Struggling Prestwick Airport received a major boost, with Ryanair announcing its first increase in flights since the Scottish Government saved it from closure three years ago.
The budget airline will extend summer routes from the Ayrshire airport to Barcelona, Faro and Malta to operate year-round from this autumn, and add extra flights to Tenerife, say bosses.
It is expected to increase passengers by 12 per cent.
In addition, six more winter routes will be flown from Edinburgh, to Bologna, Bordeaux, Bratislava, Gran Canaria, Palma and Poznan.
There will also be extra flights to Alicante, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Malaga, Rome and Tenerife.
Those are expected to boost Ryanair’s passengers at the capital’s airport - Scotland’s busiest - by 425,000 to 2.5m a year.
The schedule for Prestwick shows a total of just 19 flights per week from the airport.
Ryanair’s Chief Marketing Officer, Kenny Jacobs said:
“We are pleased to launch our Glasgow winter 2016 schedule, which includes 4 new routes from Glasgow International to Alicante, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Malaga, and 3 new winter services from Glasgow Prestwick to Barcelona, Faro and Malta, which will deliver over 1.8 million customers p.a. and support 1,400 jobs at Glasgow and Prestwick airports.
‘To celebrate the launch of our Glasgow winter 2016 schedule, we are releasing 100,000 seats for sale across our European network from just £19.99, which are available for booking until Thursday (25 Feb). Since these amazing low prices will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com and avoid missing out.”