Additionally, on winter destination routes to Spain and Poland, it is boosting the frequency of six other services from four weekly flights to six, adding extra flights to Lanzarote, Alicante, Malaga, Tenerife, Krakow, and Wroclaw.

To accommodate the increased frequency, the airline is basing a third 197-seater aircraft in Shannon, and 30 more Ryanair employees, including pilots and cabin crew, will also be stationed there.

As the aviation sector recovers and expands services following the epidemic, Shannon is one of 92 airports from which Ryanair operates. However, there is growing competition for airlines from airports around Europe.

“Despite this recovery, this summer was one of the most difficult for airline passengers impacted as a result of industrial action by air traffic controllers, particularly in France,” said Dara Brady, Director of Digital and Marketing at Ryanair, during a speech in Shannon.

He stated that Ryanair has gathered two million signatures from consumers on a petition asking the European Union to intervene more forcefully in this regard.

In the words of Shannon CEO Mary Considine, the airline's decision to expand its winter flights from Shannon is "good news" because Ryanair is a crucial partner for the airport's recovery from the pandemic, which resulted in a 79% decline in passenger volume in 2020 and 2021.

According to a new assessment looking at how well Ireland's airports recovered from the pandemic, Shannon fared the best, with first-quarter passenger counts 14% from 2019.

Air Service One, a worldwide aviation journal, conducted the analysis.

Cirium, a tool that utilised flight information, airline schedules, aircraft valuations, trip analytics, and fleet data from airlines, was used to compile the data for the study.