Ryanair is adding Milan, Liverpool and Gothenburg to its Malta routes.

Starting at the end of March, there will be daily Ryanair flights between the island and Milan Bergamo, the low-cost airline’s deputy chief executive Michael Cawley told a press conference.

Liverpool will have three weekly flights to/from Malta while Gothenburg in Sweden will have two.

Ryanair will operate 30 Malta routes in its next summer schedule, including the three new ones, amounting to 170 weekly flights to and from the island. All 27 of last summer’s routes will be retained.

“Tourism has grown every year since Ryanair came to Malta in 2006 and next year we expect to bring an additional 60,000 tourists to the island,” Mr Cawley said.

Ryanair intends to operate the flights between Malta and Liverpool and Milan all year round, although not necessarily on the same schedule as summer, while it has yet to make a decision on operating the Gothenburg route in winter.

The new routes go on sale today.

Rival low-cost airline Easyjet cancelled its Malta-Liverpool route in October citing “commercial reasons”, while it will resume flights between Malta and Milan in July.

Asked if Ryanair was exploiting the void left by Easyjet, Mr Cawley said the airline was in constant discussions with the Malta Tourism Authority about new markets and passenger growth.

The airline expects to carry approximately one million passengers on its Malta routes this year.

It now has around 25 per cent of the market share, second only to Air Malta.

Mr Cawley cited low fares as one of the factors driving growth for Ryanair, with an average fare of €53.

To coincide with the unveiling of its summer schedule, Ryanair announced a 100,000-seat sale across its network.

Flights in January are available from €8 until midnight on Thursday.

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