RYANAIR is expecting a record-breaking summer at Bournemouth Airport as passengers switch from other airlines and airports to enjoy its biggest ever selection of routes.

The budget airline is set to see 600,000 passengers through the terminal at Hurn this summer after basing a second plane at the site and adding new destinations.

Edinburgh and Venice are the new routes from Bournemouth for summer 2023, taking the airline to 120 weekly flights to nine countries.

Dara Brady, Ryanair’s director of marketing, communications and digital, said ticket sales were “going gangbusters”.

“For Bournemouth we are very pleased with how bookings are going. We have two aircraft based there this summer. That represents a 200million euro investment which has created over 60 direct jobs for pilots and cabin crew,” he said.

“We have a very busy schedule. We’re about 10 per cent busier this summer than last summer and we will be having over 120 flights a week. We think there’s a lot of choice in there for summer.

“We’re the largest airline out of Bournemouth. I think we’re seeing our regional airports have done quite well, particularly last summer. People don’t have massive security issues and long queues and all that type of thing.“

He praised the airport as being “managed very well”, with very good turnaround times for airlines.

“It’s shaping up to be a good summer,” he added.

Mr Brady said many people were switching to Ryanair after “getting burned” by airlines including British Airways and EasyJet, which cancelled hundreds of flights last year for reasons including staff shortages and baggage handling disputes.

Other passengers were “trading down” in order to reduce the price of their holidays amid the cost of living crisis, he said.

“We’re seeing people move over. We see, with the economic difficulties that the UK is having, when a lot of people tighten their belts they’re not going to forgo their week in the sun but trade down,” he added.

Recent days have also seen the regional airline Flybe ground flights after going into administration for the second time in three years. Mr Brady said the company had been unable to control its costs well enough to offer the low fares that would have made it more popular.

“In the last 12 months you’ve had Heathrow capping capacity, which was a nightmare, you had BA cancelling flights because they didn’t have enough staff, we had EasyJet cutting staff and Flybe didn’t have the financial power to be viable,” he said.

“That’s sending people back to Ryanair and it’s why airports like Bournemouth are going very well.”