LONDON – The Irish low cost giant Ryanair has announced the reopening of the Canary Islands bases it shut down in early 2020, located in Tenerife South and Lanzarote.
Ryanair has decided to reopen the two airport bases for the summer 2023 campaign, which will feature 520 flights per week.
The Canary Islands bases reopen
On November 22, the Irish carrier announced the reopening of the previously shut down Canary Island bases of Tenerife South and Lanzarote.
Having being forced to shut these bases down in 2020 due to delays in aircraft deliveries from Boeing, the return to these two destinations will secure and create 120 new jobs for highly skilled engineers and flight crew, pilots included.
Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of Ryanair’s landing in Spain, Ryanair’s CEO Eddie Wilson made the announcement saying:
“We are delighted to invest more than 400 million euros in the Canary Islands with the opening of these bases. This is fantastic news for these two vacation spots, which attract millions of tourists looking for low rates and incredible choice.”
“To celebrate, we have launched a seat offer with fares available from just €29.99 for travel from April to October 2023, which must be booked by Thursday, November 24,”
The bases will see the location of four aircraft in total, with two at Lanzarote and two at Tenerife South, along with six new routes to Germany, Ireland, France, Poland and the Netherlands.
Ryanair schedule for this winter
Whilst envisioning the 2023 summer season and holiday travel, the winter season 2022 is here, and Ryanair does not let down on their winter schedule.
In early June, Ryanair revealed their massive winter program, ranging from multiple Irish airports, and in a later announcement, a massive winter expansion from their Newcastle (NCL) base as well. In addition to the carrier’s previous 170 routes, they are adding another seven routes from Irish gateways – these being:
From Dublin (DUB)
- Castellón-Costa Azahar (CDT), Spain
- Genoa Christopher Columbus (GOA), Italy
- Klagenfurt (KLU), Austria
- Rome Fiumicino (FCO), Italy
- Rovaniemi (RVN), Finland / Lapland
- Venice Marco Polo (VCE), Italy
From Cork (ORK)
- Newcastle Int’l Airport (NCL)
The Ryanair Winter Program will operate across 90 bases with over 2,500 routes to 36 European countries. In addition to the massive Irish expansion, Ryanair has announced yet another expansion in the winter schedule, this one being record setting.
Newcastle (NCL)
With 2 Newcastle (NCL) based aircraft, 15 destinations and over 80 weekly flights, Ryanair is setting records on the expansion from Newcastle. New destinations from Newcastle in the Winter 22/23 program include destinations to holiday locations as:
- Barcelona El-Prat (BCN)
- Canary Islands
- Málaga (AGP)
- Alicante Elche (ALC)
However, the winter expansion will also see multiple routes to European cities, like:
- Krakow (KRK)
- Milano Bergamo (BGY)
- Cork (CRK)
Since these destinations were announced, Ryanair has also announced a summer network from Shannon, Ireland. AviationSource reported this in an earlier article which can be found here.
Conclusion
It remains clear that Ryanair are continuing to recover strongly after the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in a great downfall for the aviation industry.
Being a giant low-cost carrier in Europe, Ryanair’s fast recovery came as no surprise, but the reopening of bases and creation of new jobs is by all means a great thing for the company, coming so fast after restrictions lifted.
