Budget carrier Ryanair has disclosed plans to operate nine new routes from London Stansted, having reached a growth deal with operator Manchester Airports Group.

Among the new destinations, Danish capital Copenhagen will be served thrice daily from the UK airport. Ryanair will also boost Stansted's French network, operating daily to Nice, four times weekly to Nimes, thrice weekly to Beziers and Grenoble, and twice weekly to Clermont-Ferrand and Strasbourg. The Italian cities of Naples and Cagliari will also gain new services: daily and thrice-weekly, respectively.

Ryanair, which also intends to increase the frequencies of 13 existing services from Stansted, expects passenger numbers of 20 million at the airport this year, across a total of 140 routes.

FlightGlobal schedules data indicates that Ryanair accounts for 82.7% of seat capacity from Stansted, and that the airline will face competition from low-cost rival EasyJet on the new Cagliari, Naples and Nice routes.

Source: Cirium Dashboard