Palma de Mallorca to become new base for Ryanair

The airline Ryanair today announced that Mallorca's airport in Palma is to become one of it's 49 European bases, and from March 2012, there will be four aircraft based at the airport. 17 new routes will be added to the existing 30 routes that Ryanair already operate, many of which are from the UK's regional airports.

The airline expects to fly 2.8 million passengers to Majorca which will help sustain up to 2,800 jobs in the Balearics. The new routes include Cork, Gothenburg, Malaga, Marseille, Oslo, Paris & Stockholm. Ryanair will be in competition for passengers with Palma's biggest airline operator, Air Berlin, and Air Europa.

At the same time, Ryanair has announced cuts to it's service from Alicante on mainland Spain as it says the airport is forcing it to use airbridges which cost the airline €2 million each year.