New jobs pledge as Ryanair expands operations at Prestwick and Edinburgh airports

Published on Wednesday 10 February 2010 14:01

BUDGET airline Ryanair today announced it is to build a new hangar at a Scottish airport, bringing 200 engineering jobs to the area.

• Ryanair will add three routes to its Edinburgh operation

The 8 million hangar will be the airline's second maintenance, repair and overhaul facility at Prestwick Airport in Ayrshire.

Between them they will maintain Ryanair's fleet of more than 200 aircraft.

Ryanair also announced an expansion at Edinburgh Airport, with the launch of three routes from May 2010.

Scotland will get its first direct link to Morocco with flights to Marrakech, and new flights will operate to Faro, Portugal, and to Paris.

Ryanair will also increase the frequency of planes on 16 other routes from Edinburgh and Prestwick this summer.

The Scottish Government is contributing 1.5 million for Ryanair's new hangar at Prestwick.

First Minister Alex Salmond joined Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary at Prestwick Airport for the announcement.

Mr Salmond said: "I am delighted that Ryanair is strengthening its operations in Scotland and this announcement shows that Ayrshire has the quality infrastructure and skilled workforce to secure this major project, having fought-off competition from a number of European locations.

"Ryanair makes a substantial contribution to Scotland's economy through its engineering facilities and encouraging tourism and business traffic via its Glasgow Prestwick, Aberdeen and Edinburgh flights.

"The announcement of investment at Prestwick and new routes from Edinburgh supports this Government's ambition to increase sustainable economic growth by attracting inward investment and creating quality new jobs."

The first maintenance unit at Prestwick opened in 2004 and the two hangars will sustain more than 400 engineering and support staff.

Prestwick faced "intense competition" from five other European airports to win the new hangar, Ryanair said.

"Ryanair's new second maintenance hangar at Glasgow Prestwick Airport will create 200 new engineering jobs, in addition to the 2,200 local jobs which have already been created and sustained in Ayrshire as a direct result of Ryanair's base and our existing hangar facility at Glasgow Prestwick," Mr O'Leary said.

"Ryanair's successful growth in Scotland is possible thanks to our ongoing partnership with the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise, who have repeatedly supported our vision for many more low-fare flights to and from Scotland."

The Scottish Government is supporting the project through Scottish Enterprise, which said it the work is a "fantastic result for the Scottish economy, for Ayrshire and for the aerospace industry".

Ryanair said an extra plane will be put in Edinburgh to cope with the expansion there, which it expects will increase the number of its customers at the airport to 2.5 million a year.

Liberal Democrat transport spokeswoman Alison McInnes MSP welcomed the expansion of routes at Edinburgh.

"The additional business from Ryanair means that the airport has managed to replace the seats lost by the collapse of Flyglobespan last year.

"This is good news for jobs and will lessen the impact of Flyglobespan's collapse on the capital.

"I hope that the announcement will build confidence across the rest of Scotland too, where some smaller airports are still concerned about the loss of Flyglobespan.

"Edinburgh is the UK's fastest growing airport and these new routes will strengthen its position as Scotland's airport of choice."