"Even the most devoted Europhile will need an atlas to place Ryanair's latest destinations. The Irish low-cost airline declared yesterday that it is starting routes to Kaunas, Poznan and Lodz (pronounced "Wodge", according to the airline's helpful notes).
Kaunas is in Lithuania; the other two are in Poland and take the number of Polish airports served by Ryanair to seven. A year ago there were none.
The airline expects to carry 800,000 passengers between Stansted and Poland over the next year. Its chief executive, Michael O'Leary, says he has high hopes for a booming short-break market among Londoners keen to sample Rzeszow, Szczecin and Bydgoszcz.
But the real game here is emigrant workers. With fares from £3.99, Ryanair offers an alternative to long-distance buses for Polish carpenters, electricians, decorators and bar staff. In a sense, it is oiling the wheels of the European Union - without free movement, the single market is academic.
The strategy brings Ryanair full circle - it started life shuttling Irish migrant workers back home from Britain. The migrant market appears once more to be at Ryanair's core - unless anyone fancies a golf weekend in Wodge?"
I confess that I quite like such developments. There are Poles working in my local Tesco (which is always advertising for staff and which obviously cannot secure a sufficient labour supply from the Edinburgh population). It seems that Ryanair is doing more to address Scottish demographics than the Scottish Executive's fresh talent initiative. And I, for one, would recommend Wodge, Stettin and Kaunas as weekend holiday destinations. These are lively and interesting locations, usually with historic town centres.
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