Ryanair will open a two aircraft base in Copenhagen from December 2023, creating up to 100 direct pilot, cabin crew and engineering jobs. The new base represents a $200 million aircraft investment.
On Tuesday (August 22, 2023), Ryanair announced the opening of a new two aircraft base in Copenhagen, Denmark from December 2023. The new base represents a $200 aircraft investment and will support up to 100 direct jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers. Currently, Ryanair is Copenhagen’s third largest airline, operating 20 routes and carrying 2.3 million passengers to and from the city annually. Copenhagen will become Ryanair’s second base in Denmark, joining Billund. For winter 2023/24, Ryanair’s schedule will include 24 routes to/from Copenhagen, including new service to Düsseldorf, Faro, Paris and Warsaw, as well as increased frequencies to Gdansk and Krakow.
Celebrating the new base announcement in Copenhagen today, Ryanair’s Michael O’ Leary, said,
“As Europe’s No. 1 airline, Ryanair is pleased to announce this 2 aircraft base in Copenhagen from Dec, which will complement our 2 aircraft base in Billund. This represents a further $200m investment by Ryanair in the recovery of air traffic and tourism in Copenhagen, which continues to lag behind its pre-Covid volumes. Ryanair believes this is because the high airport fees and the high fares being charged by NAS and SAS which hampers recovery of Danish traffic and tourism.
“Ryanair’s new Copenhagen base will build on our existing 20 routes which we operate to/from Copenhagen on aircraft based outside Denmark. All 100 jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers will be recruited under the national CLA Ryanair has agreed with Danske Metal, Denmark’s largest national union, and Ryanair looks froward to continued growth and investment in Denmark as soon as the Danish Regulator makes a decision to lower airport fees at Copenhagen Airport. At a time when Copenhagen Airport lags behind the rest of Europe with its high fees and its failure to recover its pre-Covid traffic, Ryanair calls on the Danish Regulator to lower CPH airport fees to enable all airlines to pass on these lower fees in the form of lower air fares, and allow Copenhagen to recover its pre-Covid traffic and tourism.
“Danish citizens and visitors seeking the lowest air fares to Copenhagen have long used the Ryanair.com website. Today’s announcement means that from Dec these low fares will now extend to early morning departures and late evening arrivals and will provide much needed choice and low fare competition to Denmark’s State aided, high fare airlines SAS and NAS.”
Ryanair Holdings, plc is Europe’s largest airline conglomerate and the parent company of Buzz, Lauda, Malta Air, and Ryanair DAC. The airline carries over 150 million passengers annually with more than 2,500 daily departures. Ryanair serves over 200 destinations in 40 countries with a fleet of over 550 aircraft including Boeing 737NGs, Boeing 737-8200 Gamechangers and Airbus A320s with Lauda. Ryanair has maintained a stellar safety record for nearly 40 years and prides itself on being “Europe’s greenest cleanest airline group,” promising customers a reduction in CO2 emissions of up to 50%, versus the “Big 4 EU major airlines.” The company continues to grow across Europe and plans on carrying 300 million passengers annually by FY 2034.
Source: Ryanair