Three routes extended year-round and flights increased on 13 others
The biggest airline at Scotland’s busiest airport is to expand further by extending its summer routes to Milan, Tirana and Warsaw year-round.
Ryanair’s latest growth at Edinburgh will mean passengers will be able to continue to fly direct to the northern Italian city and the Albanian and Polish capitals after the summer season ends on October 24.
The expansion will increase Ryanair’s winter routes from Edinburgh to 46, while the airline’s is also increasing the frequency of flights on 13 other routes, including to Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga, Budapest, Krakow and Prague.
Ryanair said those would increase its seat capacity from the Scottish capital by 11 per cent, which is expected to boost its total passenger numbers to more than 5.4 million a year - nearly one third of the airport’s 17m total.
It has 11 aircraft based at the airport, which it said represented an £830 million investment that supported more than 1,700 jobs.
Ryanair communications director Jade Kirwan said: “This robust schedule offers our customers throughout Scotland even more low-fare choice and regular connections for their winter getaways, whilst driving invaluable inbound tourism at the same time.”
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However, the airline complained yet again about the level of air passenger duty (APD), which passengers pay on flights from UK airports, and over which the Scottish government is due to take control from the UK government next April.
The airline said: “While Ryanair wishes to continue to invest and grow at Edinburgh and across the UK, this growth is being limited by the Govt’s APD, which was raised to £15 per departing passenger [on European flights] from April last, and is set to further increase from April 2027 [to £15.49].
“This penal tax on ordinary UK passengers is making the UK – particularly the regions – decreasingly uncompetitive compared to other cost-reducing destinations elsewhere in Europe, that are abolishing aviation taxes and lowering airport fees to support airline investment and traffic, tourism and jobs growth.
“The UK has gone the wrong way by raising APD to £15 per passenger. If this government is serious about growing aviation and tourism, especially in the regions, then it should abolish UK APD altogether at a cost of £2.5 billion a year, which would see a surge of new routes and growth in visitors to the UK in general, and to the UK regions in particular.”