Ryanair announces six new Catalan routes for summer

Ryanair has announced six new routes between Catalan airports and the rest of Europe starting in the upcoming summer season. 

Passengers will be able to fly to Frankfurt (Germany), Perugia (Italy), Lviv (Ukraine) and La Palma (Canary Islands) from Barcelona’s El Prat.

From Girona, the new additions are Helsinki (Finland) and Nuremberg (Germany).

The six new connections will bring the total number of routes in and out of Catalonia operated by the Irish budget airliner to 103. This will mean more than 600 weekly flights.

During the presentation of the new campaign, the airline has said that it has already returned to pre-pandemic activity levels and expects to grow by 4% compared to the summer of 2019.

With a total of 71 routes, Barcelona will remain the most important base for the company in Catalonia, as well as having 14 aircraft based here and more than 400 employees. 

Forecasts estimate that El Prat Airport will receive around 7.8 million Ryanair passengers over the next fiscal year - which will run from April 2022 to March 2023. 

As for Girona Airport, Ryanair will have 22 routes, one aeroplane based there, and will employ 30 people. The Irish company expects more than one million passengers to use the north Catalan facility over the next year. 

Reus Airport, on the other hand, will keep its 11 routes and get no additions, and still has no aircraft based there. Ryanair expects to close the year with more than 400,000 passengers using the airport in the south of Catalonia.

Girona base closure intentions

In 2019, Ryanair had announced its intention to close its base in Girona airport by January 2020. According to the unions, the move could have left 164 workers without jobs, between cabin crews and pilots, in the Viloví d'Onyar base.

However, after talks, the carrier decided to remain in operation in northern Catalonia, but with drastically altered working conditions for staff. 

The new agreement saw employees accept new contract terms which sees them go unemployed for three months of every year, but will ultimately keep the Irish airline’s base in the northern Catalan city open.

Ryanair came under scrutiny for the decision, forcing the company to deny they had put undue pressure on staff, and they defended that the new employment terms were in line with Spanish labor legislation.

Airport expansion proposal

In the summer of 2021, a heated debate raged over the possibility of expanding Barcelona airport. 

The proposal would have destroyed the La Ricarda lagoon, a natural space that has special EU protection as an important habitat for biodiversity.

In the end, the plans were scrapped as no agreement could be reached between the various authorities before the deadline of the airport management company’s investment plan reached a new 5-year cycle.

To learn more about the debate over expanding Barcelona airport, you can listen to the Filling the Sink episode on the topic below.