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Old 27th Apr 2016, 17:38
  #5154 (permalink)  
DublinPole
 
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Chopin Airport have now come out with a statement, translated into English it basically says: "Chopin Airport is a public use airport, which obliges us to handle all carriers on an equal basis, subject to availability so. slots or hours of take-offs and landings. Ryanair's decision did not require any consultation with the airport managing body and does not require signing any contracts. We are not striving for these calls and we do not foresee their financing"

Basically it's hardly a ringing endorsement of Ryanair starting up service there. But it gives you an insight into the current state of play with Ryanair and airports in Warsaw. Modlin is virtually full. The owners of Chopin Airport part own Modlin and want to purchase an overall stake. Ryanair believes their reasons for that are to try and stop the growth of Ryanair in Warsaw which is one of their fastest growing bases, since with the current ownership, the owners of Chopin Airport are fighting Modlin's much lower rates head to head. Ryanair signed a 10 year deal with Modlin a couple of years ago in relation to rates, therefore they cannot hike up the price Ryanair are paying.

The only way that effectively LOT and other carriers can stop Ryanair's growth in Warsaw is by limiting airport capacity and obviously with Ryanair not wanting to switch to Chopin because it's much higher cost base, if Chopin Airport also owns Modlin Airport, they become in a position where they are able to have more control over that than they do at the moment.

Ryanair knows that it cannot increase flights much in Modlin because the infrastructure is close to being maxed out in terms of security and baggage handling and gates at peak times. Without moving these domestic calls it is doubtful that they could start these new routes to Warsaw because the airport couldn't cope unless expanded. Removing 4 flights a day is allowing these new routes to be started.

The next logical step insiders are telling me to aid further expansion at Modlin in 2017 if capacity expansion is not forthcoming and they don't get a good deal out of Chopin Airport is to move some of the business oriented capacity and flights from Modlin to Chopin in addition to the domestic calls. They will then add extra leisure traffic at Modlin and then start transferring domestic passengers to more European Ryanair business orientated destinations currently served from Modlin.

That is something that really would hit LOT and this is merely Ryanair showing their cards to Polish State Airports that if they can't get the capacity they need in Modlin, they can always move selected capacity to Chopin, that will hit LOT the most.

This is not directly related to Wizz
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