Eight low-cost companies currently operate from Oporto,
which will soon be connected to Milan (Malpensa)
courtesy of new introduction Volare web.com, and three
new routes, to Stockholm, Pisa and Valencia, will also
soon be available through Ryanair.
Lisbon will be expanding its routes with the arrival
of its newest low-cost airline SkyEurope, which will be
flying to Vienna, as well as introducing a new route to
Seville, as of December, courtesy of Spanish company
Vueling.
Easyjet will be broadening Portugal's horizons by
increasing its flights to London (Gatwick), Bristol,
Liverpool and Madrid, from Lisbon. From Oporto the
company will fly to new destinations Geneva and Basileia,
as well as inaugurating its newest route to Funchal
(Madeira) from London Stansted and Bristol.
According to data from ANA – Airports of Portugal –
low cost airlines now make up more than 27 per cent of
all national air traffic.
Easyjet is the company with greatest growth in the
Portuguese market, dominating 46 per cent by August this
year and is the second largest airline operating from
Lisbon, after national carrier TAP.
TAP also leads in flights to and from Oporto,
followed closely by Ryanair.
In the south of Portugal, Faro airport is dominated
by low-cost carriers, being led by easyJet, Monarch and
Transavia, with TAP taking fourth place in movement
figures.
Between January and August this year, Lisbon airport
saw a passenger movement of more than 2.8 million
people, almost ten per cent more than in the same period
of the previous year.