Ryanair reveals that 14 weekly flights will fly to and from Teesside airport in summer 2023

In a trading update last month, Ryanair said there was “strong pent-up travel demand” during the October half-term break and the Christmas and New Year period.

The Dublin-based airline recorded a profit of 211m euro (£185m) for the quarter. There is “robust demand” for Easter and summer 2023 flights driven by the return of Asian tourists and Americans being encouraged to visit Europe due to the strength of the US dollar, chief executive Michael O’Leary said. He recommended that people wanting the lowest fares should book as soon as possible as “we expect these will sell out early”.

Ryanair employs 60 staff at Teesside and is set to carry 83,000 passengers to and from Teesside in 2023/24, compared with around 28,000 in the prior full year, Ms Kirwan said.

She added: "Planes fly both ways to these destinations, so as well as taking people to these holiday destinations, we are driving traffic in the other direction too which will have a positive economic impact on Teesside. We have seen a really strong bounceback, with confidence restored very quickly. We are carrying around 115 per cent of pre-Covid passenger numbers, whereas European air traffic has only returned to around 83 per cent of its pre-pandemic levels. We carried 11.8m passengers in January, which was our best January performance on record. It speaks volumes for the demand out there.

"Other airlines cut staff resources but we kept our people in place and were able to manage the surge in passenger numbers. We find that some consumers may trade down during a cost of living crisis, which plays to our advantage.

She added: "The fact we have such a huge provincial airport base is helping to bring investment into the regions, including Belfast, where we are re-opening our base for this summer.”

Last October, Ryanair revealed it was providing flights to 15 destinations from Leeds Bradford Airport over the winter as part of its long term investment in Yorkshire.

Ms Kirwan said at the time: “The fact we are able to maintain three aircraft based at Leeds Bradford gives us the potential to invest for further growth.”