News: Ryanair launch new flights to Barcelona Girona
Flights > News > # 994 (01/05/2006)
Budget airline Ryanair has announced plans for significant expansion at their Spanish base in the Catalan city of Girona, near Barcelona.
The new routes include flights to Girona from Bristol (four times each week, starting March 25), as well as flights from the northeast’s two rival airports, Durham Tees Valley and Newcastle. Flights from Durham Tees Valley will start on February 12 (three times each week), with Newcastle to Girona flights set to take off on March 25 (four times each week).
These new UK routes are part of a wider expansion in Ryanair's Barcelona flights, which will see four new aircraft based at the Catalan airport, and a total of 17 new routes added. These new flights offer additional competition against Easyjet, who already operate cheap flights to Barcelona from Bristol and Newcastle. However, Easyjet operate their flights into Barcelona’s El Prat airport (BCN), which is just eight miles away from the city centre. Girona airport (GRO) is 58 miles away from central Barcelona the centre of Barcelona.
The new route between Durham Tees Valley and Girona will be huge boost to the airport following last month’s announcement that BmiBaby would be axing its services from the northeast.
Ryanair already offer cheap flights to Girona from all of their existing UK bases (London Stansted, London Luton, Liverpool, Nottingham East Midlands and Glasgow Prestwick) as well as from Doncaster Robin Hood airport, Blackpool and Bournemouth. From Ireland, Ryanair have Girona flights from Dublin and Shannon.
Ryanair’s deputy chief executive, Michael Cawley, said: “Ryanair’s Barcelona Girona base has performed very strongly this summer. Ryanair’s 17 new routes will significantly expand the Catalan region’s catchment area."
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Comment:
Ryanair might be concentrating a lot of their current growth on bases in mainland Europe, but with such a significant expansion planned for Barcelona Girona, it is no surprise to see a few more routes into other UK airports.
Following BmiBaby's withdrawal from Durham Tees Valley, there has been intense industry interest about whether Ryanair would launch new routes there, and the airport’s bosses will certainly be seeing this announcement as a move in the right direction.
However, in a surprising move, Ryanair have also launched Girona flights from nearby Newcastle, from where they already operate cheap flights to Dublin, Milan Bergamo and Oslo Torp.
We have no doubt that there have been intensive negotiations behind the scenes between Ryanair and the two northeast airports, and yet again, Ryanair have shown that they can play a hard game between rival airports fighting for their business.
