Ryanair is to launch five new winter routes from Stansted Airport two months earlier than originally planned.

The Irish-based budget airline, the largest operator at Stansted, now plan to commence services to Aalborg, Kiev, Lviv, Oradea and Pardubice from September.

Ryanair said the move reflected strong demand, both from UK consumers and visitors to the country. There will be five flights a week to Kiev, three a week to Aalborg, Oradea and Pardubice and two a week to Lviv.

The routes form part of an expanded winter 2017 schedule for Ryanair at Stansted which will involved 127 routes in total, and will help the airline towards its target of flying 20.7m customers to and from the airport this year.

Ryanair spokesman Robin Kiely said: “We’re pleased to report strong demand for our new London Stansted routes, including our first UK-Ukraine services, and, as a result, we will commence five of these routes from September, two months early, as part of our expanded London Stansted winter 2017 service.

“British customers and visitors can look forward to even lower fares when they make advance bookings for their summer or winter holidays, so there’s never been a better time to book a low fare flight to or from London.”

Mats Sigurdson, Stansted Airport’s aviation director, said: “We’re delighted that Ryanair’s new winter routes have proved so popular that they are launching them two months earlier than planned.

“These routes will offer passengers and businesses even more choice at great value and build on the strength of Ryanair’s extensive network at Stansted.”

Ryanair’s winter schedule also includes the addition of flights to Frankfurt Main, the extension of six existing summer routes, including Copenhagen, Naples, Nice, Cagliari, Oslo Torp and Ponta Delgada, and increased frequencies on 13 existing winter routes - Billund, Bratislava, Budapest, Cologne, Baden, Lublin, Marseille, Stockholm Skavsta, Plovdiv, Poznan, Prague, Sofia and Toulouse.