Ryanair plans 2,500 Spanish flights a week in bet on travel recovery – even as coronavirus cases rise in Europe

Ryanair is planning 2,500 flights a week to, from, and across Spain this summer as it bets on a surge in demand for holidays even as infections rise across much of Europe.

Marketing director Dara Brady told a news conference on Wednesday that Europe’s biggest low-cost airline planned to operate 582 routes in, out of, and across Spain, including 48 new ones, in a sign of the expected surge in demand for trips.

Spain was the world’s second most-visited country before the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We’re seeing an increase in capacity versus what we would’ve seen last year (without the pandemic). Our domestic Spanish schedule is around 20 per cent bigger than in previous years, and certainly bigger than last year,” he said.

Although Ryanair has cut its overall passenger numbers forecast for this financial year to 26-30 million, it expects a pick up in the pace of Europe’s vaccination campaign to allow for a “decent” summer.

At a separate news conference, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said bookings from Germany and the United Kingdom had surged, and predicted Britons – likely to be Europe’s most-vaccinated group come the summer – would holiday abroad.