APD Cut: Ryanair Announces 9 New Domestic UK Routes

APD Cut: Ryanair Announces 9 New Domestic UK Routes
Photo Credit: Adrian Olstad/AviationSource
James Field - Editor in Chief 4 Min Read
4 Min Read

Following the 50% cut in Air Passenger Duty Tax (APD), Ryanair has announced nine new domestic UK routes, which will take place in the Summer of 2023.

The nine new routes are as follows:

  • Belfast-Cardiff
  • Belfast-Edinburgh
  • Belfast-East Midlands
  • Belfast-Manchester
  • Belfast-London Stansted
  • Bournemouth-Edinburgh
  • Edinburgh-Newquay
  • Edinburgh-London Stansted
  • Newquay-London Stansted

Ryanair Welcomes The APD Cut…


APD Cut: Ryanair Announces 9 New Domestic UK Routes
Photo Credit: Kyle Hayes/AviationSource

Jade Kirwan, the Head of Communications for Ryanair, welcomed the APD cut and said the following on this:

“Ryanair is pleased to announce 9 new domestic UK routes in direct response to the UK Govt’s 50% reduction in UK APD from tomorrow, 1 Apr.”

“Reducing APD will result in market growth in the UK, and these new routes show just that, with 74 weekly flights scheduled across Belfast, Bournemouth, Cardiff, and Edinburgh. East Midlands, London, Manchester, and Newquay represent 95% growth on our UK domestic schedule compared to last Summer.”

“While the halving of APD on domestic flights from Apr ‘23 has allowed Ryanair to add more domestic routes to our UK schedule for Summer ’23 if we are to continue to grow and drive traffic/tourism recovery for the UK, the UK Govt should immediately scrap APD for all travel and provide incentives for airlines like Ryanair to stimulate growth and recovery for the entire UK market.”

Ryanair’s Movement Statistics Continue to Grow…


APD Cut: Ryanair Announces 9 New Domestic UK Routes
Data provided by RadarBox.com.

Ahead of the Summer 2023 season, Ryanair is experiencing significant growth in the number of flights handled on a seven-day rolling average, as noted by RadarBox.

For March 26-April 2, the carrier operated 2,865 flights, which represents an increase of 4.71% compared to the same period last year.

This figure is also 534 movements higher than the same period in 2019, which is known as the pre-COVID era.

Below is the last six weeks’ worth of data for the carrier:

Date2019 Numbers2022 Numbers2023 NumbersPercentage Difference (2023 vs. 2022)
February 12-191844 movements2013 movements2144 movements+6.51%
February 19-261849 movements1978 movements2149 movements+8.65%
February 26-March 51845 movements2157 movements2149 movements-0.37%
March 5-121850 movements2189 movements2131 movements-2.65%
March 12-191832 movements2178 movements2139 movements-1.79%
March 19-261840 movements2171 movements2222 movements+2.35%

What we can see from the data is that Ryanair is continuing to perform well, and for March 19-26, you can begin to see the Summer 2023 spike initiating.

Overall…


Photo Credit: Kyle Hayes/AviationSource

It is abundantly clear that Ryanair is going to have quite a busy Summer 2023 period, especially with the high load factors it was already advertising in the Winter season, being the high 90s.

All eyes will be on the carrier to see if it can exert more pressure on the UK Government to cut APD in its entirety, which would open up more consumer spending for travel moving forward.

But for now, all eyes are on Ryanair to see if any more UK routes get announced as a result of the APD cut, which will no doubt put pressure on regional carriers such as Loganair.

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