Ryanair launches more Shannon Airport routes

July 11, 2005 Irish low fares airline Ryanair has announced it is to commence service of two new routes from Shannon Airport in County Clare, Ireland. It will now fly to Bristol, England daily and to Nantes, France three times a week. The airline will also increase the frequency of its Shannon-Frankfurt route.

Shannon airport has seen its traffic figures soar in the past year since Ryanair established a new base there. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary has said he expects the new routes to bring an additional 200,000 passengers to the airport.

Despite the positive announcement of the new routes on Thursday, Ryanair's share price plunged by 10% on the same day due to the London bombings that morning. However the share price recovered substantially on Friday.

Ryanair is the world's most profitable airline, having reported record profits of €269m earlier this year, and is pursuing an aggressive expansion plan which will see it's total number of passengers jump to 70m over the next few years. At present Ryanair has 91 aircraft and 230 Boeing 737's on order.