Ryanair to resume Edinburgh-Stansted flights from October after three years

Ryanair is to resume flights between Edinburgh and London after three years, which is likely to step up competition with British Airways and EasyJet on Scotland’s busiest air corridor.

The budget airline announced on Friday it would relaunch its route to Stansted, London’s third busiest airport, on October 30 with 14 flights a week.

It was previously a highly significant route for Edinburgh, with its axing in 2019 triggering the airport’s first non-weather fall in monthly passengers for five years.

The cancellation is understood to have been caused by problems surrounding a new fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 8-200 aircraft following two fatal crashes involving other airlines.

Ryanair will fly a record 57 routes from Edinburgh this winter.

The addition will increase Ryanair’s routes from Scotland’s busiest airport this winter to a record of 57 – 12 more than last winter.

The carrier has ten aircraft based at Edinburgh, having added two since last year.

The Scotsman has learned the expansion has enabled it to overtake EasyJet as the airport’s biggest airline, carrying 1.75 million passengers between April and August compared to the rival’s 1.49m.

Ryanair accounted for 31 per cent of the airport’s passengers over that period, with EasyJet taking 26 per cent.

The Irish airline’s Scottish operations are overwhelmingly focused on Edinburgh, with only a handful of winter routes from Glasgow, Prestwick and Aberdeen.

However, Ryanair has again called on the UK Government to scrap aviation taxes “to enable further investment from Ryanair and other airlines” or the UK would be “at risk of losing air traffic to competing European countries”.

Edinburgh Airport aviation director Kate Sherry said: “This new route to Stansted puts passengers in good stead for a great deal to London.

"It was a popular route before the pandemic and we’re sure its performance will be capital in the coming months.

“We look forward to seeing further choice for our passengers as we look return back to pre-pandemic passenger levels in 2023.”

The Ryanair growth comes a week after Edinburgh announced another transatlantic route, with the resumption of flights to Atlanta from May after a 14-year gap.

It means the airport has more US links than ever before, with the Delta Air Lines route joining New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC and Orlando.