Low-cost airline Ryanair plans to boost passenger numbers in Germany by as much as 10 percent over the next fiscal year, CEO Michael O'Leary said in Frankfurt on Tuesday.

Starting in May, Ryanair will add two new routes from Frankfurt Hahn Airport in Hunsrück. With flights to the holiday destinations of Agadir, Morocco and Pula, Croatia, in addition to 54 other destinations, Ryanair expects to carry up to 11 million passengers in Germany in the next year.

The Irish airline is planning a similar expansion across the rest of Europe, in an effort to carry as many as 73 million passengers, up from 66 million this year.

The European expansion is part of Ryanair's plan to save money by avoiding countries with higher taxes and landing fees. In Ireland, the company has already reduced the number of its planes from 20 to 15.

“Germany is more economical than Dublin, and it lies right in the middle [of Europe],” said O'Leary. Ryanair has three hubs in Germany, at Frankfurt-Hahn, Bremen and Weeze near Duesseldorf.

According to the AP news agency, Ryanair plans to invest $140 million (101.5 million euros) in a new hub in Lithuania, its first in Eastern Europe.

cmk/AP/dpa/Reuters
Editor: Rob Turner