Ryanair has opened an aircraft base at Newcastle (NCL)) in northeast England and is launching 10 new routes from the airport for its summer 2022 schedule, including four to Spain.
The carrier, which is basing two Boeing 737 aircraft at NCL, plans to operate 19 total routes and 130 weekly flights from the airport during its summer schedule. In 2019, the ULCC operated fewer than 90 weekly flights from NCL.
The 10 new routes from NCL include Crete (CHQ in Greece; Spanish destinations Fuerteventura (FUE), Gran Canaria (LPA), Ibiza (IBZ) and Menorca (MAH); Krakow (KRK) in Poland; Milan Bergamo (BGY); Paphos (PFO) in Cyprus; Riga (RIX) in Latvia; and Zadar (ZAD) in Croatia.
When Ryanair announced last year it would be opening a base at NCL, it said it would launch 12 new routes from the airport in its summer 2022 schedule. But two destinations, both in Spain's Canary Islands, have been dropped from the roster: Tenerife North (TFN) and Lanzarote (ACE).
“The opening of this base and introduction of these new routes from Newcastle reinforces our commitment to increasing connectivity, travel options and inbound tourism to the area as Ryanair will now offer 40% more capacity [from NCL] than it did pre-pandemic,” Ryanair marketing director Dara Brady said in a statement.