Ryanair To Open New Hubs In Athens, Thessaloniki

“Domestic monopoly is bad for Greece as prices go up and availability goes down,” Ryanair’s commercial director, David O’Brien, said during a press conference in Athens.

Dublin-based Ryanair announced on 14 January the opening of its second and third Greek hubs in Thessaloniki and Athens respectively. The hubs are part of a $280 million investment in Greece.

The low fares airline will open its third Greek hub (64th in total) at Athens in April with two based aircraft and six new routes to Chania, London Stansted, Milan Bergamo, Paphos, Rhodes and Thessaloniki.

“Our six new Athens routes will allow Greek consumers and visitors to escape Aegean/Olympic’s high fares and instead enjoy Ryanair’s lowest fares and industry leading customer service and punctuality,” Ryanair’s commercial director, David O’Brien, said during a press conference in Athens.

According to the airline, the new routes will annually deliver up to 1.2 million passengers and sustain some 1,200 “on-site” jobs at Athens with up to 150 weekly flights.

“Ryanair looks forward to working with Athens Airport to unlock the vast potential currently suppressed by high access air costs,” Mr. O’Brien said.

New routes from Thessaloniki

Photo: ryanair.com

Ryanair also announced the opening of its second Greek hub (63rd in total) at Thessaloniki in April 2014 with one based aircraft and three new routes (16 in total) to Athens, Pisa and Warsaw while investing over $70 million in Thessaloniki Airport.

“Visitors to Greece can now beat the recession and escape high fares and fuel surcharging by switching to Ryanair’s lowest fares and our no fuel surcharge guarantee between Thessaloniki and 16 European destinations, including Brussels, London and Milan, amongst others,” Ryanair’s Deputy Director of Route Development, Kate Sherry, said in Thessaloniki.

According to the airline, the new routes will annually deliver up to 1.6 million passengers and sustain some 1,600 “on-site” jobs at Thessaloniki with up to 212 weekly flights.

To celebrate the opening of the new Athens and Thessaloniki hubs, Ryanair announced it would launch seats on sale from 15 January.