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Ryanair is ramping up its operations ahead of the summer, announcing its largest ever flight schedule out of Dublin airport.
In total, the airline will run 900 flights a week to 120 destinations through the summer season, an increase of 22 routes compared with summer of 2019.
The recovery in traffic will result in the basing of a 33rd Ryanair aircraft in Dublin, which the carrier says will result in the creation of 30 new roles. The growth is in part being driven by the Government backed Travel Recovery Support Scheme, which is being operated by Dublin and Cork airport operator daa.

Hotels will benefit from the decision to designate March 18 of this year as a Bank Holiday under a new proposal agreed by Government.
The holiday will be a once-off national commemorative event, dedicated to healthcare workers and those who have lost their lives during the pandemic. It will create a new ‘long weekend’ running from Thursday to Sunday, providing an opportunity for hotels to offer inclusive packages. Restaurants and bars are also likely to benefit.
Announcing the new public holiday, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said the holiday would be ‘a day of remembrance and recognition’.
The March 18 event is separate from the additional bank holiday set to be added to the calendar from next year.

More than twice as many cross-Border tourists go from Northern Ireland to the Republic compared to the other way around, a conference on tourism has been told.
A Shared Island report on cross-Border trade and services by the Economic Social Research Institute (ESRI) found approximately 1.4 million tourism trips are made from north to south with 600,000 trips made the other way despite the fact that the population of the Republic is 2.5 times that of Northern Ireland.
Speaking at a forum on cross-Border tourism, the Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin said there was scope to ‘grow the flow’ in both directions ‘for the benefit of the entire island’.

The Hodson Bay Group last year sustained a €20m revenue reduction due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
New accounts lodged by Shermond Holdings Ltd show that the business’s pre-tax profits reduced by 25% to €2.37m in the 12 months to the end of February last.
The business recorded the drop in pre-tax profits after revenues declined by 62.5% from €31.99m to €11.99m.
The Shermond accounts cover the performance of the group’s 4-star Hodson Bay Hotel outside Athlone; the 4-star Sheraton Hotel in Athlone town centre and the 4-star Galway Bay Hotel.
MD of the group, Padraig Sugrue, said the 12 months to the end of February was “a hugely disrupted and hugely challenging year with lockdowns due to Covid-19’. He said the group “got a very positive run of business over the summer 2020 months”.