Budget airline Ryanair has launched its biggest-ever schedule from Bristol Airport for this summer, with 36 routes, including six new destinations.
Copenhagen, Fuerteventura, Marrakesh, Prague, Sofia and Tirana have been added to the airline’s route network from the airport following the addition of a fifth aircraft to s Bristol-based fleet last year. 
That move took its total investment at the airport to $500m (£399m) and also resulted in an additional 30 staff, including pilots and cabin crew based in Bristol.
Ryanair said its investment in Bristol supported more than 1,400 local jobs, including 150 pilot, cabin crew & engineer posts.
Two of Ryanair’s Bristol-based aircraft are Boeing 737-8200 ‘Gamechangers’, which it said were highly sought by airports throughout Europe as they reduce CO2 emission by 16% and noise emissions by 40%.
Ryanair’s growth in Bristol Airport means it now handles around one in five of all passengers.
Ryanair head of comms Jade Kirwan said: “We’re delighted to officially launch Ryanair’s biggest ever schedule for Bristol this summer, offering our customers in the South West even more choice at the lowest fares. 
“Our first summer 24 flights to Copenhagen, Marrakesh, Sofia and Tirana took off just last week, performing phenomenally well, and we look forward to carrying more passengers onboard our first flights to Fuerteventura and Prague when they commence this July.”
Bristol Airport CEO, Dave Lees, pictured, said Ryanair’s announcement was a clear demonstration of confidence in the region for air travel.
“Expanding Ryanair’s route network and adding new routes including to Tirana, Albania, offers customers a wider choice of destinations and flexibility of stay lengths, without the need to travel to other airports for their flights.
“We very much welcome the deployment of the more efficient ‘Gamechanger’ aircraft from Bristol Airport and look forward to working with Ryanair on developing their route network and ensuring the increased use of quieter aircraft and more environmentally efficient operations in the future.”
Low-cost rival easyJet has also stepped up investment at Bristol in recent years and is this summer adding an 18th aircraft to its fleet at the airport.
This will allow it to introduce further new destinations and additional capacity to the 70 routes it already operates from Bristol – more than half all those from the airport.
Bristol Airport has also attracted a number of new operators over the past year, including Aegean Airlines, Sun Express and Corendon Airlines, while full-service German flag carrier Lufthansa has increased the frequency on its Frankfurt route, Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has launched the airport’s first direct service to Zurich and Aer Lingus has reintroduced flights to Cork.
A record 9.8m people passed through Bristol Airport last year – a 10% increase compared to pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels in 2019.
Work is continuing at the airport on a £60m public transport interchange hub and multi-storey car park – its largest capital project for more than two decades.
The project forms part of the site’s overall multi-million pound upgrade, which will increase its capacity from 10m to 12m passengers a year.
