Budget carrier Ryanair has announced that it will be introducing four new routes out of Manchester airport this summer. The airline will also be increasing the number of daily services to Dublin to six from the four it currently flies. The airline said the move would guarantee the protection of around 600 jobs.

In 2009, the carrier withdrew a large number of services from Manchester because of an argument with the airport’s owners over fees. Later this year it will start to fly summer holidaymakers to Tenerife, Madrid, Faro and Alicante. The airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, announced the return to Manchester on Wednesday.

Mr O’Leary said he expected the services to deliver around 600,000 new passengers to the airport. This is a five per cent increase in traffic, he added. He went on to say that more passengers meant that more people would need to be employed to look after their needs, such as check-in staff and baggage handlers, therefore jobs would be created and jobs would be saved.

Andrew Harrison, Manchester Airport’s managing director, said the situation had changed since Ryanair announced it would be dropping schedules from the airport around 18 month’s ago. He added that the Irish carrier and the airport had managed to reach an agreement which was beneficial to both parties.

Both the airline and the airport said that passengers will now be able to benefit from the agreement as well as staff on the ground. The move is also an indicator that the airline industry in the UK is recovering from the global recession.