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Ryanair to fly further(Travel Weekly Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) RYANAIR plans to expand its fleet by 25% a year for the foreseeable future and will offer an increasing number of destinations beyond a two-hour flying time. It will begin services to Malta and Morocco from Luton on October 31 and is looking at similar destinations around the Mediterranean, including Cyprus. The expansion could eat into leisure airlines' markets which have so far been unaffected by the low-cost boom. But Ryanair will not operate the frequencies it does on shorter flights. Route development director Bernard Berger said: "Our flight length has been growing. We launched Dublin-Malta this month, which takes three hours 50 minutes. But our average sector length remains short. We may fly to Cyprus, although not necessarily from the UK. "I'm sure other countries around the Mediterranean rim will want to emulate Morocco [by signing a deal with Ryanair]." The airline will operate four times a week to Marrakesh, three times a week to Fez and daily to Malta. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information - UK. All Rights Reserved. |