Ryanair today (31st Aug) announced its Winter '21 schedule from its two Belgian airports Brussels South Charleroi and Brussels Airport, which includes 97 routes (respectively 83 and 14), including 11 routes from Charleroi to new European destinations from end-October 2021. As air travel recovers to pre-Covid levels, Ryanair will create over 200 new jobs for pilots and cabin crew as it gears up for record seat capacity in Summer 2022.

Andre Orban

Belgian families/visitors can now book a well-deserved autumn break to one of Ryanair's new 11 routes including Billund, Helsinki, Genoa, Tetouan (Morocco) or Trapani (Sicily). To celebrate these 11 new routes, Ryanair has launched a EUR19.99 seat sale for travel until the end of Nov 2021, which must be booked by midnight Thursday, 2nd September on www.ryanair.com.

BRUSSELS CHARLEROI - 11 NEW WINTER 2021 ROUTES

Billund		Stockholm
Genoa		Suceava (Romania)
Helsinki	Trapani (Sicily)
Lourdes		Tetouan (Morocco)
Poznan		Trieste

Sibiu (Romania)

Andre Orban

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said:

'Ryanair is committed to recovering Belgium's aviation and tourism industry, and restoring Brussels connectivity as air travel returns to pre-Covid levels. As Ryanair takes delivery of 55 new Boeing 737 MAX 8-200aircraft this winter, we are pleased to announce 11 new routes from Brussels this winter - where we will offer a total of 97 routes from both Zaventem and Charleroi airports. We will also create over 200 new jobs at Charleroi and Zaventem for pilots, cabin crew and engineers this winter.

Our new 'Gamechanger' aircraft uses 16% less fuel, has 40% lower noise emissions yet carries 4% more passengers. This $22bn investment in greener technology aircraft paves the way for Ryanair to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2050.

While Ryanair supports the EU's goal of being net carbon neutral by 2050, the 'Fit for 55' proposals discriminate against low-cost, short-haul carriers, while protecting the higher fare, more polluting long-haul airlines - who operate just 6% of EU flights yet are responsible for 52% of EU airline emissions.

Ryanair customers can enjoy a sunny Autumn getaway from Belgium knowing they are flying with Europe's greenest, cleanest major airline to exciting new winter sun routes such as Tetouan (Morocco) and Trapani (Sicily) or take in the sights on a winter city break to Stockholm, Billund and Helsinki.

To celebrate these 11 new Winter routes, we are launching a seat sale with fares available from just EUR19.99 for travel until the end of November 2021, which must be booked by midnight Thursday, 2nd September. Since these amazing low fares will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com to avoid missing out.'

In reply to Aviation24.be's question, Michael O'Leary said the Boeing 737 MAX 8-200 would be based in both Brussels Airport and Brussels South Charleroi from Summer 2022. Currently, only two aircraft are based at Brussels Airport, but Ryanair expects to increase that number to three from Summer 2022 and to 5 or 6 in the future, since Ryanair ambitions to be the number one airline in Belgium, ahead of Brussels Airlines. Similarly, Ryanair would add two aircraft to the current 13 based at Charleroi, which is the fourth-largest base in Ryanair's network thanks to its low taxes.

O'Leary further announced that Ryanair would have 60 Boeing MAX aircraft by Summer 2022. He continues talking to Being about extending his orders for what he considers the best aircraft for low-cost carriers.

Ryanair has currently 500 employees on its Belgian payroll and that number should increase to 700 by Summer 2022.

(C) 2021 Electronic News Publishing, source ENP Newswire