, the same as before covid-19.

Ryanair will now fly from Prague to Catania, East Midlands, Gdansk, Malaga, Seville and Tirana in winter. At the same time, it will increase the number of frequencies on another 12 routes, for example to Barcelona, Madrid, Paris and Rome.

The company will add a fourth aircraft to its Prague airport base, which it says represents an investment of $100 million (equivalent to about CZK 2.3 billion). Before the 2019 coronavirus pandemic, the carrier had five aircraft in Prague. The company said the new aircraft will create 30 jobs.

Ryanair carried about 2.4 million passengers in Prague in 2019. The carrier now carries about 30 percent more passengers across Europe than it did before covid-19, according to its representatives, so it sees growth at Prague Airport as weak. At Prague Airport, Ryanair is the second strongest carrier after Smartwings.

"Prague Airport is very pleased to see Ryanair expanding its operations in Prague to new destinations and additional based aircraft. We are particularly pleased that growth continues into the winter season and passengers will have more choice of direct flights to and from our airport," said Jiří Vyskoč, Executive Director of Air Business Development at Prague Airport.

"Ryanair is delighted to be able to offer Prague customers even more choice and lower fares this winter with 27 routes, including six very exciting new routes," said Ryanair's Jason McGuinness.

Smartwings has also recently introduced new routes for the winter season. The winter schedule will offer direct connections from Czech airports to more than 20 destinations. From Prague, for example, to Dubai, Spain, the Canary Islands or newly to Antalya, Turkey. According to spokeswoman Vladimíra Dufková, the airline now has 25 aircraft based at airports in the Czech Republic. CSA, which is part of the Smartwings group, will also fly to Yerevan, Armenia, from October.

Source: Ryanair and CTK