Cheap-flights firm Ryanair has announced it will now fly from Gatwick Airport to Faro in Portugal.

It also said it will operate routes to Bergamo, Bologna and Porto from Gatwick for the first time.

Ryanair has unveiled a range of new routes from Gatwick Airport

The four new routes will come into play from October  31.

Ryanair did not disclose how frequent any of the flights will be.

The second-largest UK airport is the usual home for charter airlines although easyJet, which also features heavily at Stansted Airport, is now the biggest company working out of Gatwick. Travellers from the capital wishing to get to the outlying airports can take advantage of easyJet’s bus service, including its London to Stansted route.

Ryanair meanwhile is ever-expanding into the territory of the tour operators. It has moved into busy holiday airports such as Gatwick and Malaga in Spain. It also now runs flights which take longer than its one-time two-hour limit to places such as north Africa and the Canary Islands.

The budget Irish firm does flights to Faro from Stansted and other UK airports. Its Gatwick departures, before the four new routes were announced, were limited to just Alicante and Girona.

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Ryanair is set to provide a new service linking Stansted to Bulgaria this winter.

Ryanair is set to provide a new service linking Stansted to Bulgaria this winter.

The low-cost airline will run a twice-weekly service between London Stansted and the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, starting on November 2.

Ryanair’s website now is selling tickets for the service, which will run on Tuesdays and Saturdays, for £32.99 one-way, including taxes.

Ryanair’s Laura McCormack said: “Plovdiv is Bulgaria’s second largest city with a rich and varied history dating back 8,000 years. Plovdiv makes a great city break destination and is also within easy access of the ski resorts of Bansko and Pamporovo.”

The low-cost airline has recently revealed that the extra baggage charges introduced during the peak summer season will continue on some routes.

From the start of September, fees on all services except those to the Canary Islands will be lowered to £15 per bag and £20 for a heavy bag. 

Travellers heading for the Canary Islands must continue to pay £20 per bag and £30 for a heavy bag for checked-in luggage.  

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Three musicians have been forced to pay £1,340 for extra seats for their instruments on a Ryanair flight to the UK.

musicians were forced to pay for extra seats for their instruments on a Ryanair flight

The trio, who were flying into Stansted to perform at a candle-lit Bach concert, thought they would be able to travel with their instruments as free hand luggage.

But three days before their flight to Stansted Airport, they discovered that each violin case needed its own seat.

According to the Irish airline, the cases exceeded the 55cms by 40cms by 20cms overhead luggage size.

Russian Igor Tsinman, 26, Hungarian-born Agnes Langer, 18, and their tutor Professor Anne Shih travelled from Frankfurt-Hahn airport for the Salle recital last week.

They chose to pay for the extra seats as they feared damaging the three 18th century violins, which are worth up to £800,000 each, in the hold.

A rare Sanctus Serafin belonging to Igor, Agnes’s Testore instrument and Professor Shih’s Guarnerius violin were belted up for the flight to the Uk on Friday.

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Low-cost airline Ryanair will not be allowed to buy the entire Aer Lingus share capital following a decision by EU judges to back the European Commission’s previous refusal.

The European Court of Justice dismissed Ryanair’s legal challenge, and said the ban on the airline was valid.

Judges at the court also rejected a separate action by Aer Lingus, which was seeking a decision to force Ryanair to give up its existing stake in the Irish airline company.

EU judges have backed the European Commission's refusal to allow Ryanair to buy the entire Aer Lingus share capital

Ryanir, which also operates flights from Luton Airport, acquired a 19.16% share of Aer Lingus when it was privatised four years ago.

The tussle between the two companies started shortly afterwards when Ryanair, which runs services out of Stansted Airport, showed an interest in bidding for the entire share capital. 

But the Commission declared the proposed merger illegal under EU competition rules.

Soon afterwards Ryanair launched a public bid for the entire share capital – but the Commission declared the proposed merger illegal under EU competition rules.

Ryanair bought more shares anyway, taking its stake to 29.3% – prompting Aer Lingus to ask the Commission to order Ryanair to sell its shareholding.

The Commission rejected the request on the grounds that it has no power under the EU rules to make such an order against a minority shareholder which does not have a controlling power in Aer Lingus.

The judgment backed the Commission’s decision against allowing a Ryanair takeover, on the grounds that the merger would “significantly impede effective competition as a result of the creation of a dominant position on a number of (air) routes from or to Dublin, Cork and Shannon.”

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Low cost airline Ryanair has announced it is going to slash its 2010/11 winter capacity by around 16%, including at Stansted airport.

The Irish company revealed it will be cutting back its services at London Stansted Airport by 17%.

As a result, it will be handling 1.5 million fewer passengers at the Essex site.

And it revealed it will be cutting flights at most of its other UK bases, except Edinburgh and Leeds Bradford. In London, Ryanair flights also operate out of Luton and Gatwick airports.

Ryanair is to cut back services during the winter

The company said that overall, it will fly two million fewer passengers compared with last year.

Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive, said the capacity reduction at UK airports was as a result of the “damaging” Air Passenger Duty airport departure tax.

Ryanair said that it would switch its unneeded London-based aircraft “to other European bases where governments have scrapped tourist taxes and reduced passenger charges, in some case to zero, in order to grow tourism and traffic”.

Mr O’Leary said: “Sadly, UK traffic and tourism continues to collapse while Ryanair continues to grow rapidly in those countries which welcome tourists instead of taxing them.

“Ryanair’s capacity cutbacks show just how much the UK’s tourist tax and (airport operator) BAA’s high airport charges are damaging UK tourism and the British economy generally.”

The Government is looking into scrapping the APD tax with a per-plane tax.

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Michael O’Leary, boss of the Stansted-based discount airline Ryanair, is set for a personal windfall of almost £17 million after the carrier reported pre-tax profits of £281 million.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary, pictured, will make £17m from the results

The chief executive, who owns around 4% of the company, will pocket the money as part of a £422 million dividend for shareholders.

It is believed that a decline in the price of oil helped drive the performance, with an 11% increase in sales of food and drink to £560.7 million also generating improved profits.

The bumper results look unlikely to be passed on to customers, however, with increased baggage charges during July and August set to be implemented regardless.

A statement from the airline, which also runs flights from Luton, said it was “proud” of the results and, barring any further disruption from Iceland’s volcanic ash cloud, expected the trend to continue.

Ryanair opened 280 new routes serving a variety of airports last year.

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