Ryanair has said that it can draw up to 68,000 tourists towards the Maltese Islands per year from the three routes it applied to cater for. Ryanair made its offer after the government launched a call for proposals for low cost airlines to operate new and underserved routes to Malta last month.
The chief operation officer of the company, Michael Cawley stated that Ryanair will start operating daily flights from Luton, United Kingdom as well as three weekly flights from Pisa, Italy as from October. According to Radju Malta the company will also be running a route from Dublin, Ireland as from February 2007.
Easyjet, also submitted its offers following the Government’s call for proposals for low cost airlines to operate new and underserved routes to Malta.
In turn an evaluation of economic impact, carried out by Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire, has shown that Lm 16 million (£26 million) is generated for the Ayrshire economy from passengers travelling on Ryanair flights via Glasgow Prestwick Airport.
The study also indicated that passengers on the new Ryanair routes are spending around 30 per cent more in total on an average trip. More than 1.1 million passengers travelled through Prestwick on Ryanair's 17 routes into Prestwick in the last year, compared to three years earlier, illustrating the growing significance of the Ayrshire route. The output from Ryanair flights supports between 385 and 542 jobs in the Ayrshire area. The study revealed that Ryanair flights also generated a Lm 89 million (£140 million) boost to Scotland as a whole, more than double the figure for the period 2002-2003.
Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire says the study perfectly illustrates the importance of tourism to the continued economic success of Ayrshire and the west of Scotland. Ryanair’s development of new routes via Prestwick has had a significant impact on the revenue generated in Ayrshire, particularly in terms of local spend by visitors and jobs created. The regular arrival of high volumes of visitors through Prestwick is now supported by a growing infrastructure and improvement of the local tourist facilities.
See also:
Ryanair and Easyjet bid for new routes to Malta
By MaltaMedia News
Aug 25, 2006, 16:34 CET
Aqra din l-aħbar bil-Malti:
Ryanair tista' tattira mat-68,000 turist
By MaltaMedia News
Aug 30, 2006, 18:24 CET
