Ryanair will serve more destinations from Dublin this summer than ever before. It'll have 120 routes and up to 935 weekly flights, helped by another aircraft – its 33rd – being stationed at the airport. As a stark reminder that Ryanair is heavily responsive to financial incentives, it says this development is "a direct result" of the DAA's Traffic Recovery Incentive Scheme.

Ryanair 737-800
Photo: Ryanair.

What's happening?

Ryanair will have 120 routes from Dublin this year, according to a statement released by the airline and cross-referenced to the latest schedules information available via Cirium. Some 17 have been introduced since summer 2019 (S19), the last normal peak season. Along with frequency increases on existing routes – Alicante, Bordeaux, Edinburgh, Girona, and others – Ryanair's departures from the Irish capital are up by 11% to almost 29,000, Cirium shows.

According to Ryanair, this development is a direct consequence of daa's Traffic Recovery Incentive Scheme. The scheme offers airlines a discount of between 50% and 100% on aeronautical charges (runway, parking, passenger, and airbridge use) if they exceed by 50-100% monthly passenger figures achieved in 2019. It applies to all passenger airlines, has been extended to the end of October 2022, and is not route-specific.

The ultra-low-cost carrier has been consistently vocal about the need for greater incentives to encourage demand and for airlines and routes to return. (And to help with its bottom line.) They're a crucial ingredient to increase growth, benefiting the airline and airport. No doubt Ryanair availed of the changes to Nuremberg's charges, as it'll reopen its base there, having closed in 2020.

Ryanair's summer development at Dublin (2)
At its peak, Ryanair will have 935 weekly departures from Dublin. Source of data: Cirium.

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120 routes this coming summer

With over nearly four in ten Dublin flights (37%), the UK remains vital to Ryanair's Dublin base. Despite the loss of Southend, its UK network comprises 14 destinations. They're typically served on a high-frequency basis and remain the profitable core of Ryanair's whole operation. Stansted and Gatwick jointly lead the most-served list this summer, as follows, with eight daily departures.

  1. Dublin to London Stansted and Gatwick
  2. Manchester
  3. Birmingham
  4. Amsterdam and Edinburgh
  5. Liverpool
  6. Faro
  7. Malaga
  8. London Luton
  9. Glasgow
  10. Bristol
  11. Barcelona
  12. Alicante
  13. Lisbon
  14. Palma
  15. Bergamo
Ryanair's Dublin routes summer 2022
It's very messy and hard to read, this shows Ryanair's Dublin network this summer. At just 142 miles (228km), the shortest route isn't the domestic link to Kerry (KIR) but across the Irish Sea to Liverpool. Image: GCMap.

Routes still to start

The following routes are all set to start (or restart) in the first week of the aviation summer season. They include Funchal in Maderia, which will become a new base this year. Hahn replaces Frankfurt, which Ryanair will cut from its network due to rising charges. Ryanair served Alghero from Dublin between February 2007 and October 2015, and Hahn from May 2005 to October 2018.

  1. Dublin to Alghero: begins March 27th, twice-weekly
  2. Suceava: March 27th, twice-weekly
  3. Nîmes: March 29th, twice-weekly
  4. Funchal: March 30th, twice-weekly
  5. Nuremberg: March 30th, four-weekly
  6. Hahn (replacing Frankfurt International): April 1st, five-weekly

They join other routes that either have recently launched (or relaunched) or will do so before the summer begins, such as Agadir, Cardiff, Košice, Plovdiv, Sibiu, and Zagreb. The coming summer will be the first for all but one of these six. The exception: Cardiff. Ryanair last served it from the Irish capital until May 2006. Aside from some rugby charters a few years ago, it has now properly relaunched.

What do you make of its development in Dublin? Let us know in the comments.