Ryanair: Copenhagen Base Announcement, Jordan Expansion

DALLAS - Ryanair (FR) has announced that it will open a two-aircraft base in Copenhagen (CPH) in December 2023. It is the airline’s second Danish base after Billund (BLL), which opened in 2021.

The move comes almost ten years after the airline announced it would open a base in the Danish capital in 2014. With four aircraft, the CPH base opened in March 2015. However, a few months later, FR was forced to close the base following a dispute with local unions regarding terms and conditions for its staff.

FR will create up to 100 direct jobs for pilots, flight attendants and engineers with a US$200m investment. In addition to the current 20 destinations served, four new routes will be added to Dusseldorf (NRN), Faro (FAO), Paris (BVA) and Warsaw (WAW). Frequencies to Gdansk (GDN) and Krakow (KRK) will also be increased. Ryanair is already the third largest operator in CPH after SAS (SK) and Norwegian (DY).

FR will open its new CPH base in December this year. Photo: Ryanair.

Airport Fee Plea

Speaking in Copenhagen, FR’s Michael O’Leary said, “Ryanair’s new Copenhagen base will build on our existing 20 routes which we operate to/from Copenhagen on aircraft based outside Denmark. All 100 jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers will be recruited under the national CLA Ryanair has agreed with Danske Metal, Denmark’s largest national union, and Ryanair looks forward to continued growth and investment in Denmark as soon as the Danish Regulator makes a decision to lower airport fees at Copenhagen Airport.

“At a time when Copenhagen Airport lags behind the rest of Europe with its high fees and its failure to recover its pre-Covid traffic, Ryanair calls on the Danish Regulator to lower CPH airport fees to enable all airlines to pass on these lower fees in the form of lower air fares, and allow Copenhagen to recover its pre-Covid traffic and tourism.”

The airline started operating from Jordan in 2018. Photo: Ryanair.

Five Years In Jordan

In other Ryanair news, the airline has celebrated five years of operations from Jordan by launching its “biggest ever Winter schedule to/from Amman and Aqaba,” with a growth of 30% compared to winter 2022. In total, 25 routes will be operated from Amman (AMM) and Aqaba (AQJ), including four new destinations: Brussels (CRL), Madrid (MAD), Marseille (MRS) and Pisa (PSA).

Ryanair’s CEO, Eddie Wilson, said, “We are delighted to grow our longstanding partnership with the Jordan Tourist Board. This new growth will provide the foundation from which Ryanair can increase tourism by delivering long-term traffic growth and increased connectivity. We have worked closely with our Jordanian partners to secure this growth and improve services for those that live, work, or wish to visit the stunning country of Jordan, whilst supporting over 500 jobs.”

The move forms part of Ryanair’s partnership with the Jordan Tourism Board “to transform Jordanian Tourism and connectivity.” The airline began flying to Amman in 2018 with a flight to Paphos (PFO). Since then, the carrier has flown over 1.7 million passengers to and from the country.

“This is a strategic partnership between the Jordan Tourism Board and Ryanair and the renewal for another five years is really important for Jordan in order to increase tourism to the country, Ryanair is a strong partner who brought new tourists to Jordan and gave us greater visibility with their expansive network,” said Dr. Abed Al-Razzaq Arabiyat, The Jordan Tourism Board Managing Director.

“We look forward to Ryanair expanding further and bringing more connectivity, tourism and hopefully one day in the future adding a hub here in Jordan.”

https://airwaysmag.com/ryanair-record-breaking-q1-profits/

Featured Image: Ryanair 9H-QDK Boeing 737-800. Photo: Julian Schöpfer/Airways.