Ryanair has disclosed plans to boost its Scottish network as part of its summer 2017 schedule.
The low-cost carrier intends to start twice-weekly services to Lisbon, Palanga, Valencia and Zadar from Glasgow International. It will meanwhile open a route from Glasgow Prestwick to Girona.
That Spanish airport will also be served from Edinburgh, at twice-weekly frequency, as will Ibiza, Porto and Vigo. Flights to Milan from the Scottish capital will be operated fives times per week.
Additionally, Ryanair intends to add summer-only routes from both Edinburgh and Glasgow International next year. Edinburgh will gain a seasonal thrice-weekly service to Polish capital Warsaw, and from Glasgow International there will be flights to Alicante (three per week), Brussels (two), Gran Canaria (one), Lanzarote (two), Malaga (four) and Sofia (two).
Factoring in new routes and upped frequencies, Ryanair expects to grow Edinburgh and Glasgow passenger numbers by 8% and 18%, respectively.
FlightGlobal schedules data indicates that Jet2 and Thomas Cook Airlines will provide competition to Ryanair on the routes linking Glasgow with Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. Those two carriers plus EasyJet all offer rival Glasgow-Alicante services.
EasyJet and Jet2 have Glasgow-Malaga flights programmed.
On its Glasgow-Girona route, Ryanair will face only Jet2, which serves the Spanish destination from the main airport rather than Prestwick. The UK leisure carrier also flies to Girona from Edinburgh, which it additionally links with Ibiza.
EasyJet is present in the Edinburgh-Milan market.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
