Ryanair to open Birmingham base

Ryanair will base two aircraft in Birmingham initially

Budget airline Ryanair has announced a new base at Birmingham International Airport.

Twenty-two destinations will be available from the airport as a result of a deal which was finalised late on Monday evening.

Ryanair will base two aircraft in Birmingham initially, rising to 10 over the next five years.

It is estimated that an extra five million passengers will go through the airport in the next five years.

The airline intends to begin operating the first of its new routes from April while the other services should be up and running in July.

Ryanair's head Michael O'Leary said: "Direct international routes are fundamental to the economic development of a city like Birmingham.

"This route count will more than double as a result of Ryanair's $700m (£356m) investment in Birmingham, bringing with it a significant increase in European visitors and jobs for the West Midlands."

NEW ROUTES FROM BIRMINGHAM Barcelona, Spain Biarritz, France Billund, Denmark Bologna, Italy Bratislava, Slovakia Bydgoszcz, Poland Dinard, France Dublin, Republic of Ireland Gdansk, Poland Marseille, France Olbia, Italy Oslo, Norway Perpignan, France Pisa, Italy Poitiers, France Porto, Portugal Shannon, Republic of Ireland Stockholm, Sweden Trieste, Italy Reus, Spain Rzeszow, Poland Trapani, Italy

The airline's spokesman Peter Sherrard said the airport had snatched the deal from "under the nose" of another UK airport.

Many of the 22 routes will be new to the airport and will include flights to airports in Spain, France, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden and Denmark.

Peter Vella, the airport's business development director, said: "Today's announcement means many more new routes from the Midlands' premier airport and allows people to fly from within their region.

"But it also means that there is tremendous opportunity for people to travel to the Midlands as well, for business as well as for pleasure."

Jerry Blackett, chief executive of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, said: "International trade is in our veins and the Ryanair expansion means more choice and more destinations."

However, environmental campaigners warned the extra flights would lead to more pollution.

Chris Williams, of Birmingham Friends of the Earth, said: "The associated increase in carbon dioxide emissions will be huge and it comes at a crucial time when we need to be reducing carbon dioxide emissions from all sectors.

"The ticket cost of Ryanair is far too cheap and does not reflect the environmental costs or the effects on people."