Irish budget airline Ryanair announced today (18 December) the launch of its first base in Croatia.

The base will open at Zadar in April 2013 with one-based aircraft and seven new routes to/from Dublin, East Midlands, Gothenburg, Haugesund, Liverpool, Paris and Wroclaw. This will be the airline’s 54th base.

Commenting on the news of its first base in Croatia, Ryanair’s Michael Cawley said:

“Ryanair is delighted to announce Zadar as our 54th base (and our first in Croatia) and to unveil 7 new routes (16 in total) to/from Dublin, East Midlands, Gothenburg, Haugesund, Liverpool, Paris and Wroclaw, beginning in April, as part of our summer 2013 schedule, which go on sale on www.ryanair.com tomorrow.

“Croatian consumers/visitors can now beat the recession and escape Croatia Airlines’ high fares and fuel surcharging by switching to Ryanair’s lowest fares and our no fuel surcharge guarantee from Zadar to 16 exciting European destinations, including Dublin, London and Paris, amongst others. Ryanair’s 300,000 passengers p.a. will sustain up to 300 “on site” jobs in Zadar”, added Cawley.

Ryanair celebrated its new Zadar base by launching a 100,000 seat sale with fares starting from £8 for travel across the airline’s European network in January which are available for booking until midnight (24:00hrs) Thursday (20 December).