Low-fare airline Ryanair says a €200m investment in four new routes could create hundreds of new jobs.
Ryanair announced the new routes from Belfast to Budapest, Mallorca, Valencia and Cardiff on Monday.
The new routes will start from Belfast International Airport for summer 2023.
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It represents a €200m for the airline, which said it is excited to be expanding its offering from Northern Ireland.
Ryanair’s Director of Digital & Marketing, Dara Brady claimed that because there were would be two new aircraft based at the airport, further job creation would follow, citing an estimate of about 800 direct and indirect potential jobs.
"Every time we base an aircraft in an airport, it means it starts and finishes its stay there," he said.
"That creates direct employment in terms of cabin crew and pilots, that's over 60 direct jobs for those roles.
"We obviously then have supporting staff and ground handling, airport staff and then also the wider economic impact of everything from transfers and taxis to shops and hotels.
"The spill over of the inbound passengers creates that positive impact on the local economy and the trickle-down effect of creating local jobs.
"It's very important for Belfast to get that economic boost by having the aircraft based there and it represents a €200m investment by Ryanair, which is a very substantial investment in the region."
The new offering adds to Ryanair's operations from the airport, which is sitting at 12 routes currently and Mr Brady claimed that the investment followed a strong summer showing for the airline in 2022, which encouraged them to push ahead with further routes.
"Demand has been very strong throughout the summer," he said.
"We operated at 115% of pre-pandemic levels this summer while many other airlines were only at 85-90% pre-pandemic levels.
"We've seen very strong demand underpinned by our low-fare offering an d we feel there'll be very strong demand for next summer, we're very confident of that."
Mr Brady also said that Ryanair had been committed to getting back to full capacity as quickly as possible following the pandemic restrictions.
"We'd been planning for the recovery post-Covid, we kept all of our people in jobs unlike many other airlines who let go of a lot of staff," he added.
"We worked closely with our airports so they knew what schedule we were going to operate and I think that shows the strength that we operated at this summer with minimal disruption, that shows how well planned it was.
"We always envisaged recovery would be quick once the coronavirus restrictions were lifted, and I think a lot of other airlines and some airports got caught out thinking it would be more of a drip-feed recovery.
"We planned for it, and our schedule planning for next summer in Belfast is well underway, we're very, very confident that we'll be able to operate our full schedule.
"We've secured a long-term deal with Belfast International, we're very committed there now and I think there's plenty of potential for us to grow over the coming years based on the underpinning of that long-term agreement with the airport."
He said the new routes would offer customers variety on what they wanted whether it be for holidays or business.
"You have a bit of a mix with the city breaks like Budapest and Cardiff, but then you have sun opportunities like Mallorca and then somewhere like Valencia, where you have the sea and beach within 15 minutes of the airport, which is also a very strong city pull," he said.
"I think there's a great mix in there for Belfast customers.
"Across our 16 routes, I think there's great connections into the UK, Spain, Poland and there's a real strong mix so we're very excited to be announcing these four new routes."
Graham Keddie, Managing Director, Belfast International Airport said: “The addition of a further four new routes by Ryanair is a fantastic way to end 2022.
"These exciting new destinations, particularly Budapest and Cardiff, which are both previously unserved, are most welcome and will provide further connectivity from Northern Ireland.
"From March 2023 Ryanair will now operate 16 new routes and base two aircraft providing a real boost to the local tourism and business economy.”
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