Ryanair, Europe´s largest low fares airline today (10th Oct) announced a new route between Faro and Madrid Barajas airport.  The new route will operate daily from the 22nd of November 2006, bringing the number of destinations offered by Ryanair from Faro to five: Brussels, Dublin, Shannon, Barcelona and Madrid.

This new Faro-Madrid connection was announced today in Madrid along with 13 other routes from Ryanair’s new base in Barajas.  This is Ryanair’s 18th European base and second base in Spain.  3 aircraft Boeing 737-800 are to be based in Barajas with an investment of $210M and will deliver an estimated 1M pax p.a to Madrid.

Ryanair will also operate from its new base in Madrid to Dublín, Eindhoven, Porto, Marseille, Paris, Billund, Brussels, East Midlands, Oslo, Bournemouth, Gothenburg, Malmo and Shannon.

In relation to the new route, Caitríona Beggan, Sales & Marketing Executive for Spain, said today in Faro:

“Ryanair began operations in Faro in March 2003 and in less than 3 years we have carried more than 150,000 passengers.  We are delighted to add another route today from Faro, which in its first year of operations will create 100 additional jobs in the region, deliver 100,000 additional passengers to Faro airport and will generate €21M in tourist spend”

“With the addition of this route Ryanair now offers 5 international destinations from Faro, with the result that we will now transport over 270,000 passengers per annum”

“The new route is already available for booking on www.Ryanair.com at the incredible price of just €1* and we advise all passengers to book early as demand will be very strong.

*Prices one-way, taxes, fees and charges excluded.