A new flight destination from Bristol Airport has been introduced by Ryanair. The popular airline has revealed its new winter 2024 flight schedule for Copenhagen, featuring 29 routes including four new destinations.
Ryanair will now fly to Bristol, Barcelona, Poznan and Sofia. This expansion offers Danish citizens and visitors more choice at the lowest fares in Europe.
Travellers can now explore Barcelona’s famous Las Ramblas, delve into Bristol’s industrial heritage, wander around Poznan’s Old Market Square and Malta Lake, or discover Sofia’s numerous churches that reflect its rich history.
Despite Ryanair’s ongoing investment in Copenhagen, increasing tourism and providing much-needed competition to high-fare carriers like SAS & Norwegian, this growth is under threat due to the Government’s proposed Aviation Tax of DKK 50 per departing passenger from Jan 2025, which they are calling an ‘eco tax’.
Denmark is one of the few European countries yet to recover its pre-pandemic traffic, currently sitting at just 95 per cent of its 2019 levels. If Denmark were to introduce this proposed Aviation Tax, it would render Danish air travel even less competitive than other EU nations, such as Sweden.
The Swedish government determined that aviation taxes do not promote sustainable aviation but instead harm economic growth, tourism, and employment while also limiting low fare connectivity. As a result, they made the decision to abolish the Aviation Tax.
Ryanair responded by investing an additional $200m, adding two extra aircraft, launching 10 new routes, and creating 60 new jobs for Sweden’s Summer 2025 schedule.
Ryanair is urging the Danish government to follow in Sweden’s footsteps and abandon its plans to introduce an Aviation Tax. Instead, they should aim to make Denmark more competitive and appealing for airlines like Ryanair to invest, grow, and provide more low fare routes.
This is crucial if Denmark hopes to fully recover its pre-Covid traffic, as most other EU countries have already done.
Ryanair’s Dara Brady said: “Despite Ryanair’s significant post-Covid growth in Denmark (+35%), including 4 new Copenhagen routes (Barcelona, Bristol, Poznan & Sofia) for Winter 2024, Denmark is one of the few European countries (like Germany) that has failed to recover its pre-Covid traffic due to its high access costs and high airport charges.
“Despite this, the government is absurdly proposing to introduce a new Aviation Tax from Jan 2025, which would make Denmark even less competitive than other EU States, who are abolishing taxes and lowering airport costs to stimulate traffic growth.
“Ryanair is the only major airline growing traffic in Europe, and cost is the main factor we consider when deciding where to allocate our new aircraft and growth. Ryanair calls on the Danish Govt to follow Sweden’s example, scrap its plans to introduce an Aviation Tax, and instead promote policies to lower costs to incentivise growth and competition to high fare national flag carrier, SAS.”