Ryanair opens Newcastle base creating new jobs and holiday options

• Report by Jonny Blair

Budget airline Ryanair has opened its new base at Newcastle Airport.

Two Ryanair aircraft are now based on Tyneside and set to fly to 19 different destinations including Gran Canaria, Ibiza, and Paphos.

The company say their £200 million investment has created 60 new jobs and will serve to help revitalise the travel industry and boost tourism in the North East.

New routes will include:

• Chania

• Fuerteventura

• Gran Canaria

• Ibiza

• Krakow

• Menorca

• Milan, Paphos

• Riga

• Zadar

"The opening of this base and introduction of these new routes from Newcastle reinforces our commitment to increasing connectivity, travel options and inbound tourism to the area as Ryanair will now offer 40% more capacity than it did pre-pandemic," said Newcastle's Dara Brady, Ryanair’s Director of Marketing.

 "We are delighted to open this new base and strengthen our relationship with Newcastle Airport, which will now host a fleet of two Ryanair aircraft."

"Today sees a significant investment and commitment from Ryanair at Newcastle International Airport which will also benefit the wider North East, creating hundreds of new jobs and providing an even bigger choice of destinations," added Newcastle International Airport’s Chief Executive, Nick Jones.

"From today, Ryanair will operate a total of 19 routes from our Airport, including the brand-new destinations of Zadar in Croatia, Chania in Crete, Milan in Italy and Riga in Latvia. We look forward to welcoming even more Ryanair passengers through our doors this summer.”