Irish low-cost airline Ryanair has officially opened its new base at Bucharest’s Henri Coanda Airport on November 3, and has added four new routes to its Summer 2017 schedule.

The airline has allocated three aircraft to the new base, which required an investment of USD 300 million.

From the new Bucharest base, Ryanair will operate new routes to Berlin (twice a day), Bristol (twice a day), Palermo (three times a week), and Timisoara (twice a day). These routes are already operational, but were only recently opened and not available in the first half of this year.

The increased number of flights between Bucharest and Timisoara shows that the increasing demand for domestic flights.

Moreover, the company has increased the number of flights to Brussels Charleroi, Dublin, and Milan Malpensa, which were among its first destinations from Bucharest.

Ryanair now operates 13 routes from Bucharest and will have over 100 weekly flights next summer. It thus aims to reach 1.9 million passengers transported to and from Bucharest's Henri Coanda International Airport next year.

“To celebrate our new Bucharest base, we are releasing seats on sale at prices from just EUR 9.99 for flights in December and January, which must be booked by Saturday (November 5),” said Denis Barabas, Sales and Marketing Executive Romania & CEE, Ryanair.

The airline will also start operating its first flights from Oradea, western Romania, in March 2017.

Ryanair's main local competitors are Hungarian low cost airline Wizz Air and Romanian airlines Blue Air and Tarom.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com