Ryanair expands in Liverpool

Ryanair are adding a number of new destinations from John Lennon Airport - from October, they'll grudgingly carry you to George Best Belfast City Airport, Hungarian capital Budapest, Tenerife, Fuerteventura and Bydgoszcz and Lodz in Poland.

Naturally, they're doing it for the Capital of Culture:

Neil Pakey, airport managing director, said: "These new services once again offer passengers from throughout the North West a range of destinations that will appeal to a cross section of travellers."

"In addition, the link with yet another European capital city is important in the run up to Capital of Culture year with visitors from Budapest soon having direct access to Liverpool."

Uh... why is it important, exactly? Are Liverpool now only expecting other Capital of Culture survivors to be interested in their event? Is there some sort of survey showing that Glaswegians visited subsequent Capitals of Culture in large numbers?