Ryanair launches first ever flights from Armenia to major European cities
Ryanair announced on Wednesday its first ever flights from Armenia, the 40th country in the Ryanair network.
Europe’s largest airline is to operate flights from Yerevan to Rome and Milan starting from January 2020, while a new route from Yerevan to Berlin and the first European route from Gyumri to Memmingen will start in summer 2020, Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer David O’Brien told a news conference in Yerevan on Wednesday.
According to O’Brien, the 130,000 to be carried by the airline next year will help create 100 more jobs in the airport.
“And crucially if you compare our fares with the legacy carriers, these 130,000 passengers will save over 12 million euros,” he stressed.
David O’Brien noted the lowest fares on the airline website starts from around €4.99, while the average ticket price is €35.
The airline will fly to the European cities twice a week, he said.
According to O’Brien, Armenia and Ireland share a lot of characteristics, since both of them are on the edge of Europe and are small countries, adding the only obvious difference between them is the weather, which has to be good for tourism.
Giving a short briefing on the company, the Ryanair official said it is the biggest airline with the biggest network in Europe. He said the airline will serve 150 million customers this year, with the number expected to reach 200 million next year. Ryanair consists of four airlines with more than 500 aircrafts across those airlines and 2,000 routes.
“The secret of our success is simple: we offer people efficient services on modern aircraft at low fares nobody else can compete with,” he said.
Chair of the Armenian Civil Aviation Committee Tatevik Revazyan said, for her part, after moving from Demark to Armenia years ago, her goal was increasing connectivity to Armenia, since it could have a great economic impact and create a lot of jobs.
“I am very happy and proud that you are here today,” she said.