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Ryanair is an ultra-low cost airline group that is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The carrier flies all over Europe and often serves routes that are not covered by other airlines. It’s extremely aggressive with growth goals and while it fell short of its targeted 300 new routes in 2024 (it added 208), Ryanair still represented 15% of all new routes introduced in Europe last year.
Ryanair currently flies to 235 destinations across 38 countries. Of the 1,356 new routes launched across Europe in 2024, Ryanair flew 208 and its rival low-cost carrier, easyJet, served 155. Ryanair is by far the continent’s most aggressive airline when it comes to expansion. I have found it convenient when getting from one smaller airport to another and book three seats in the bulkhead for my husband and me. This gives us a makeshift European Business Class and lots of legroom.
In 2024, Ryanair transported 197.2 million passengers. This was an 8% increase over 2023. New routes included flights to countries like Morocco, Italy, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Denmark, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. When looking at which carriers added the most routes last year, it’s almost entirely low-cost carriers that are putting new pins in the map.
Last year, I tested both low-cost carriers with a head to head between Ryanair and easyJet while flying between Manchester Airport (MAN) and Corfu International Airport “Ioannis Kapodistrias” (CFU). Unfortunately for Ryanair, easyJet was the hands-down winner in almost every aspect.
Anthony’s Take: Bigger is not always better. Ryanair and easyJet serve my needs for quick flights between more obscure airports. I won’t be ditching Air France, Lufthansa, and other full-service airlines in the future, but it’s impressive to see how much these low-cost carriers continue to grow in Europe as the model has been toppled in the United States.
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
