Ryanair to take on easy at LGW ?

[Powerjet1]

Reports in today's Sunday Times states that ryanair are planning to expand services,considerably, from LGW, having applied for various additional slots at the recent Toronto conference. BMI Baby have also applied for additional slots to continue their expansion at the airport. Has MOL finally decided, that easy's rapid expansion at LGW cannot go on unabated, and its time that ryan got a slice of the action?. Interesting to see what pans out over the coming weeks.

[PropellerPaul]

How can Ryanair do that? They pride themselves on flying from 'nowhere' to 'nowhere' and they want the airports to pay them, for letting them land! Cheeky 'B :mad: ds'!

[Buster the Bear]

Gatwick Takes Off In No Frills Battle

Gatwick airport is set to be the next battleground for no-frills airlines, with plans by Ryanair and bmibaby to challenge easyJet's dominance.

Ryanair has so far restricted operations at London's second biggest airport due to high landing charges.

But industry sources say Europe's largest budget airline recently applied for two runway slots, according to the Sunday Times.

The company would only tell the paper it is in discussions with more than 50 airports around Europe.

Bmibaby managing director Tony Davis said Gatwick was congested but manageable for a low-cost operation.

"What we are seeing is that airline competition in Britain is increasingly no-frills airline against no-frills airline, rather than no-frills against a conventional carrier," he added.

EasyJet's operations at Gatwick have mushroomed.

Within three years of starting flights there, it has 13 aircraft flying to 22 destinations.

The expansion of low-cost operators at Gatwick has come at the expense of British Airways, which has seen its share of the runway slots fall to 27% from 42%.
http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[Flame]

propellerpaul

"How can Ryanair do that? They pride themselves on flying from 'nowhere' to 'nowhere' and they want the airports to pay them, for letting them land! Cheeky 'B ds'!"

Here we go again...with the "Have a go at Ryanair" stuff

Ever go to the trouble of finding out how far CDG, LHR, LGW,STN,FCO are from their respective city centres..??

As an exercise, I suggest you fly into BVA and CDG and go by public transport to the centre of Paris (St Michel) and see which is fastest, I think I can guarantee you that BVA is fastest and the easiest to do

[ElNino]

"As an exercise, I suggest you fly into BVA and CDG and go by public transport to the centre of Paris (St Michel) and see which is fastest, I think I can guarantee you that BVA is fastest and the easiest to do"

I think a statement like that reveals you've never actually done both.

Interesting to see Ryanair expanding out of the likes of Gatwick. Perhaps a sign that there is only a finite market prepared to fly to minor airports, miles from anywhere. Too many new 800's chasing too few customers from all accounts.

[Flame]

ElNino

"I think a statement like that reveals you've never actually done both"

I have travelled both ways to the centre of Paris on numerous occasions, allow me to explain.....

CDG;
Flying into CDG from DUB with EI, arr Terminal 1...wait for free bus transfer to RER Station, which stops at all the stops at Terminal 2 before it gets to the RER station, wait for train to paris

BVA
Flying into BVA from Dub, Bus is waiting for you at the Terminal, drives to Pt Maillot,

In my experience, the total time from getting off the aircraft with no bags and arrival into the city is as follows ....

CDG-Paris average 1 hour 50 minutes
BVA-Paris average 1 hour 20 minutes

[RAT 5]

Whatever happened to any plans for Bournmouth? I heard from those in the west and southern central UK that it is far easier to get there than LGW. Would it not suit the RYR model better than LGW? I would be amazed if RYR can achieve regular and consistent 25m turn-rounds at LGW. The taxi-ing out and takeoff can take that long.

[egnxema]

I flew last week with FR STN to GSE - Gothenburg City.

Frankly - it was brilliant!!

For this city at least GSE is closer to the city than the main airport Landevette. But I was not going into the city anyway.

FR are the only operator - fast check in - waited in Departures, watched the 738 land, everyone off, one of the crew came straight to the departures gate, we all filed out to the aircraft, 25 mins after its a arrival with wheels were up and we were away.

The flight must have been 99% full, only 6 empty seats at the front that were belted off by the crew.........why do they do that? Crew issues? Security at the front of the cabin?

Anyway - I know things can be different for others, but I am prompted to say that from ALL my FR experiences so far....RYANAIR, I love ya!!

:ok: :ok: :ok:

[trainer too 2]

EGN,

We aim to please (unlike MOL :rolleyes: )

[Flightmapping]

egnxema,

You were flying to one of the few places where the Ryanairport is physically closer to the city centre. AFAIK, the only other one is Rome CIA (for cities where there is more than one airport).

The route from STN to CIA is also the only one AFAIK where Fr compete head to head with Easy. The only other UK>Europe route they go head to head on is Murcia from EMA (with baby). Obviously they have a fair amount of competition with EI & others to DUB. As with all of the above, someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Which airport is more convenient will depend on method of transport and final start point / destination at each end. BVA is irrelevant from SW England, as Ryanair don't even fly there. Eurostar beats both hands down to central Paris.

[bacardi walla]

and where will the new -700's be based? STN maybe so as to replace the -300's and free up -800's for LGW ?

Lets face it, the -300's could well be heading to places other than those on the FR route map !

[WHBM]

Gatwick airport is set to be the next battleground for no-frills airlines, with plans by Ryanair and bmibaby to challenge easyJet's dominance.

Ryanair has so far restricted operations at London's second biggest airport due to high landing charges.

But industry sources say Europe's largest budget airline recently applied for two runway slots, according to the Sunday Times.Well of course Ryanair has operated out of Gatwick for years, to Dublin. It was one of their earlier routes. Currently operating at 6 round trips a day.

So they apply for another two slots and some journalist portrays this as The End Of Easyjet As We Know It. Come on ! :)

[cringe]

egnxema,The flight must have been 99% full, only 6 empty seats at the front that were belted off by the crew.........why do they do that? Crew issues? Security at the front of the cabin?Likely for weight & balance reasons: Do 737-800s Fall Over? (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=467181#post467181)

[Flightrider]

Just to correct the record here, the Ryanair application was for an extra 12 (yes, twelve) daily slots and these were granted. The "2" was apparently missing a "1" in front of it but I don't know whose error that was. WHBM, trust this clarifies matters.

[No comment]

But have they got the times they want?!! Thats the real question...