SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 6-K
Report of Foreign Private Issuer
Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
For the month of December 2005
RYANAIR HOLDINGS PLC
(Translation of registrant's name into English)
c/o Ryanair Ltd Corporate Head Office
Dublin Airport
County Dublin Ireland
(Address of principal executive offices)
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual
reports under cover Form 20-F or Form 40-F.
Form 20-F..X.. Form 40-F.....
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the information
contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information to the
Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934.
Yes ..... No ..X..
If "Yes" is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the registrant
in connection with Rule 12g3-2(b): 82- ________
RYANAIR LAUNCHES 18 ROUTES
FROM DUBLIN TO EUROPE
INCREASES FLIGHTS ON 7 DUBLIN - EUROPE ROUTES
5 NEW AIRCRAFT BASED AT DUBLIN IN 2006
Ryanair, Europe's largest low fares airline today (Wednesday, 21st December
2005) announced the last of its new route announcements for Summer 2006 by
selecting Dublin Airport as effectively its 16th European base. Ryanair which is
now Ireland's largest airline has until today largely confined its operations at
Dublin Airport to UK routes. However, from April 2006 the airline will base 5
new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft in Dublin. These new aircraft will generate
over 250 direct Ryanair jobs at Dublin Airport, they will allow Ryanair to open
up 18 new routes from Dublin to Continental Europe, frequencies will also
increase on 8 existing Dublin-Europe routes and this additional capacity will
allow Ryanair's traffic at Dublin to grow from 5 1/2m to 7m passengers annually
as Ryanair moves next year from 35m to over 40m passengers per annum.
New Routes from Dublin - 2006
FRANCE - Marseille, Nantes and La Rochelle
GERMANY - Baden (Stuttgart) and Hamburg
POLAND - Krakow, Poznan and Wroclaw
ITALY - Milan and Venice
SWEDEN - Gothenburg and Malmo
SPAIN - Valencia
PORTUGAL - Porto
AUSTRIA - Salzburg
SLOVAKIA - Bratislava
LITHUANIA - Kaunas
UK - Humberside
Increased frequencies from Dublin - 2006
Dublin - Frankfurt increases to twice daily
Dublin - Barcelona increases to daily
Dublin - Faro increases to daily
Dublin - Cardiff increases to 10 per week
Dublin - Malaga increases to 8 per week
Dublin - Carcassonne increases to 5 per week
Dublin - Biarritz increases to 4 per week
Dublin - Lodz increases to 3 per week
These new routes and frequencies at Dublin Airport will see Ryanair's traffic
into/out of Ireland rise to over 9m passengers annually over the coming year,
almost 30% more than Aer Lingus in terms of passengers carried to/from the
island of Ireland. These new routes will also afford Irish consumers and
visitors the opportunity of travelling between Ireland and Europe at low fares
which are half the price of Aer Lingus's tickets and with frequencies that are
in most cases greater than the frequencies offered by Aer Lingus.
These new aircraft will be based at the new temporary boarding facility, which
will be available at Dublin Airport from the end of May 2006. In time these
routes and aircraft will operate from the new Pier D facility when opened in
Summer 2007. Ryanair will now be working closely with the DAA to ensure that the
new facilities at Dublin Airport are developed on-time and within budget.
Speaking today in Dublin at the announcement of the development of these new
routes from Dublin to Europe, Ryanair's Chief Executive, Michael O'Leary said:
"This is a momentous day for Ryanair, the Dublin Airport Authority and Irish
tourism. This is the largest ever single investment in Irish tourism. The 5
new aircraft to be based in Dublin represent an investment of over $300m.
The 18 new routes from Dublin to Europe, together with the additional
flights on 7 existing routes will mean an additional 1.5m passengers p.a. at
Dublin Airport, over 1 million of which will be inbound visitors for Irish
tourism. Irish consumers can now look forward to high frequency, low fare
access to a wide network of destinations direct from Dublin to Austria,
France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden
and the UK. All of these flights go on sale today at www.ryanair.com at
prices that are half the high fares being charged by Aer Lingus. Ryanair
will continue to offer Irish consumers and visitors substantially lower
fares from Dublin to Europe than the high fare services presently operated
by Aer Lingus.
"These new routes from Dublin to Europe mean that Ryanair's operations at
Dublin Airport will become substantially larger than Aer Lingus. Ryanair
will carry over 7m passengers on 52 routes from Dublin next year compared to
Aer Lingus's less than 6m passengers on just 43 year round routes. Ryanair's
average fare of EUR39 is less than half Aer Lingus's average European fare
of EUR80. Ryanair now offers more routes and services than Aer Lingus to
both the UK and now Continental Europe.
"With these new routes and passengers, Ryanair will now carry more
passengers than Aer Lingus at each of the main Irish airports (Dublin, Cork
and Shannon) as well as serving the bigger regional airports (Derry, Kerry
and Knock) which Aer Lingus no longer operate to. Ryanair is now twice the
size and just half the price of Aer Lingus here in Ireland, and has long
since displaced any claims Aer Lingus might have had to being Ireland's
national airline. Aer Lingus's only remaining title is that of Ireland's
"highest fare" airline. Aer Lingus can't compete with Ryanair's prices, they
can't match our punctuality, and now they can't match our route network from
Dublin to the UK or Europe".
Ends. Wednesday, 21st December 2005
For further information
please contact: Peter Sherrard Pauline McAlester
Ryanair Murray Consultants
Tel. 353-1-8121212 Tel. 353-1-4980300
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned, hereunto duly authorized.
RYANAIR HOLDINGS PLC
Date: 21 December 2005
By:___/s/ Howard Millar____
H Millar
Company Secretary & Finance Director