Ryanair take on six new Spanair routes

Ryanair are set to maximise on the demise of Spanair by establishing new routes at Barcelona's El Prat airport.

One of these new routes will connect Alicante and Barcelona, and comes despite last week's confirmation by the Chairman of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, that the airline will go ahead with a 50% reduction of services from Alicante's El Prat airport.

The new routes, which will begin in April of this year, will see the number of aircraft currently based at Barcelona increase from 13, with passenger numbers expected to top the 10 Million mark.

Aside from a new route to Alicante's El Prat airport, O'Leary confirmed that the airline would establish connections with Hamburg, Munich, Stockholm, Bilbao and Menorca, and increase the frequency of flights to Seville, Palma, Tenerife, Malaga, Ibiza and Gran Canaria.

Further connections between Madrid, London and Paris were ruled out due the destinations being "well served already".

O'Leary also commented how the airline had no plans to fly to or from Lleida airport, given that they already have conisderable connections at Catalonia's other airports of Barcelona, Girona and Reus.