Budget carrier adds three new winter routes and calls for APD to be scrapped
Ryanair has announced its winter 2024 schedule for Liverpool, with 24 routes, including three new winter sun and city breaks routes to Budapest, Marrakesh, and Paphos.
It has also unveiled additional frequencies on its popular existing routes to Kaunas, Košice, Krakow, Malaga, Sofia, and Wroclaw.
This new schedule will operate mostly on Ryanair’s four Liverpool-based aircraft.
Budapest offers breathtaking views of the Danube River, the Parliament Building and Buda Castle and its word-renowned thermal baths.
Marrakesh is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco, brimming with culture from its luxurious hammams, bustling souks filled with traditional textiles, pottery and jewellery, and colourful architecture, including the 12th-century Koutoubia Mosque.
Paphos is home to UNESCO World Heritage Sites like the remarkable Tombs of the Kings.
In addition to its winter sun and city break destinations for Liverpool, the airline will also operate two return flights per week to and from Lapland Rovaniemi, starting from Sunday, October 27.
With the new Labour government’s first Budget set for the end of the month, Ryanair has called for the abolition of the Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax, which it describes as “unfair and unjustified” and said puts UK tourism at a major disadvantage against EU competitors.
Ryanair’s Head of Comms, Jade Kirwan, said: “As an island economy on the periphery of Europe, it is vital that Ryanair continues to grow low cost air access to/from the UK, particularly for the regions where tourism growth is suffering the most from the Government’s APD.
“This tax unfairly imposes £13 on all UK citizens/visitors, making air travel to/from the UK less competitive, particularly when other EU States, like Sweden, Poland, Croatia, and Italy, are lowering costs and cutting taxes to encourage rapid growth.”
He added: “If the UK Government scraps APD on all flights, Ryanair will respond with rapid traffic growth for the rest of this decade, including 1,000 new jobs, 20 new UK-based aircraft – additional $2bn investment – and a 14% growth in UK traffic to 65 million passengers per annum by 2030, just as we have done in Italy, where we added three new aircraft – $300m investment – and over 20 new routes following the decision of regions, like Calabria, to scrap the Italian Municipal Tax, and more recently in Sweden, where we have added two new aircraft – $200m investment – 10 new routes and 60 new jobs following the government’s decision to abolish the Aviation Tax.”
