Three is the magic number for sun worshippers flying from Kerry Airport with the introduction of additional flights to Alicante from March 27.

Flights to the popular Spanish holiday destination will operate three times a week for the summer season on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays until the end of October.

The route to Faro in Portugal’s Algarve will also return twice weekly on Wednesdays and Sundays from March 28.

The Kerry-Manchester route is to increase from two to three days a week, operating on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from March 26 onwards.

The summer schedule of Ryanair flight details comes after a great year for Kerry Airport with a 309% increase on 2021 and almost 97% of 2019 numbers before the pandemic curtailed the aviation industry.

Overall, 356,141 passengers travelled through Kerry Airport in 2022.

“Recovery is well under way and it is our intention to grow those passenger numbers in the near to medium term," CEO of Kerry Airport, John Mulhern, said.

"The loss of the publicly supported Dublin Stobart service was a painful blow, however credit must go to Ryanair for taking on the route on a commercial basis to support Kerry’s connection to Dublin, a major hub for international travel in and out of the county. In fact Ryanair have increased passenger traffic on the route by 50% in comparison to 2019, which in itself was a record year.”

The 2022 passenger numbers were achieved despite the loss of the connection to Berlin which was understood to have become commercially non-viable due to airport charges there.

Now that recovery is fully underway, Kerry Airport will commit every effort to continue the renewed growth while being mindful of the challenge of procuring new routes from small regional airports, especially during these difficult times.

In announcing the strong passenger numbers for 2022 and the summer schedule for 2023, John Mulhern added, “I want to thank most sincerely our remarkable team here at the airport who have laboured with such great determination these past few years and are deserving of much praise.”

Kerry Airport is ideally located for anyone wishing to travel for business or pleasure with direct flights to London-Stansted, London-Luton, Frankfurt-Hahn, Manchester, Dublin, Alicante (summer 2023) and Faro (summer 2023) with Ryanair.