Ryanair to operate 70 routes to and from Rome over winter.

The low-cost Irish airline Ryanair is to launch 18 new routes out of Rome airports Fiumicino and Ciampino this winter, the company's chief executive Michael O'Leary announced on Tuesday.

Ryanair will offer a total of 70 routes serving the Italian capital, with the addition of new services to Agadir, Amman, Asturias, Berlin, Cologne, Cork, Cuneo, Dublin, Frankfurt, Gran Canaria, Liverpool, Prague, Rabat, Stockholm, Tangier, Toulouse, Trapani and Valencia.

"Our goal is to transport 9.4 million passengers to Rome by 2023" - O'Leary said - "At the moment the booking trend is excellent on the Italian market, with the last quarter performing very well.”

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Over the winter of 2022-23 Ryanair will operate a total of 530 routes to and from 30 Italian airports, of which 30 are new, with the aim of reaching 56 million passengers in 2023.

During the news conference the outspoken Ryanair boss described the economic situation in Britain as "car crash" and said it was an "inevitable consequence" of Brexit.

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O'Leary also took a swipe at ITA Airways, the successor to Alitalia as Italy's flag carrier, telling Italian news agency ANSA that the airline "will never be profitable".

"It cannot compete with Ryanair in Italy and on short-haul routes", O'Leary said, adding that Ryanair has a 40 per cent market share in Italy and is heading towards 42-43 per cent.

Photo credit: Mikel Dabbah / Shutterstock.com.