RYANAIR is to launch direct flights between Aberdeen Airport and Spain from 2017.

The Irish budget carrier, which pulled out of Aberdeen Airport in 2011 after a dispute with then-owner BAA, will return to the north-east next year.

Its new Aberdeen routes, to Malaga and Alicante, will begin operating twice a week from February 2017.

Carol Benzie, the airport's managing director said these were "two of the most requested" destinations among local travellers.