From the Ryanair Website:
"RYANAIR ANNOUNCES ITS NINTH EUROPEAN BASE
SIX NEW ROUTES (30 FLIGHTS DAILY) FROM STOCKHOLM SKAVSTA
Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 low fares airline, today (28th January 2003) confirmed that it had chosen Stockholm Skavsta Airport to be its ninth European base.
Starting in 9 weeks time (4th April 2003), Ryanair will allocate up to 4 aircraft to its new base in Stockholm, operating over 30 flights each day from Stockholm on 6 new international routes to Aarhus, Glasgow, Hamburg, Paris, Oslo and Tampere (Finland) – in addition to the hugely successful existing routes to London and Frankfurt.
This new Scandinavian base will result in the creation of over 200 new jobs in the Stockholm area and will result in over 1.5 Million passengers being carried through Stockholm Skavsta in the first year of this new base. These passengers will save over 3 Billion SEK compared with the high fares currently being charged by SAS, Scandinavia’s high fares airline.
As well as announcing details of its routes, Ryanair also announced launch air fares from just SEK 299! Ryanair’s one way fares will be at least 84% cheaper than the one way fares currently offered by SAS.
ROUTES COMMENCES RYANAIR SAS SAVING
ROUTES COMMENCES RYANAIR SAS SAVING
LONDON 4TH APRIL 03 From SEK 299 SEK 6 824 95%
FRANKFURT 4TH APRIL 03 From SEK 299 SEK 6 609 95%
AARHUS 4TH APRIL 03 From SEK 399 SEK 2 671 85%
OSLO 4TH APRIL 03 From SEK 399 SEK 2 569 84%
TAMPERE 4TH APRIL 03 From SEK 459 SEK 3 169 85%
GLASGOW 4TH APRIL 03 From SEK 599 SEK 7 092 91%
HAMBURG 4TH APRIL 03 From SEK 599 SEK 5 004 88%
PARIS 4TH APRIL 03 From SEK 699 SEK 7 774 91%
Announcing details of the 4th Continental European base in Stockholm today, Ryanair’s Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary said:
“Thanks to Ryanair, and Stockholm Skavsta Airport, the SAS high fares monopoly in the Scandinavian market is at an end. Ryanair are breaking the monopoly of SAS in the Scandinavian markets of Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark – with choice and low fares which will save consumers over 84% on the SAS high fares. For years, visitors to Stockholm area and Swedish consumers have had to put up with SAS’s high air fares, but this monopoly ends on 4th April 2003.
Now there will be a choice of air fares and daily scheduled flights not only to London and Frankfurt, but also to Oslo, Glasgow, Aarhus, Paris, Tampere and Hamburg – and guaranteed at the lowest air fares - 84% saving on the high fares charged by SAS. These fares are only available at Europe’s largest travel website,
www.ryanair.com, and we would urge people to book early as seats at these prices will sell out quickly.
These routes will be operated by 4 of Ryanair’s brand new Boeing 737-800 aircraft, and recruitment and training will shortly get underway of 100 people in time for the base launch on 4th April 2003.
Our passenger numbers have grown rapidly at Stockholm Skavsta Airport since we began flying in June 1997. With these new routes and our base investment, traffic growth at Stockholm Skavsta Airport will explode..”
Welcoming Ryanair’s announcement of Stockholm Skavsta Airport as its new base, Dot Gade Kulovuori, Managing Director of Skavsta Airport said:
“ Ryanair have been firm supporters of Stockholm Skavsta Airport for 5 years, and together we have seen passenger numbers increase year on year.
We are delighted that Ryanair share our ambitious plans for Stockholm Skavsta and today’s announcement and the new routes, will bring even greater choice and low fares to the people of Sweden, as well as benefiting the local economy with in coming visitors and jobs.”