Ryanair has reiterated its support for the UK to remain a member of the European Union as the airline opened a training centre at London Stansted airport today.

The facility includes four flight simulators, a cabin mock-up to train flight attendants and a dedicated aircraft to train engineers, the Irish-headquartered budget carrier says.

It adds that the training centre will be used to create "more than 1,000 new jobs" this year, about 450 of which will be stationed across the airline's 13 UK bases.

Ryanair says it "directly" employs around 3,000 staff members in the UK today.

The carrier plans to add 14 aircraft across its UK bases in 2016 as it plans to grow the number of passengers in the country by five million to 41 million this year.

Chief executive Michael O'Leary says the training centre "exactly" represented a "type of investment that will be lost to other competitor EU members if the UK votes to leave the European Union".

Ryanair argues that "foreign inward investment will be lost to competitor EU member states, such as Ireland and Germany, if Britain votes to leave the European Union".

Source: Cirium Dashboard