Interview: New Ryanair route from City of Derry Airport to Birmingham Airport lifts off

The first flights were sold out well and advance and the new Birmingham route is already proving extremely popular, with Ryanair saying they will chart its success over the coming months before making any decisions when asked about the potential for a more permanent, year-round service.

Speaking to the Journal at the airport, Ryanair’s Head of Communications Jade Kirwan said there was great excitement about the new route and the launch of its summer programme.

"Birmingham is a new route for us this summer, operating two weekly return services to and from Birmingham and that is building on our regular services to Manchester as well, so even more connectivity with the UK for people travelling over for work, study, leisure services so giving people more opportunity with more regular services.”

On the potential for the route to become a permanent, year-round one, Jade said: “Absolutely, what we always do is put a route on and see how it goes, as simple as it sounds. We are a commercial business, the route needs to be viable, so it will all be based on a performance review, but it is looking like it is going to be a strong route for the summer, we are seeing strong bookings on it.

“At the moment the guys at the commercial team are working hard to lock in everything for winter so we typically announce that then towards the end of summer but I suspect all going well that it will be continued to the end of the year as well.”

Jade said that the economic impact for the north west was something worth highlighting. “There is always the flipside that we do deliver economic value and that can get a bit lost. We do support about 40 to 50 jobs through the local community as well through our operation at City of Derry.

"On top of that then this summer we are flying just under 100,000 passengers which is 35% up on what we would have delivered last summer - not just out, but inward as well then and you have that expenditure and that all feeds back into the economy.”

On the potential for expansion of its operations in Derry, Jade said: “It is web of intricacies in terms of how Ryanair picks out routes, but what we do do is feed demand. Where we do identify that there is a service that will be eaten up we absolutely then look at bringing that on.”

"But again it needs to be viable: do our aircraft need to be positioned correctly to facilitate that route? There is a number of things we need to look at rather than just saying will this be popular with the public, and again looking at the wider catchment in terms other routes we operate at nearby airports as well, but as I say Birmingham is going to make a fantastic addition to the routes we operate here.”

City of Derry Airport managing director Steve Frazer said: "I’m really pleased to see Birmingham take off. It is really good to get it over the line and to get it starting a couple of times so we can prove that route and prove the wider success of it.

"It is fantastic for people in Derry and the wider north west not to have to go to Belfast or Dublin to get to Birmingham. We have a big catchment in our area and we are very pleased now to be able to deliver this for the north west."

Mr Frazer added that City of Derry are always talking to Ryanair and other airline partners about growing the frequency of flights and new route development.

To book flights go to www.ryanair.com and for more information about flights to and from City of Derry Airport visit www.cityofderryairport.com