19 December 2007

Low fares airline Ryanair has announced routes from seven British airports as part of its biggest ever European expansion which sees 50 new European routes in 2008.

Extra flights will operate from Birmingham, Durham Tees Valley, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Newquay to destinations in Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Romania.

Three new airports will be included in the expansion - Angouleme (France), and Arad and Constanta (Romania). It brings Ryanairs network to more than 600 routes by next summer.

Next year almost 60 million passengers will enjoy Ryanairs guaranteed lowest fares across Europe, said Ryanair CEO, Michael OLeary.

Passengers at 15 of our European bases are already set to benefit from this expansion, with a total of 50 new routes already announced for 2008.

Ryanair accompanied the announcement with a sale of two million seats on European routes for just 10 ($20).

Despite rising oil prices and the credit crunch, the carrier has made multi-million pound aircraft orders this year and aims to double its fleet to 262 by 2012.