From this mornings Northern Echo Friday 22 Sept:
Ryanair investigates taking off where bmibaby closed the door
RYANAIR last night said it was in discussions with Durham Tees Valley airport with a view to expanding its presence there, following the exit of low-cost rival bmibaby.
The no-frills airline, which operates flights from Teesside to Dublin, may look at launching new routes from the region over the next 18 months.
Ryanair's European sales and marketing manager, Caroline Baldwin, said: "We are growing significantly in terms of numbers of routes this year.
"I couldn't give any exact details, but it is a possibility that we would launch new routes over the next 18 months or so as we are always looking for new opportunities.
"I don't know if we would do any London routes, but we have a big presence in Spain, and we could be looking at routes to Shannon, as well as European countries, including Italy, Germany or the Nordic states."
She said Ryanair was in talks with airport bosses.