A LEADING low-cost airline has increased its commitment to Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) with an extra aircraft and new routes this summer.

Ryanair has announced its summer 2022 schedule from the Yeadon airport with one additional based aircraft, which is a $100m incremental investment.

As a results, the budget airline's LBA-based fleet will increase to three-based aircraft, an overall investment of more than $300m, supporting 90 highly paid aviation jobs and 900 indirect jobs at the site.

Ryanair will now run 23 routes from LBA, including three new destinations to Barcelona, Paris and Zadar in Croatia, for a total of 95 weekly flights from the site.

Jason McGuinness, Ryanair’s director of commercial, said: "It is very excited and positive news.

“As Europe’s largest airline, Ryanair is pleased to deliver our Leeds Bradford schedule with one additional based aircraft for summer 2022 ($100m incremental investment).

"Ryanair’s Leeds Bradford-based fleet will increase to three aircraft ($300m total investment).

"We have a long history with LBA. We started flying from there in 1989. It was one of the first airports we started flying to.

"This larger fleet will deliver 23 routes in total, including three new routes to exciting destinations such as Paris, Barcelona, and Zadar along with increased frequencies to holiday favourites such as Faro and Tenerife. It is our largest-ever LBA schedule."

Nicola McMullen, LBA’s aviation director, said: “We are continually working at LBA to increase choice for passengers and introduce new and exciting routes, the announcement today from Ryanair is an important step towards this and illustrates the potential in LBA for the future.

"As well as creating more jobs in our region and driving economic benefits, the announcement comes at a time when we are really starting to see an acceleration in bounce back from the pandemic and we are gearing up for a busy summer.

"We look forward to welcoming new and existing passengers at LBA visiting these exciting destinations."

Ryanair now calls on the UK Government to further support this traffic recovery by scrapping APD completely. The airline added the 50 per cent reduction proposed for 2023 is too little, too late for post-Covid recovery since APD puts UK airports at a severe cost disadvantage versus their European competitors.

To celebrate Ryanair's summer schedule to/from Leeds Bradford, the airline is launching a three-day seat sale with fares available from £19.99 for travel until October 2022, which must be booked by Friday, February 18. Go to ryanair.com for more information.