Continuing the trend and ensuring it stays as the biggest budget airline in Europe, Ryanair have announced they will setup a new base at Birmingham Airport - somewhere where they only have two flights flying from at present.

The new base will add another 20 Ryanair destinations from Birmingham with the first new flights starting in April 2008.

The new destinations are:

Barcelona, Biarritz, Billund, Bologna, Bratislave, Bydgozcz, Dinard, Gdansk, Marseille, Olbia, Oslo, Perpignan, Pisa, Poitiers, Porto, Stockholm, Trieste, Reus, Rzeszow and Trapani. The airline currently flies from Birmingham to Dublin and Shannon in Ireland.

One-way fares start from just £24 for these new routes and tickets can be booked via the Ryanair website from today.

Michael O'Leary, Managing Director of Ryanair doesn't hold-back on his comments in the press and in a statement about the new base he said [quote] "The people of Birmingham have been woefully underserved and overcharged by British Airways and Flybe's high fares for years. Ryanair's new base

will smash this high fare stranglehold by delivering savings of £130m next year for Birmingham's passengers / visitors."

Passengers who also book a return flight preior to Midnight on Thursday 17th January will get a free bonus flight (with no taxes, fees or charges to pay) to either Dublin or Shannon in Ireland in Febnruary 2008.

Its expected that the additional passengers/visitors that fly with Ryanair will add an additional £400 million to the local economy and also make-safe over 5000 jobs in the region.

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