Ryanair is throwing weight around UK airports this winter and into summer 2027, with 19 new international routes spread across the country — and some genuinely useful city breaks and sunshine escapes among them.
The big winner is Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which gets three new routes from October 26: twice-weekly flights to Gdańsk and Copenhagen, plus three weekly services to Warsaw Chopin (a swap from the old Modlin airport). This follows the airline's decision to base a sixth aircraft at Liverpool for winter, adding around 100,000 extra seats and 11% growth. Expect roughly 24 to 25 Ryanair departures a day on peak days.
Leeds Bradford is the other headline act. From summer 2027, Ryanair will fly from Yorkshire to Tirana, Bari, Budapest and Corfu — four brand-new routes timed neatly with easyJet's full withdrawal from the airport in January 2027. easyJet is dropping Belfast, Barcelona, Málaga, Palma and Paris from Leeds, but Jet2 and Ryanair are stepping in to keep those destinations connected. Ryanair even launched £29.99 "rescue fares" for stranded easyJet customers, bookable until the end of February.
Elsewhere, the list reads like a handy gap-filler for regional travellers: Venice from Luton, Copenhagen and Wrocław from Birmingham, Warsaw Modlin from Manchester and Bristol, Rhodes and Reus from Newcastle, Porto from both Bournemouth and Exeter, Málaga from Norwich, Gdańsk from East Midlands and Turin from Prestwick.
The expansion reflects how central the UK has become to Ryanair. It expects to carry 61 million UK passengers in 2026, and the UK is its second-busiest international market this winter with roughly 2,795 weekly departures. Manchester gains a 19th based aircraft with 50,000 extra winter seats, Birmingham gets a ninth aircraft backed by a $900 million investment (supporting new routes including Marrakesh), and Edinburgh's winter network grows 11%. London Stansted remains the airline's biggest base anywhere, with about 1,224 weekly winter departures and new services to Glasgow, Malmö and Parma.
For travellers outside London, this matters. Regional airports are getting direct links that previously meant a connection or a trek to a bigger hub — a direct Leeds-Bari flight puts Puglia within easy reach of Yorkshire, while Porto from Bournemouth or Exeter opens up northern Portugal without a London stopover. Fares on new Ryanair routes tend to start low, so booking early for summer 2027 launches is worth considering.
