Ireland-based Ryanair is set to take delivery of 50 new aircraft over the next year, as part of its fleet expansion.

With a fleet of more than 350 Boeing 737 aircraft, Ryanair currently operates more than 1,800 daily flights to over 200 destinations.

The aircraft has already placed an order for 315 Boeing 737 planes.

As part of the fleet expansion, the airline is planning to recruit 2,000 new cabin crew, 1,000 pilots and 250 aircraft engineers.

"Ryanair is now considered to be the ‘go-to’ airline for both cadet and direct entry hires."

New positions will be created in IT, sales and marketing, digital experience, finance and commercial divisions of the carrier’s office in Dublin, Ireland and at its Travel Labs Poland subsidiary in Wroclaw, Poland.

Ryanair chief people officer Eddie Wilson said: “2017 is set to be our busiest recruitment year to date, and we are continuing to invest heavily in talent for the future.

“Ryanair is now considered to be the ‘go-to’ airline for both cadet and direct entry hires, with our industry leading 5/4 roster for pilots, and both pilots and cabin crew have the opportunity to work on the youngest fleet in Europe as we take delivery of our new Boeing aircraft.

“As our aircraft numbers grow from 355 to over 500 in the next five years, Ryanair will hire over 5,000 new people.”

The carrier said that it was also planning to promote more than 300 first officers on its command upgrade programme across its 84 bases in Europe.

Image: Members of Ryanair team. Photo: courtesy of Ryanair.