Ryanair opens Bristol base

Low-fares airline Ryanair has opened its base at Bristol Airport today, with flights launched to Budapest, Derry, Knock, Milan, Porto, Riga and Wroclaw.

November 8th will see new Ryanair services to Poznan and Rzeszow in Poland, Bratislava in Slovakia and Dinard in France. Flights to Katowice in Poland will begin on November 10th.

Two more ski destinations will be available from Bristol Airport next month when Ryanair commences services to Salzburg on December 19th and Turin on December 22nd.

The airline expects to carry one million passengers to and from the south-west hub in 2008.

Caroline Baldwin, Ryanair's head of UK sales and marketing, said: "Ryanair's $140 million [£66.5 million] investment in two new Boeing 737-800 aircraft for Bristol will deliver one million passengers, 1,000 jobs and a visitor spend of £250 million.

"From today, tourism and businesses in the south-west will benefit from improved access and Ryanair's guaranteed lowest fares on 19 routes between Bristol and Europe."