Ryanair announces four new routes to Porto for the 2017 summer season

The low-cost airline Ryanair announced today the opening of four new routes from Porto airport for next year's summer season. Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, at a press conference in Porto City Hall, revealed that Birmingham and Edinburgh (United Kingdom), Krakow (Poland) and Nuremberg (Germany) are the new destinations which will have a two weekly flights direct link with the Francisco Sá Carneiro airport (Portugal).

"This strategy will enable the transport of four million customers annually and support about three thousand jobs at Porto Airport," said Michael O'Leary.

Ryanair said it will be "the largest" ever calendar in this region, and that, in addition to four new routes, it includes strengthen frequencies to Luxembourg, Milan Malpensa (Italy), Terceira (Azores) and Warsaw (Poland).

The official spoke also of the low price policy practiced by the company, which is expected to reduce from 10 to 12% by March 2017, and to mark the launch of new routes and tickets from 14.99 euros will be made available.

For Rui Moreira, mayor of Porto, these new links are of great importance for the city, as they allow direct flights to less common European destinations.

"For Porto it is very important to have direct links to Europe, not only to the most common destinations such as European capitals, but also the medium-sized cities like Porto," said the Mayor.

The Mayor also stressed the importance of Ryanair as carrier of tourists to the North of Portugal and as "a true air bridge to many European destinations with economic importance for the city."

With these four new routes, Ryanair totals 49 destinations from Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, some of them being routes left vacant by TAP, for example, the connection to Milan Malpensa of great importance to the resident immigrant population in Switzerland.