Irish budget carrier Ryanair will open a new base at Leeds Bradford Airport in March 2010.

It plans to start 14 new routes from the northern UK location: Carcassonne, Faro, Ibiza, Knock, Krakow, Limoges, Malaga, Malta, Montpellier, Murcia, Nantes, Palma, Pisa and Venice Treviso.

Budget rival Jet2 is based at Leeds Bradford and nine of Ryanair's total of 17 routes from the airport next summer will compete directlywith Jet2 on several routes.

Ryanair will base two Boeing 737-800 aircraft at the airport and increase traffic there to 1 million passengers per year.