A Ryanair flight from Murcia Region Airport was diverted to nearby Alicante-Elche Airport on Friday, after the plane´s engine ingested a bird on takeoff.

The flight, Ryanair FR-8027, departed for London Stanstead from the new Murcia airport in Corvera when the crew stopped the departure climb and diverted to Alicante where the Boeing 737-800, registration EI-GJC, landed safely some 45 minutes after departure.

Passengers were put onto a replacement aircraft and left from Alicante after a delay of around two and a half hours.

Meanwhile, there was good news for Ryanair passengers this week as the airline inaugurated a new route from Alicante-Elche airport with a direct connection with Porto (Portugal) every Wednesday and Sunday.

This is the latest in the continual development of both Ryanair and the Costa Blanca´s airport, which is also added to other new routes this week to Berlin-Tegel (Germany), Marseille (France) and London-Southend (UK).

The Oporto route is a new destination from Alicante, and the first aircraft was washed down with a traditional water arch from the fire crew at the airport.

This new route extends the connection to Portugal, a country that also links with Alicante-Elche through daily flights to Lisbon. Overall, the Portuguese market has 51,700 seats available for this summer season, representing an increase of 39.8% over the previous summer.