Ryanair makes Birmingham Airport announcement as airline bosses say 'significant'

Ryanair has made a major announcement on its presence at Birmingham Airport. The budget airline was the first low-cost airline to operate at the site and has since seen extensive growth.

Today, July 10, Ryanair chiefs announced the airline had carried more than 30 million passengers since it began operations to and from Birmingham in 1987 - and that further expansion would be coming.

Its flight schedule at the airport has grown from a single route to Knock in Ireland to a 50-destination operation connecting 17 countries across Europe, with seven Birmingham-based aircraft. Ryanair calculated it as an investment of 700m dollars and supporting more than 2,400 local jobs.

READ MORE: Birmingham Airport spells out key to cutting down queues as security wait drops to 'minutes'

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This summer, Ryanair confirmed it was operating its "biggest ever schedule" at Birmingham with more than 400 weekly flights across 50 routes, including nine new destinations.

Spokeswoman Jade Kirwan said: "We are delighted to celebrate over 30 million Ryanair passengers through Birmingham Airport. This significant milestone resounds Ryanair’s continued growth and investment in Birmingham.

"This summer Ryanair is operating our biggest ever schedule to/from Birmingham Airport, including Ryanair’s new summer sunshine routes to Agadir, Berlin, Budapest, Marrakesh, Paphos, Paris, Seville, Tirana and Valencia. We look forward to carrying millions more passengers on Ryanair’s low-fare flights to/from Birmingham over the years to come."

Earlier this week we told how Birmingham Airport bosses had spelt out the secret to cutting down long queues and stressful waits - and it appears to very simple. Travel chiefs said passengers now faced an average wait of 22 minutes to get into the terminal and through security - a significant drop from recently reported waits.

Read the latest on security queues at Birmingham Airport in our update, here.

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