Ryanair announces new Dublin to Amsterdam route

Ryanair has announced a new route to Amsterdam from Dublin as part of its new summer 2016 schedule which also includes extra flights on 14 routes.

The airline said it expects to carry a further 1.1 million customers over the year to a record 11.75 million across 742 weekly flights on 83 routes.

Overall, the airline said it will be increasing weekly flight numbers by 15 per cent.

In addition to the new Amsterdam route, which commences on October 27th, Ryanair said it will be adding extra flights on a number of routes including Alicante, Barcelona, Berlin, Birmingham, Brussels, Budapest, East Midlands, Liverpool, London Gatwick, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, Venice Treviso and Warsaw.

Ryanair hit a new milestone in July when it carried more than 10 million passengers in a month for the first time. Earlier this week it said that passenger numbers were up 10 per cent versus August 2014 with annual traffic for the first eight months of 2015 up 15 per cent to 96.3 million

The airline estimates it will deliver as much as 70 per cent of the growth at Dublin airport this year and said it supports 8,800 onsite jobs at the facility.

Dublin Airport welcomed Ryanair’s expansion plans, which it said would provide passengers with greater choice and flexibility.

"This announcement is good news for Irish business and tourism to Ireland," said Dublin Airport managing director, Vincent Harrison.

The airport, which is celebrating its 75th birthday this year, now has flights to 167 destinations.

In the first seven months of this year, almost 14.2 million passengers used Dublin Airport, a 15 per cent increase on the same period last year.