Ryanair is to offer 28 flights a week between London Stansted and Cologne from October after announcing the German city will become its fifth German base.
It will have one aircraft based at Cologne from where it will also launch new services to Dublin, Madrid, Riga and Rome, boosting its passenger numbers from the airport to over 700,000 a year.
It wil offer a total of 86 flights a week from the airport, where it will invest over $90 million.
Ryanair’s chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said: "The state of North Rhein Westfalia is an important part of the European economy and we want to support bringing business travellers to do business, as well as tourists who want to visit a wonderful part of Germany."
