Ryanair has announced plans to fly from London to the Austrian city of Linz from later this year.

The low-cost carrier will operate a twice weekly service between Stansted Airport and Linz from 28 October.

Located in northern Austria, Linz is the country’s third largest city, and is not currently served by nonstop flights from the UK.

Linz will join Ryanair’s existing services from Stansted to the Austrian cities of Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Vienna.

The carrier said that its new route would “fill the gap left by Lufthansa and other high-cost airlines, which have discontinued their connections to/from Linz Airport in recent months”.

Commenting on the news Ryanair’s Andreas Gruber said:

“As Europe’s No. 1 airline, we are delighted to announce our new flights at Linz Airport this winter with four flights per week (two return flights each) on our route to London Stansted from October 28th.

“This will offer lower prices and better connections to residents/visitors of Upper Austria who have so far had no alternative to Lufthansa’s inflated airfares.

“Linz is the second new Austrian airport where Ryanair has started operations in the last two years, underlining our continued commitment and investment in Austria.

“Our presence in Linz, which complements our existing operations in Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Vienna, will not only offer competitive pricing but will also support important regional development through better connectivity to a major European city, inbound traffic and local job creation.”

Earlier this week Ryanair announced record annual profits of €1.92 billion, up 34 per cent on the previous year.

The group flew 183.7 million passengers in the year to March 2024, and said that it expects this figure to rise to between 198 and 200 million for FY25.

Ryanair expects to carry close to 200 million passengers in FY25