Ryanair opens Barcelona (El Prat) Base with 23 routes
01-Sep-2010 Ryanair, the world’s favourite airline, today (1st Sept) officially opened its newest base at Barcelona El Prat with 8 based aircraft, 23 low fare routes and 2.5m passenger p.a. which will help reverse declining traffic at El Prat airport which fell by 3m passengers in 2009.
Ryanair's El Prat routes will sustain over 2,500 local jobs as well as 400 direct Ryanair jobs among pilots, cabin crew and engineers.
Ryanair will operate over 400 weekly low fare flights to/from Barcelona El Prat in an investment of over $550 million in the airport. Ryanair's 23 new El Pratt routes are the first low fares routes to/from Barcelona El Prat and will allow the airport to tap into the low fares market, which continues to grow, and which has so far been absent from the airport.
Ryanair opened its Barcelona El Prat base by releasing 500,000 €6 seats for travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays on over 500 routes across its European network in October. These seats are available for booking on www.ryanair.com until midnight Thursday (2nd Sept).
In Barcelona today, Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said:
"Ryanair is pleased to officially open its 42nd base at Barcelona El Prat with 23 new routes and 2.5m passengers p.a. which will allow El Prat airport to tap into the low fares market, which is the only market which continues to grow - thanks to Ryanair's low fares, for the first time.
Barcelona consumers and visitors can beat the recession by choosing Ryanair's low fares on 23 exciting routes from El Prat to destinations all over Europe including France, Italy and Germany among others. Ryanair's 2.5m passengers p.a. will sustain 2,500 jobs locally at Barcelona El Prat Airport."