RYANAIR TO OPEN NEW SOFIA BASE (NO 83)

RNS Number : 5852T

Ryanair Holdings PLC

30 March 2016

3 AIRCRAFT, $300M INVESTMENT, 21 NEW ROUTES & 1.5M CUSTOMERS

Ryanair, Europe's favourite airline, today (30 Mar) announced it will open a new base at Sofia Airport (No 83), from 30^th October, with 3 aircraft (an investment of $300m) and 21 new routes, which will deliver over 1.5m customers p.a. and support 1,100 "on-site" jobs.

Ryanair's Sofia 2016 schedule will deliver:

· 3 based aircraft ($300m)

· 21 new routes: Athens, Barcelona, Baden, Berlin, Birmingham, Brussels Charleroi, Castellon Valencia, Cologne, Dublin, Eindhoven, Glasgow, Hamburg, Liverpool, London Stansted, Madrid, Memmingen, Milan Malpensa, Pisa, Rome Ciampino, Stockholm & Venice

· 90 weekly flights

· Over 1.5m customers p.a.

· 1,100* "on site" jobs p.a.

In Sofia, Ryanair's Chief Commercial Officer, David O'Brien said:

"We are pleased to announce our first Bulgarian base at Sofia (No 83) from 30^th October with 3 based aircraft, (an investment of $300m) and 21 international routes in total, which will deliver over 1.5 million customers p.a. and support 1,100 "on-site" jobs.

This significant growth is an integral part of our continued expansion plans for both Bulgaria and Eastern Europe, as we connect Sofia with Europe's key centres of business with high frequency business- friendly services, including Berlin, Brussels, Dublin, London, Madrid and Milan, making Ryanair the ideal choice for both business and leisure customers.

Our 106m customers can look forward to further improvements, as we continue our "Always Getting Better" programme, which includes more new routes, a new app, new cabin interiors, new crew uniforms and improved inflight menus.

To celebrate the launch of our new Sofia base, we are releasing seats for sale from just €19.99, which are available for booking until Saturday (2 Apr) for travel in November. Since these amazing low prices will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com and avoid missing out."

ENDS

SOFIA WINTER 2016 SCHEDULE

Athens	1 x daily	Cologne	1 x daily	Madrid	4 x weekly
Barcelona	3 x weekly	Dublin	3 x weekly	Memmingen	2 x weekly
Baden	2 x weekly	Eindhoven	3 x weekly	Milan M	1 x daily
Berlin	1 x daily	Glasgow	2 x weekly	Pisa	3 x weekly
Birmingham	3 x weekly	Hamburg	3 x weekly	Rome C	1 x daily
Brussels C	4 x weekly	Liverpool	2 x weekly	Stockholm	2 x weekly
Castellon	2 x weekly	London S	2 x daily	Venice	2 x weekly