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eu01
11th Jan 2009, 08:22
The independent.ie (http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/unlikely-allies-forced-mannion-backdown-on-contract-1598222.html)'s new comment on the FR bid to acquire Aer Lingus:
With the previously united front of shareholders and management who had opposed the Ryanair bid now hopelessly split and Mannion's position looking more vulnerable with every passing day, the likelihood must be that an increased Ryanair bid for Aer Lingus will prevail.

Which is very bad news for Ryanair shareholders. Yes, Aer Lingus has over €800m of cash on its balance sheet, but it also has one of the bolshiest workforces in the country. While Ryanair, its promise to recognise the Aer Lingus trade unions notwithstanding, would no doubt hope to convert the Aer Lingus workforce to its lean, mean, non-union way of doing things, what are the odds on the reverse happening?

Aer Lingus would be a poison pill for Ryanair. It needs the aggro of sorting out Aer Lingus about as much as it needs a hole in the head. The sooner the comrades can be persuaded to start singing from the same hymn sheet again, the better -- for Ryanair that is.

vkid
11th Jan 2009, 08:46
it is the Indo though...their Lisbon poll this morning seems to add up to 107% (http://www.independent.ie/national-news/poll-meltdown-for-cowen-gormley-1598238.html)

frfly
11th Jan 2009, 08:54
EDI is having a press conference next week - you can bet some of the HHN A/C will find its way there. HHN is a tricky airport - its so far from anywhere that its difficult to market. There is a huge influx of PAX originating from the area - but FR need to concentrate on two-way traffic. One props up the other when one is going through a decline period.
Eu01 - while your idea of a hub and spoke system sounds good, FR will never adopt it within the next 5 to 10 years. It simply doen't fit with the model. Point to point efficient service. FR are really building on their three main areas. Punctuality, baggage (actually arrives with you) and fares. This mix is there marketing tool - not simply fares alone as most think. FR will get you from A to B, ontime, with your bag and for as cheap as they can deliver it to you. Hub and spoke would ruin this, so unfortunately it just doesnt fit with the model.

Expect two new A/C in EDI this summer.

Severn
11th Jan 2009, 09:55
Does anyone know if BRS will be receiving any more based aircraft this Summer alongside the two already based? The timetable suggests that there is a couple of days starting in April that will require 3 aircraft but nothing has been announced.

OltonPete
11th Jan 2009, 10:01
Jamesc909

Careful with the booking engine as things are changing constantly. BHX
now require five based units on five days from March after ALC was
upgraded to daily.

However strong local rumours claim bhx is staying very much as four
based units, Dinard can't be booked after 30/06 and some flights such
as GDN, NYO are showing just once weekly between April & June.

It all seems to add up to quite a lot of changes in the next few weeks.

A question to frfly - any news re bhx is?

Pete

EI-BUD
11th Jan 2009, 11:15
Underperforming routes from Hahn. Surely Ryanair could start some routes from Frankfurt Main, or is this airport limited on slots? It would make sense in these times to start routes that are to more primary airport. This has been debated at length on here before and I know what the Ryanair model is about. But with a lot of new aircraft coming on stream and it sounds like there are limited opportunities based on what is said on here and the media would it not make sense to set up a few bases at primiary airports and make this work?

Afterall they do operate to quite a few primary and large airports and it would certainly work as Easyjet shows.

On a final note , I understood that when Hahn got its new terminal it cost €55m to build and set up, and I also thought that Ryanair provided some of the initial funding for this is this correct?

EI-BUD

daz211
11th Jan 2009, 11:18
Could this be the first step to FR long haul ?

http://img.skitch.com/20090111-jj2496wpwwkge44feuag45f1fm.jpg

Maybe Niagara Falls could be a new Base !!!
With all the new airframes due and the prodicted cut in based A/C
at HHN who knows what might be i the pipeline ?

Could we soon see feeder flights from the UK to a Niagara Falls (BASE) ???

EI-BUD
11th Jan 2009, 11:24
Quote:
Unfortunately HHN will probably go down the BAA route where fees go up every year
Inflation occurs in both airport charges and also in the supermarket. Those staff working at the airport want a pay rise each year to cover the increased cost of living. This means the airport has to increase charges. How many airports in the world regularly decrease their charges ?
http://static.pprune.org/images/statusicon/user_offline.gif http://static.pprune.org/images/buttons/report.gif (http://www.pprune.org/report.php?p=4640047)
Hi davidjohnson6

I dont think that too many people will be looking for pay increases this year? We are headed for deflationary times if we are not there already.

It is not as simple as costs go up so charges at airports must follow, a big increase in activity can give rise to a reduced cost per unit. Hence and airport may agree with Ryanair if they say double their passenger throughput they will give them a discount on each passenger charge.

For example take a small airport, it may cost as much to handle 3 planes in an hour as it does to handle one.

So in these instances it is understandable how in order to get the business airport charges may go down, and if the airport management view potential new business from a marginal costing point of view a lower fee may be warranted.

h&s
11th Jan 2009, 11:50
Ryanair have already acknowledged that Hahn is one of their two loss making bases (the other being Shannon).


come on anna list, do you really believe Ryanair bull****??? Even them, don't
They did that comment because they just wanted to pressurise them to decrease their costs, and because they were anticipating the taxes increase in HHN. A clear evidence is that few months after the comment, they announced the closure of VLC because the base were loosing too much money (whereas as always, they said in their financial report that the new bases VLC and ALC were performing very well lol). I guarantee you that there are many others bases which are loosing a huge amount of money, and especially this previous year.

I am also glad to see that they finally drop 1 daily rotation on PIKBOH. 1 year ago, Sean Coyle announced than this route were doubling daily capacity to accomodate business PAX daily return. I had a big laugh because only sean coyle (thanks for ryanair he's gone) could consider PIK BOH as a business route lol
But this example is quite interesting: how much money did they loose last year on this route because of this stupid choice?
And now imagine the others BOH routes are also underperforming. Then what would do Ryanair? of course, meeting with BOH, and ask for more subsidies/lower cost, or... they left!!!

And this is what happened in VLC:
- very poor new routes (eg. VLCOPO, VLCMLA, VLCSCQ etc)
- very poor revenue management
- very poor customer service
With that, it's very hard to earn money, and rather than admiting their errors, they just blame the airport and left it
This is definitely an easy/no brain way to do (lost) business

How could they hope to make money with MADVLC, MADALC, BRIMLA, CRLLIG, a base in BRE etc etc???
Ryanair is definitely the low brain airline

EI-BUD
11th Jan 2009, 11:58
How could they hope to make money with MADVLC, MADALC, BRIMLA, CRLLIG, a base in BRE etc etc???
Ryanair is definitely the low brain airline


h&s
The MADALC route for example is so poorly timed that it could not accomodate a day return passenger as the departures from ALC Are like after 2 in the afternoon and after 9/10 at night. I suspect that they must only be able to secure a reduced cost on this route once it is at off peak times and hence is no real threat to Iberia.

This is a scheme that Manchester Airport were using (not sure how they do it now), a reduced cost for off peak slots. Maybe in the summer Ryanair will move to a full business schedule as this route is a busy one for Iberia and Spanair. and these are never cheap!

EI-BUD
11th Jan 2009, 12:03
come on anna list, do you really believe Ryanair bull****???


h&s
If i can add something to this, Anna_List is one of the few posters here that often has concrete information on stuff that is actually going on. Whether Ryanair said in previous financial period a base was performing well or not it was a confidence building measure to the financial world. Besides Valencia would be fantastic in the summer season anyway so that may have been true at that time. It is the lean winter period that is the real challenge at these airports in Spain.

I do believe that Shannon is a loss maker for Ryanair, and the return of Aer Lingus to the Heathrow route will cause more pain, and will Ryanair drop back the frequency to pre Shannon Heathrow closure levels in 2007?

EI-BUD

daz211
11th Jan 2009, 12:16
A meeting between James walsh [BWI's deputy executive] and Ryanair has been pencilled in for late May 2009 to discuss potential opportunities. "We're excited for sure," said James Walsh.

"We believe we're the right airport for this type of service and that we can offer an attractive package to Ryanair."

BWI was one of the airports mentioned by O'Leary [late 2008] as a possible destination for Ryanair's transatlantic services from Europe. "We have begun working on a plan.

We're going to be sitting down with Ryanair staff in late May and we'll look at what markets are feasible and at cost structures," Walsh said :ok:.

frfly
11th Jan 2009, 13:43
h&s

You are right in many of your comments - however when you look at the facts, Ryanair are the only airline currently expanding in Europe. They are the only airline who are increasing the PAX figures and one of the very few who will return to profit very quickly, if not so already. Pretty good for a low brain airline eh?

Seriously - attacks on airlines such as Ryanair should be left away from threads like this. Ryanair are and will remain europe's number one low fares airline - as much as people dislike it, im afraid it is the clear truth. Yes they make mistakes - but all business' do this. At least with Ryanair they know how to fix them quickly. Its all very easy for everyone to sit around and pass comments without having any knowledge of how to run a success airline business.

Charlie Roy
11th Jan 2009, 14:04
My money is that Hahn's aircraft will be going to Italy and Ryanair's first Eastern European base.

anna_list
11th Jan 2009, 14:56
Hello h&s,

You make some interesting points there. If you don't mind, I'd like to add a few of my own comments.

- Do I believe FR bull? No, I don't. Fair point - you're quite right, I should have written something like "Ryanair have already acknowledged... ... but take that with an enormous pinch of salt". I'm a born sceptic and tend not to believe anything without proof. The trouble is, that I don't have any proof for the number of bases that are loss making (and if I did, I wouldn't post it here), so in the absence of this information, I will happily bow to your superior knowledge.

- Bournemouth to Scotland. I was a bit surprised when FR announced double daily BOH-EDI alongside the double daily BOH-PIK. In many cases these days, FR's biggest competitor is themselves and they will have to be increasing careful not to destroy their own markets. In November, the average flown LF on BOH-PIK was a woeful 42%, with BOH-EDI managing 51%. Yes, November is a weak month, but even so, that doesn't look too clever. More widely, it will be interesting to see the impact that the EDI base has on PIK because there is some evidence of an overlap. PIK-MRS has taken a pasting (average flown LF down by over 10 percentage points compared to last year) since EDI-MRS opened.

- It's interesting that you mention VLC-SCQ because the flown loads on that route have been very impressive (average of 81% this year), so if this route wasn't making money then something must have gone very wrong. On the other hand, you're quite right to say that VLC had a lot of very weak routes, particularly in that first winter: BLL, BSL, LPL, MST and as you say, OPO and MLA too.

- Fuerteventura is another interesting case because the loads have been very decent (DUB and LPL averaged about 90% this year). FR decided to make their point about lack of support from the local authorities (see above point about bs), but were they really not making money on these routes with planes to FUE on average 85% full over the entire year? If they weren't making money then, again, something has gone very wrong.

- BRE seems to be looking a lot better recently, admittedly after a lot of tinkering of routes. I agree that it was looking like a complete turkey for quite a long time. By comparison, some of the UK regional bases have been looking very poor this autumn and the new domestic routes from REU got off to a very dodgy start.

- MAD is another strange one. I agree that it looks as though they made a bit of a mess of it. They've now dropped most of the routes that the base opened with (SNN, MMX, BOH, FAO, TRF, EMA, GSE, BLL) and have replaced them with the likes of BGY, STN and this recent assault on the domestic market with multiple dailies to SDR, GRO, PMI, VLC, VLC and SCQ. It'll be interesting to see whether this works.

They've certainly made mistakes, but then we're all very wise with the benefit of hindsight (oil hedging anyone?). To call them 'low brain' seems a little bit harsh, but in any case I'm sure they will continue to make mistakes and will continue to amuse us with their press releases. I think I'm right in saying that the Q3 results are due in early Feb, so I'm looking forward to seeing Mystic MOL's outlook and what the cash pile is looking like.

GoEDI
11th Jan 2009, 15:34
BOH-EDI managing 51%. Yes, November is a weak month, but even so, that doesn't look too clever

The service is actually very popular with BOH originating pax so the first BOH-EDI and EDI-BOH are normally very busy indeed, close to full. But the first EDI-BOH and last BOH-EDI not so, infact loads on those are normally very low indeed, hence the low average load factor. Evidentally the market for the service is very much BOH based.

OltonPete
11th Jan 2009, 15:35
A couple of points, the main one is a posting on UK forum quoting an
Italian forum claiming that slots are in for two based units at Rome FCO,
has anyone got any more information on this?

My interest is due to the fact that one flight mentioned is daily bhx, which is certainly a "missing" route for bhx now that baby pulled their service but again it would part-compete with EMA (see anna_list's comments). The EMA-SNN was destroyed (load factor wise at least) once BHX-SNN started although some quoted that yields were never very good even after it recovered from its poor start.

As for another comment "some of the UK regional bases have been looking very poor", are you including BHX in that?

Not that I am disagreeing, as prices throughout November, December and the start of January have been rock bottom (along with some load factors) but some of their route choices have defied logic.

I realise that part of the reason was probably due to BHX leading them away (at first) from competitor's existing services and the need to "shovel pax" through certain airports but there were better pickings to be had.

Sounds like a busy week coming up.


Pete

Seat62K
11th Jan 2009, 18:42
Although I've wondered how much research actually goes into Ryanair's route planning, I think its entry into the Spanish domestic market is interesting and may work. Fares on routes such as Madrid-Alicante and Madrid-Valencia have historically been high but, with the Spanish economy in trouble and fast rail links being constructed, Ryanair's move may have come too late. Iberia has responded by offering breathtakingly low (for them) fares on selected flights, presumably to hit Ryanair. (Personally, I'd choose Ryanair over Iberia any day, although the fact that the latter uses the gorgeous Terminal 4 at Barajas is tempting!) The truly huge market is, of course, Madrid-Barcelona, but air travel on this route seems to have been impacted by high speed rail (leading Spanair to link with Renfe and offer joint air-rail tickets). Nevertheless, these trains are expensive so if Ryanair could find some way to fly to el Prat and give up on pretending that Girona and Reus are "Barcelona" airports......
P.S. As I've written before, Ryanair should look at Salamanca. There're a number of different markets (such as students and tourists) and the fares charged currently to fly to/from the city are astronomical.

babemagnet
11th Jan 2009, 19:23
The Mtow from the Ryanair 737 is to low to make these routes from Ireland to the USA. Ryanair did not choose for that option to have a take off weight above 74990

super737
11th Jan 2009, 19:55
Ryr are not sending there 73Hs across the atlantic! They are starting a separate company with L/H a/c

Skipness One Echo
11th Jan 2009, 20:11
They are starting a separate company with L/H a/c

No they are thinking about it. Really bad time to actually do it though.

babemagnet
11th Jan 2009, 20:18
acording to this:

Boeing: Commercial Airplanes - 737 - Range Charts (http://www.boeing.com/commercial/737family/pf/pf_rc_london.html)


It should be possible from Shannon!

Cyrano
11th Jan 2009, 20:29
acording to this:

Boeing: Commercial Airplanes - 737 - Range Charts

It should be possible from Shannon!

That's not what the chart tells me at all. It tells me that from London with only 162 passengers (and no indication of what's been assumed for winds aloft, nor indeed which engine thrust version is assumed) a 737-800 can make it as far as New Brunswick. That's an exceptionally long way off the New York (or even Boston) area, even by Ryanair airport-proximity standards. ;)

Read my lips, guys. Ryanair is not going to fly transatlantic with 737-800s. (To be accurate, MOL has said that Ryanair is not going to fly transatlantic at all, and that if it happens it'll be a separate company - but I repeat: separate company or not, they will not use 737-800s. Deal with it.)

eu01
12th Jan 2009, 13:01
Not much details as yet, but to my knowledge Fraport has just expressed its desire to... get rid of Hahn Airport altogether (Fraport owns 65%). Will the local government be able to cut this Gordian knot? Very interesting times ahead, apparently.

davidjohnson6
12th Jan 2009, 13:06
eu01 - something more dramatic than that. Reuters reports:

Shares in Fraport (FRAG.DE (http://uk.reuters.com/business/quotes/quote?symbol=FRAG.DE)) are 3.9 percent lower, making them one of the biggest decliners among German mid-cap stocks .MDAXI, on reports the airport operator may close down its Hahn airport soon.

Seljuk22
12th Jan 2009, 13:57
But this are only rumours. FRAPORT will sell its 65%, the local government would buy it.

AZ have to give up slots at FCO because of the merger with AP. FR will have this slots (altogether only 14). So HHN based aircrafts could quickly moved to the south.
From a austrian newspaper:
derStandard.at (http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=1231151612376)

For MOL everything is clear: FR operates from 7 italian airports (bases) and will increase the total number of passengers to 15m per year. Flights from FCO to London, Paris, Bergamo and Trapani. This should be announced tomorrow and tomorrow also the announcement what will happen at HHN.

EDIT: FR slots at FCO for summer (not for sure!):
STN 3 daily, DUB 2 daily, BGY 2 daily, TPS daily, SUF daily, BVA daily, BHX daily, EIN daily, GRX daily, REU daily, NRN 4x weekly, KTW 3x weekly, CRL 3x weekly

Charlie Roy
12th Jan 2009, 16:41
FR slots at FCO for summer (not for sure!)

If true it would mean 2 new Ryanair routes from "ROME (all airports)":

Lamezia
Katowice


I imagine some routes would be simply "moved" from Ciampino to Fiumcino.
But others, like Charleroi, could possibly operate to both Roman airports.

Aside: Anyone know when Rome Viterbo airport is going to be ready?

Seljuk22
12th Jan 2009, 17:40
The latest about the "Hahn-Thriller"

FRAPORT will sell HHN, the 3€ "Hahn-Taler" will not come and FR will stay with all the 11 a/c and now there are rumours about expansion :ugh:

davidjohnson6
12th Jan 2009, 20:33
I don't claim to be a genius, but can someone tell me if I've got this right....

In the past, Ryanair would get airports in different cities to compete against each other for the privilege of Ryanair flying there. Now they have gone a step further, and made one organisation want to pay another for the privilege of owning a loss-making airport to which Ryanair flies, just to ensure that the airport maintains that privilege.

Somebody in Dublin is laughing, and something seems to have gone very wrong with economics....

MD11Engineer
13th Jan 2009, 09:24
Actually for the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, it is cheaper to subsidize HHN and then to cash the tax from all the people working there than to have them all unemployed (talks are about 6000 - 8000 jobs which will get lost if HHN looses FR). In this case the state government will have to pay lots of dole money and will not get any tax back.

The Hunsrück hills, where HHN is sited, where always a rather poor and backward region. The main road connections were only built by the Nazis in the 1930s, and not to please the locals, but to support the German invasion of France.
Up to the end of WW2 local economy was small scale farming (mainly cattle breeding on the rocky fields and woodcutting). Many locals left the region to look for work in the prosperous Rhine-Main area.
During cold war, a lot of locals used to work for the American forces, but most lost their jobs when the cold war ended and the Americans closed their bases.
Opening HHN was one of the best things the state government ever did and it is picking up on cargo traffic.
BTW, when the Americans left HHN, it was essentially a runway and a tower. Almost all buildings used today have been built after the Americans left (and most of those left by the Americans are so badly contaminate with asbestos that they are dangerous to live in. They will have to be torn down at high expenses, same as the various aircraft shelters cluttering the airfield. AFAIK, the removal of one shelter costs about 100.000 Euros), with German tax money (I seriously doubt that FR invested anything serious into HHN). FR, as important as they are for HHN, managed in the past to drive several other airlines, which wanted to become established in HHN and would give the airport another source of income, out, so that they would have total control of the passenger side of operations. This way FR managed to obtain an almost total monopoly on passenger operations and can make demands.

Concerning FR stating that HHN was making a loss for them, I fly quite often with FR (fastest connection for me to visit my girlfriend). I have to say that the aggressive style of advertisement FR use in their aircraft for onboard sales is considered to be very annoying by me and most German passengers. For myself, if I get annoyed by advertisement, I refuse to buy anything. I have talked to people e.g. from Poland and other places on the continent and they agree.
Ryanair's advertisements seem to work in Ireland and the UK, but there is definitely a difference in mentality, which has to be taken into account to sell stuff on the continent.

davidjohnson6
13th Jan 2009, 09:34
This is looking very similiar to state subsidy from regional German Govt to a private company..... I thought the EU was meant to be against this ?

MD11Engineer
13th Jan 2009, 10:20
See, this was a problem as long as Fraport owned HHN. Fraport, as a publically traded company HAS to make a profit and can't receive subsidies. On the other hand, if the airport is being owned BY the state government, it is not a private company anymore.
I don't agree with subsidizing MOL, and I hope that under new ownership the airport will be looking for additional customers, so that theywouldn't be blackmailable by MOL anymore.

boyzinblue
13th Jan 2009, 10:55
Hahn Airport has done a U-Turn on the 3 € fee!!

airbourne
13th Jan 2009, 12:37
Report: Ryanair considers Niagara Falls-Dublin flights - Flights: Airfare, flight tracker, delays, miles tracker & airport news - Today in the Sky - USATODAY.com (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=61227426.blog&csp=34)

Niagara Falls may become one of the first North American destinations for European discount giant Ryanair, according to a report in The Buffalo News. The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) has been discussing the possibility of charter flights between Dublin and Niagara Falls International, the paper says. "The really encouraging thing is that they sought us out and wanted to talk," NFTA Chairman Gregory Stamm tells the News. "We've got our fingers crossed because they are a big player over there and landing them would open a lot of doors for us."

The report comes as Ryanair has talked publicly over the past year or so about the possibility of setting up a stand-alone trans-Atlantic carrier that would fly to "secondary" U.S. airports like Providence (for Boston), Long Island MacArthur (for New York) or Oakland (for San Francisco).

As for the Niagara Falls International Airport, it is not to be confused with the Buffalo Niagara International Airport that's just 20 miles away. The Niagara Falls airport currently has only one regularly scheduled carrier -- South Carolina-based public charter company Direct Air. But the airport is in the midst of building a $30 million passenger terminal and is seeking to add airlines that would draw fliers not only from Buffalo and western New York, but from Canada as well. Buffalo's airport, for example, already pulls a substantial percentage of its customers from across the border, where downtown Toronto is just about a 110-mile drive.

A previous charter operator had planned Dublin-Niagara Falls flights in 2007, but that apparently fell through when that company was unable to secure aircraft for the flights, according to the News. As for the newest proposal, the NFTA's Stamm tells the News: "There's no question there's a market on both ends for these charters. It's more a matter of how this would fit into Ryanair's expansion plans."

Its Dublin - New York...........only thing is, is New York is actually 395 miles thataway!!!

AllyDB
13th Jan 2009, 13:23
Anything pending re new Ryanair routes at EDI?

frfly
13th Jan 2009, 16:21
2 new A/C to be announced this week. No routes comfirmed yet.

FR195W
13th Jan 2009, 16:50
And what about NRN/Weeze. There had been some rumours the last time...

Greets, fr195w

GoEDI
13th Jan 2009, 18:23
2 new A/C to be announced this week. No routes comfirmed yet.

The HHN u-turn isn't going to affect this?

frfly
13th Jan 2009, 18:25
No. 2 A/C start dates 30th/31st March. Announced by friday.

OltonPete
13th Jan 2009, 18:42
The website is a nightmare at the moment.

BHX-MRS which was dropped at the end of October and not part of
the summer release was showing bookable this lunchtime but a BHX
based aircraft this time on Thursday & Sunday evenings.

Looked earlier this evening and Marseille from BHX was not in the
booking engine at all.

On a positive note BHX-GDN in April is back bookable twice a week
and NYO three times (it was showing just weekly!!!!!)

Pete

GoEDI
13th Jan 2009, 19:49
No. 2 A/C start dates 30th/31st March. Announced by friday.

Interesting... That's only a couple of months, didn't think we'd see them in place so soon, more to the point I wonder where they're going to park them...

frfly
13th Jan 2009, 20:32
Is there stand congestion in EDI? well - it will have to be contact stands to allow for 25 min turn arounds.

GoEDI
13th Jan 2009, 21:45
Is there stand congestion in EDI? well - it will have to be contact stands to allow for 25 min turn arounds.

They are widening a couple of international contact stands specifically with FR in mind so they can take B738W, so that should help to solve any issue, but that work is not scheduled to be completed until Mayish.

Charlie Roy
13th Jan 2009, 22:42
I didn't do an exact count, but Ryanair are already receiving 8 new aircraft from Boeing during the last week of March. So another 2 again now?
Is that normal to receive 10 new aircraft the same day?

Maybe the the EDI aircraft will come sometime during the summer, but they just have the slots provisionally booked for the entire summer season. (Starting end March)...

Skipness One Echo
14th Jan 2009, 10:21
This continued expansion at EDI has clear implications for PIK. Since PIK will have five based aircraft for this summer, how many will EDI have by peak summer?

airhumberside
14th Jan 2009, 11:38
FR press release states 4 aircraft at EDI. The only new route that will directly compete with a PIK service is CIA. The NRN increase may have an impact as well though

Skipness One Echo
14th Jan 2009, 11:55
It's not the head to head on the routes that will impact PIK it's the simple fact that people will have another load of Euro destinations from Ryanair available from Scotland. A lot of folk fly because it is dirt cheap pure and simple. We shall see.

GayFriendly
14th Jan 2009, 14:31
We're crying out for some of these routes at BHX particularly CIA and SVQ - after the initial new base fanfare last year no new based a/c or routes this summer, maybe BHX is one of the rumoured underperforming UK bases........why BHX acnnot sustain something a bit different than Malaga, Alicante and not Berlin, Madrid, Rome and so on etc is beyond me

davidjohnson6
14th Jan 2009, 14:38
GayFriendly - could the existence of routes to Berlin and Rome from East Midlands have anything to do with it ?

AFAIK, regarding city breaks, FR already fly from BHX to
Bologna, Bratislava, Dublin, Gdansk, Krakow, Oporto, Oslo, Pisa, Prague, Stockholm, Trieste

frfly
14th Jan 2009, 21:35
from the EDI sched looks like more routes to come.

GoEDI
14th Jan 2009, 22:36
from the EDI sched looks like more routes to come.

I'd say... Currently only 2 days of the week with 4 early morning departures. Would be very surprised if FR were to have such low utilisation in summer.

eu01
17th Jan 2009, 10:55
I just came across a piece of very interesting statistics published (http://www.airport-weeze.de/pressemeldungen/2009-01-12.php?lang=en) a few days ago by Ryanair's favourite ”Düsseldorf-Weeze” (NRN) airport in Germany. As you know, Weeze is situated very close to the Dutch border. The data reveals the origin of customers flying therefrom.

For a long time I have been interested in the origin of pax coming to the small secondary airports used by FR across the EU and the distance the customers are willing to travel to get there. A special interest of mine pertains to the trans-border movements of passengers and the means of surface transportation used by them.

Yes, I did realize that in Weeze and other similar airports a significant amount of customers come from across the border. I must admit, however, that the actual percentage of the foreigners using NRN did exceed even my expectations! Could you imagine, the German people are not a majority of NRN customers any more. Last year, the Dutch share of all customers in Weeze has risen to... 52 percent! It's very, very much!

The catchment area in Germany is not to blame. To the South of the airport there are centres like Düsseldorf and Cologne and to the West the entire vast and densely populated Ruhr region, one of the largest urban areas in Europe. In spite of that, the clients from an other side of the border constitute the majority. Apparently, people being able to travel freely do not hesitate to choose more distant airports that give them better connections or prices if the motivation to do so is simply good enough.

Apart from their sociological and behavioral character, these observations can have an important influence on the selection of some airports giving the predictability of these choices and helping to estimate the growth abilities of some potential locations. Yet regardless of all the potential these places might have, most of them would require some significant investments. Unfortunately, it's usually very hard to make the low-cost airports profitable and thus to get the interest of potential investors.

A couple of years ago, I was investigating which European airports were optimal from the trans-border passenger movements' point of view. NRN was high on my ranking list, albeit not atop of it. Actually, I've classified the airports in three different groups: 1. - airfields (not airports being in use for scheduled passenger traffic) with suitable runways but usually missing other important elements of the infrastructure, 2. - the airports that already in use by FR or its close competitors, and 3. - other existing airports not used by any major lcc.

In the airfields group there were a great deal of options available. In many cases, however, there was lack of consent, will or simply money to go ahead. Like two or three objects East of Berlin with excellent runways that could serve both Berlin and Western Poland – but with no permission of the local authorities to do it. Anyway, in that group the airfield of my choice became Weelde in northern Belgium. Situated very close to the Dutch border, not far from Tilburg, Breda and Rotterdam and close enough to Amsterdam to be considered as an alternative to get there. Still, it's a very theoretical option. I'm not aware of any existing plans to develop the object as a low-cost airport, it has a good runway, but pretty much other infrastructure is missing.

Among the airports "in use", it was Slovak Bratislava (BTS) that got the most points in my research. Close to Vienna, good surface transportation links, the perfect catchment area. Two years later... well, I'm not sure if BTS has fulfilled FR's expectations, some routes had to be stopped apparently. But of course the good location is just one factor, one must consider also other aspects, mainly the competition (in that case SkyEurope on both BTS and VIE).

Finally the third group, where belong some other existing airports not noticed by the lccs. My favourite two years ago was Finnish Lappeenranta (and still remains). 10 km from the Russian border, the Easternmost airport in the entire European Union. Located close enough to Saint Petersburg with almost 5 million inhabitants, while over 6 million people live in its vicinity. Even if just a minority of Russians can afford travelling to Western Europe therefrom – it's a knockdown potential to be harnessed, with no true low-cost competition existing.

Don't ask me why I made this research, I will not disclose it. To be clear, however: it was not ordered by FR. Ryanair's management has a very weird attitude towards any researches concerning the destinations, route selection, demand otlook and the passengers' opinions. In many occasions they simply prefer the empirical approach (try-as-you-go) – but it looks pretty chaotic sometimes. The more rational analysis could save them a significant amount of money, I'm pretty sure.
.

The Real Slim Shady
17th Jan 2009, 11:46
SXF is very popular with Polish travellers as there are good rail connections to Berlin from Western Poland.

Another underutilised airport is Lille: good infrastructure on the airport and the Eurostar runs to Paris, Brussels and London from Lille station.

There are few routes in to Romania, especially the Black Sea coast and nothing yet to Ukraine or Bulgaria. Greece, Cyprus and Turkey are wide open too.

Seljuk22
17th Jan 2009, 16:55
Because of the new Eco-Tax in the Netherlands a lot of people went to Germany (NRN or DUS) or Belgium. That's why FR expands at NRN and CRL and reduce/not expand flights to MST and EIN.

Because of the huge amount of polish travellers from and to SXF FR flies to STN, EMA, EDI, DUB and SNN (over 50% on this routes). The same (but not this amount) with AOC (STN and new to EDI).

Between BTS and VIE there is a connection with the train and a new motorway. Only minutes between this cities.

Jippie
17th Jan 2009, 17:51
It's also the other way round. Because of the eco-tax (and other regulations) Ryanair doesn't really grow at Eindhoven. So if we need to go somewehere (cheap) then Weeze is more or less the only option. One should not forget that Weeze is close for a lot of dutch people and can usually be reached with less traffic jams then Schiphol.

LPFR
17th Jan 2009, 19:52
Thats is very easily noticed if you go to Weeze. I was there this week and from many (majority) passengers to airport staff to 2 of the Ryanair stewardesses of my flight, they all were dutch! I then checked it out at Google Earth and really it is SO close to the Netherlands and a bit in the middle of nothing of Germany that is immediatly clear that at least half of the people that use the airport are Dutch.

racedo
17th Jan 2009, 22:44
People forget that consumers despite all the abuse they get do look at what is easy and cheap for them. They also ask their contemporaries and act accordingly.

Not got any research that underlines the benefit LCC give to an area both in economic uplift or jobs do you.

I don't mean just airport jobs I mean across a region as I believe where airports have not been serviced properly beforehand the starting up of international services has a big economic uplift in bringing income into an area.

People spending locally in Hotels / B&Bs / Restaurants etc ensures the money stays local and gets spread around i.e. the economic multipler.

Would love to see some data if it exists as reckon its more effective than a central Govt or EU dumping €1M in make work schemes with no longer term economic benefit.

pee
19th Jan 2009, 12:38
Lappeenranta mentioned, I've tried to be quiet, but as I live in Finland...

Admittedly it is one of the opportunities bypassed by FR. Russians do come to fly from Finland, mostly using their own cars, we see them even at Tampere airport – and it's a place much more apart from Russia (the distance from St. Petersburg to TMP is appr. 470km versus 190km to LPP/EFLP).

Once I wrote here something like "is MOL blind not to see the potential?" But then I started to think different: maybe FR wants more than just to fly the full planes? Who would actually pay them so called "marketing support"? Hardly the city of St. Petersburg to prop up the flights to the airport located on the Finnish side of the border or Lappeenranta commune to promote Russians travelling to Western Europe.

While Ryanair's economy is a bit complex, the place is worth giving a try (say: "Come to see Saimaa Lake and the Treasures of St. Petersburg" or so, it could work) .

racedo
19th Jan 2009, 13:00
While Ryanair's economy is a bit complex, the place is worth giving a try (say: "Come to see Saimaa Lake and the Treasures of St. Petersburg" or so, it could work) .

Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't getting a VISA to visit Russia quite cumbersome which would in effect make visiting more difficult.

davidjohnson6
19th Jan 2009, 13:09
I'm sure Ryanair would like to be able to fly to Lappeenranta promoting it as a proxy for St Petersburg.

The big issue for a LCC, is that most people living in West Europe need a visa for Russia, which is likely to put off a good proportion of people wanting to visit. Don't get me wrong - I've applied for countless visas for independent travel in the past from countries which really don't like having foreigners talking too their citizens and know that for Russia there is a well-trodden path to getting the paperwork, but it all adds hassle and cost when the rest of Europe is visa-free.

A while ago, there was talk of tourists from the EU being able to get a visa on arrival with minimal paperwork. Did this come to anything ?

pee
19th Jan 2009, 13:52
Of course it's a hurdle. The negotiations were held between Russia and Finland to allow some form of visa-free visits for the EU citizens to come to Russia for up to 72 hours. To my knowledge, it should be introduced this year. However, conditions apply. It would concern just the tourists coming from Saimaa lake by boat via Saimaa canal or from Helsinki/Kotka on the Baltic Sea. It had to be approved by the Russian parlament, maybe it's done already, I don't know.

I think the potential of Lappeenranta is based more on Russian people living nearby. We, the EU citizens, have many options where to travel without a visa. The Russians need visas almost everywhere. But Russians do want to travel, so many of them we see in Finland nowadays (they saved our tourist industry last year using our hotels in spite of crisis). Once they've got the Finnish visa (that's achievable), they can travel anywhere within the EU. Now if Ryanair offers them cheap fares... Even if just a small part of St. Petersburg and Karelian population (some 6 million living in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast and almost a million in Karelia) were interested... isn't it as much as in the entire Ireland?

danielson81
19th Jan 2009, 14:55
There are few routes in to Romania, especially the Black Sea coast and nothing yet to Ukraine or Bulgaria..

Sssshh! Wizzair is hoping Ryanair dont notice this! :)

WHBM
19th Jan 2009, 15:20
I recognise a couple of us old members of the Lappeenranta-for-Ryanair Supporters Club having another go. I think even without visa relaxation it could be a good point for departures to the places Russians like to travel to (which for Ryanair would be Stansted, Beauvais and Bergamo, among others).

Lappeenranta is a surprising airport, big runway stuck in the woods, tiny terminal, virtually no service apart from the hop to Helsinki, which has recently downgaded yet again, from a Saab 340 to a Jetstream. Whenever I have travelled there I was the only person on the flight interlining from beyond Helsinki; I think most of the locals from the region heading beyond Finland drive to Helsinki. On one occasion the FA with about a dozen pax on the Saab had a trainee assisting her and learning the ropes. They did all the safety briefing very precisely in Finnish, then repeated it all in Swedish. Then they looked at the manifest and my routing, looked at me, looked at each other, and then did it all again in English :)

840
19th Jan 2009, 16:03
I can't help but think there's a bit of a difference between Dutch usage of a German airport and Russian usage of a Finnish one.

As has been pointed out, there's no visa issue between Germany and Holland. But more than that, as they're both Schengen countries, you don't even have to stop at the border.

Additionally, Holland and Germany share a currency. No having to change anything just for the hour you'll spend in your departure airport.

Finally, there's a language issue. Most Dutch people can speak German to some reasonable level. How would that work between Finland and Russia. I can't imagine any Russians speak Finnish; a lot don't seem to have any second language. Do many Finns speak Russian?

Now that Bratislava is in Schengen and the Euro and given most Slovaks speak German, it really is an option for Vienna. I doubt similar things can be said for many other airports near a border.

WHBM
19th Jan 2009, 17:07
The fact that the truckers roadsigns at the big pulp mill in Lappeenranta are all bilingual in Finnish/Russian, and the huge long queues at the Russian border down the road, maybe gives a bit of a clue about cross-border trading.

It's true that most Russians and Finns don't speak each others language. But a substantial number from both sides speak English, including many of the Russians who want to travel to Europe.

eu01
19th Jan 2009, 17:37
there's a bit of a difference between Dutch usage of a German airport and Russian usage of a Finnish one.
840, I don't know if it is a compliment for you, but your skepticism reminds me the opinion of Michael O'Leary expressed by him less than 5 years ago. ”Who would like to fly to Poland?”. I've just counted the amount of routes from/to Poland today, according to the present route map on Ryanair's site (by the way, Warsaw has finally gone). There are total of 67 (sixty-seven) routes on that map between Poland and rest of Europe. O'Leary was very late when he decided to enter Poland, he absolutely missed some opportunities there allowing others to take important steps ahead. It's extremely good for the sake of competition, but he made a mistake and he admitted it.

True, there are some very fundamental differences between Russia's and Netherlands' neighbourhoods. In former numerous limits exist, like visas, difficult border crossing, the poverty of Russian population and so on, no doubt about it. Nevertheless you must put things into some perspective. Russia constitutes so vast market! Even if first steps were difficult, there is no big risk at all in starting something (it's like a drop of water in the river, look at some unprofitable routes they've kept for years). Probably, FR should team up with a bus enterprise and give Russians some services they need. I'm pretty sure the airport could provide a Russian speaking staff to attend the visitors, it's not so difficult.

Just some imagination! MOL is thinking very locally in fact, wants to dominate the local market first while some opportunities should be anticipated and tried in more aggressive way. On another side, you have so much options to fly from the Netherlands and neighbouring countries. Does St.Petersburg have any true low-cost connections? Air Berlin's LED-MXP starting at 130€ one way (up to over 360)? Or perhaps Paris from 119€ one way on some rare days only?

Once in my life I've been to Russia (former Soviet Union in fact). Me too, I dislike the visa issues, that's why I did not travel there any more. Cheap flights, however, could soften my attitude. And who knows, one day the Russian state (and EU) could soften their visa regulations too. It's worth considering gaining some brand recognition and position/exposure there, before it happens.

Coquelet
19th Jan 2009, 18:19
Russians would need not only a visa to go into Finland but also a Visa card or something like to book a Ryanair flight - and be able to read our alphabet, and print their tickets in a civilized language ! ;)

racedo
19th Jan 2009, 18:31
Coquelet

If there is a T-54 parked on your drive, turret through your front door in the morning at a guess it means you have pissed them off.:ok:

boyzinblue
20th Jan 2009, 12:33
New Lübeck to Palma daily from 30.03.2009

Seljuk22
20th Jan 2009, 12:39
Yes, some changes at LBC:

New from 30.03. PMI 7/7 (Flight arrives from PMI, so X-PMI-LBC-PMI-X)
GRO 0/0 to 2/7
DUB 3/7 to 5/7
PSA 3/7 to 7/7
NYO 7/7 to 4/7

No changes to STN 14/7 (but one flight in the morning-the other in the evening), HHN 7/7, BGY 3/7

Charlie Roy
20th Jan 2009, 13:03
Route map now colour coded.
4 colours as far as I can tell...

Year-round
Winter
Summer
None of the above (eg. Dublin - Bari)

peacock1
20th Jan 2009, 14:59
they're culling their routes out of EINN, according to the website, what's going on?:confused:

anna_list
20th Jan 2009, 15:29
This doesn't look like the promised cull, at least not yet, so maybe best to hold fire with the tumbleweed for a little while longer. It looks more like a another re-jig to maximise profits / minimise losses (delete as appropriate) at SNN this summer.

It seems that there are also increases on the routes that will bring thousands of high-spending tourists to the Shannon region ... oh, hang on: SNN-GRO (4 -> 5 per week vs last summer), SNN-MJV (3 -> 4 per week), SNN-FAO (2 -> 4 per week), SNN -> ALC (2 -> 3 per week) and SNN -> AGP (4 -> 5 per week).*

With HHN (-2), LCJ (-2), BIQ (-3) and FUE (-1) all binned and the cuts on PIK (-3), LPL (-3) , STN (-7) and MAN (-2) mentioned elsewhere, it will be interesting to see what the final balance will be for Shannon this summer. My guess is that it will be only very slightly down as GDN (+3), KTW (+2) and NCL (+2) were all absent last summer.

* what a very strange coincidence: Most of these routes seem to have equivalents operated by Aer Lingus from an airport down the road

johnref
20th Jan 2009, 15:51
Think Dublin Bari will be one offs around the footie match there on April 1st.

en2r
20th Jan 2009, 19:34
This doesn't look like the promised cull, at least not yet, so maybe best to hold fire with the tumbleweed for a little while longer. It looks more like a another re-jig to maximise profits / minimise losses (delete as appropriate) at SNN this summer.

It seems that there are also increases on the routes that will bring thousands of high-spending tourists to the Shannon region ... oh, hang on: SNN-GRO (4 -> 5 per week vs last summer), SNN-MJV (3 -> 4 per week), SNN-FAO (2 -> 4 per week), SNN -> ALC (2 -> 3 per week) and SNN -> AGP (4 -> 5 per week).*

With HHN (-2), LCJ (-2), BIQ (-3) and FUE (-1) all binned and the cuts on PIK (-3), LPL (-3) , STN (-7) and MAN (-2) mentioned elsewhere, it will be interesting to see what the final balance will be for Shannon this summer. My guess is that it will be only very slightly down as GDN (+3), KTW (+2) and NCL (+2) were all absent last summer.

* what a very strange coincidence: Most of these routes seem to have equivalents operated by Aer Lingus from an airport down the road

Ryanair based a sixth aircraft at Shannon last November. However they seem to be reducing back down to 5 from the end of March. A second aircraft may also be leaving at the start of July when 2 of the 3 daily SNN-STN frequencies switch from a Shannon based aircraft to a Stansted based aircraft.

chrism20
20th Jan 2009, 20:11
I am surprised that it has taken them so long to address this area.

Ryanair.com - News : No Exceptions to Ryanair's Cabin Baggage Allowance (http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/news.php?yr=09&month=jan&story=gen-en-200109-2)

Have flown with them a few times lately, the last time there were 125 on board and people were struggling to find space in the overhead bins.

£30 at the gate sounds like a nice little earner though

frfly
20th Jan 2009, 20:18
Official policy has been to simply offload PAX. This is much better though as the amount of abuse coming from PAX when being told they cannot travel is unbelieveable.

Hopefully this will make it fairer - remember its about re-educating PAX on how to travel. You do it once - you'll never do it again.

peacock1
20th Jan 2009, 22:28
"re - educating pax"

does'nt re - education sound like what Mao tried to do in China, or what Pol Pot tried to do in Cambodia?

Ryanair, forever re - inventing the wheel,(all praise to the glorious leader!):}

XSBaggage
20th Jan 2009, 23:32
Noticed at PIK they have a person checking hand luggage before you go airside. Asked about it and was told this was to stop people getting offloaded at the gate.

eu01
21st Jan 2009, 03:45
"re - educating pax"

peacock1 - would you trust pax and believe they'll stuck to the rules out of their good will unwatched and uneducated? Observe what people do try to bring with them as a hand luggage, it's shocking sometimes.

Btw. PIK is not the only place checking the hand luggage.

frfly
21st Jan 2009, 05:45
Standard procedure is before boarding commences - one membe of the boarding staff must walk up the queue's formed checking hand luggage. PAX are to be told then to repack, so not to delay the boarding process. I know it sounds a little dramatic "re-educating", but its exactly what FR are doing. Look at the % that now use web check in to avoid being charged at the airport check in desk. Its just about change.

Seat62K
21st Jan 2009, 07:18
Is this procedure new?

A few weeks ago all the three passengers directly ahead of me were told was "Make sure it doesn't happen again" and they proceeded to board with their huge carry-ons plus duty free bags. I suppose achieving an on-time push back was of greater priority than enforcing the rules.

These passengers claimed not to be aware of Ryanair rules. Being officious, I pointed out that all this was clearly printed on their CheckNGo boarding passes. Either they hadn't bothered to read what was written or were "chancing it".

My carry-on fits under the seat so I find the mad attempts to squeeze quart bags into pint spaces overhead a hoot!

Obviously, with Web check-in the problem arises because there can be no check on bag size until passengers are at the gate, if at all.

Jippie
21st Jan 2009, 09:00
There's a dramatic difference in the way different airports handle the "rules" of Ryanair.

Some won't really care about the handluggage, others do(PIK).
Some airports don't mind if you're bag is a few kg's over 15, some do(GRO)
Some airports don't mind if the name doesn't exactly match, some do(NYO)

The airports I mentioned are based on what i've seen as a passenger and don't have to reflect the reality.

Charlie Roy
21st Jan 2009, 09:02
Regarding the one carry bag: surely this excludes duty free shopping.

Buster the Bear
21st Jan 2009, 09:44
On Monday 12 January, Ryanair sold over 350,000 seats, its busiest ever sales day.

rpmac
21st Jan 2009, 10:11
Due to snow problems at Madrid the other weekend our inbound flight was seriously delayed and we contemplated where to stay the night as we were due to fly onto Palma. Our flight arrived when Ryanairs Palma was due to leave. It too was delayed, but Ryanair staff quickly processed our check in, luggage etc and we joined the queue at the gate just about to board. Since then we have heard of others who had to overnight in the airport, flight cancelled, etc etc by other airlines including the Iberia to Palma that night!
Well done Ryanair. Despite all the comments I read about Ryanair I cannot complain and praise them for their excellent help that night. Interestingly I wanted to fly Air Europa on that occasion but the cost was twice that of Ryanair! If I had done it may have cost a hotel room too.

Seat62K
21st Jan 2009, 10:55
Charlie Roy,
Duty free purchases must fit into the passenger's one piece of hand luggage. Ryanair makes this clear.

stupot7783
21st Jan 2009, 11:18
Passengers can carry Duty Free aswell as one piece of hand baggage when travelling from Birmingham.

But the one piece includes any hand bags, laptops etc which alot of passengers slip up on and risk being offloaded for failing to adhere to Ryanair's terms and conditions.

Charlie Roy
21st Jan 2009, 11:23
Charlie Roy,
Duty free purchases must fit into the passenger's one piece of hand luggage. Ryanair makes this clear.

I don't see where it is clear. I saw no mention of duty free.
One belgian beer gift set box with free glass would almost fill Ryanair's carryon dimensions.

The airports wouldn't be so happy to see dutyfree sales plummet. It's one of the only ways they're making money, since half of them are nearly paying Ryanair to fly there.

daz211
21st Jan 2009, 11:37
Strong rumour around STNFR is that FR have in place the option of
six "long haul" A/C [secured], If a second revised bid for EI fails.

Ryanair is set to go head to head with Aer Lingus on EI's transatlantic routes.

Has anyone heard anymore ?

racedo
21st Jan 2009, 13:38
Hopefully this will make it fairer - remember its about re-educating PAX on how to travel. You do it once - you'll never do it again.

I agree as unfortunately human nature being what it is people will forget what happened last time and still try it on and abuse staff doing their job.

Being quite clear that its time to pay up at £30 a time very quickly changes someones mind the next time.

Staff shouldn't be abused doing their job.

Seat62K
21st Jan 2009, 14:03
Charlie Roy,

On the "Check'NGo" boarding pass (and I have one in front of me now) it states:
"Handbag, briefcase, laptops, duty free etc must be carried within your permitted 1 piece of cabin baggage"

This is in capital letters and underlined!

Charlie Roy
21st Jan 2009, 14:14
"Handbag, briefcase, laptops, duty free etc must be carried within your permitted 1 piece of cabin baggage"

Okay that's clear, albeit scandalous :ouch: Pity they didn't mention duty free in their press release, nor on their site:
Strictly one item of cabin baggage per passenger (excluding infants) weighing up to 10kg with maximum dimensions of 55cm x 40cm x 20cm is permitted. (handbag, briefcase, laptops etc must be carried within your permitted 1 piece of cabin baggage).

WHBM
21st Jan 2009, 15:28
I suggest that pax do one piece of checked baggage, then take their laptop and handbag, separately, and then refuse to pay the £30.

Plenty of upset schedules as the bags are searched for and removed, and the flight loses its slot and departs an hour late will surely concentrate Dublin's minds.

Shamrock350
21st Jan 2009, 16:29
Strong rumour around STNFR is that FR have in place the option of
six "long haul" A/C [secured], If a second revised bid for EI fails.

Ryanair is set to go head to head with Aer Lingus on EI's transatlantic routes.

Has anyone heard anymore ?

It's very unlikely that Ryanair will go head to head with Aer Lingus and other well established airlines on transatlantic routes. Micheal O'Leary has said himself that long-haul doesn't suit Ryanair's business model and could damage what is a successful low cost, short haul airline.

A new airline with it's own brand formed by Micheal O'Leary or in partnership with Ryanair is far more likely at this point in time.

Skipness One Echo
21st Jan 2009, 16:39
Good point but I wonder if the famed business acumen is going out the window as this Irish soap all gets very personal. If he can't have Aer Lingus, is he going to try and destroy it?

Keyvon
21st Jan 2009, 16:43
Does anyone know if Ryanair is ceasing its flights from Balaton, Hungary ?

frfly
21st Jan 2009, 16:55
Duty Free is allowed - the airports all complained. Many airports give Ryanair discounted landing fees etc as they would make money from things such as duty free sales. It was (for a brief period) stated that all duty free must fit inside your cabin baggage, this rule has now been reversed.

All airports should be following the same rules - but this is what happens when you have so many different companies being contracted out to deliver the same product.

EDI for eg is very strict with the policy - I have seen PAX offloaded from there when travelling through. However, AGP let pax through with handbags and trolley bags.

frelli
21st Jan 2009, 17:11
They have been available for few hours some routes from :Bournemouth, Reus, Frao and Luton.

Now not available anymore. You can still see here:

News - 2009-01-21 Ryanair (http://www.theairdb.com/news/2009-01-21-ryanair.html)

Are these route that are going for sale or just IT mistakes?

Exasperated
21st Jan 2009, 18:11
They have been available for few hours some routes from :Bournemouth, Reus, Frao and Luton.

Now not available anymore. You can still see here:

News - 2009-01-21 Ryanair

Are these route that are going for sale or just IT mistakes?

Available in the online checkin screen and that is normally a good sign that they are about to be announced

Ex

RAT 5
21st Jan 2009, 20:59
Did anyone spot the article in last Saturdays Daily Telegraph Travel section about RYR. There they calculated that RYR could, conservatively, raise
650m pounds by extra charges such as baggage, sport equipment & credit card charges. Wow, that is more than their annual profit. They also explain how much these have risen in the past 3-5 years; as much as 300%. Yet RYR still pump out the mantra that they are fair, transparent, no fuel surcharge and the cheapest fares. They still insist that the fare is what counts not the final cost. They claim all the others are optional add ons. They still claim that by offering Electron cards for free there is a choice. No there's not becaus:ugh:e the vast overwhelming majority of pax can't get one. They want to force you into hand bags only and web checkin, But they give you only a feeble 10kgs alloowance and a heafty credit card charge for the privilege. How can a week away be catered for in 10kgs? Even a spontaneous weekend, which is what they survive on, is difficullt in 10kgs. So it is a con which ever way you look at it.
As someone who takes sports equipment most times, and a suitcase RYR is not always cheaper. EZY can be much better just because of more baggage allowance and cheaper sports charge. Recently, 3 months in advance, even KLM was 1/2 the EZY price on AMS GVA. Even more baggage and 4 flights a day to choose, not only 2. I have friends who take BA very often with golf clubs or skis, or kite surfers etc. No charge and a very small credit card charge. The final cost with the majors is often cheaper than LoCo's. With more convenient flight times, i.e. not 06.00, you can use public transport and save a bundle in parking charges. All part of the cost.
To paraphrase the older Bush; "it's the final price stupid, not the basic fare. Read my lips."
Surely there are grounds for a case if an operator says it is charging you Xeuros for a credit card charge and the banks say they only charge 0.1X. And this is perpax not per transaction. This is a transpartent con, so where are the comsumer protection bodies when you need them.

Jippie
21st Jan 2009, 22:47
It's true that Ryanair have a lot of "hidden" fees.
But it is possible at ALL airlines to see the final cost before booking. Then you can choose with which airline you fly. I don't care about the PR, I just choose the most convenient airline based on price(total), timings, airports, service.

LPFR
22nd Jan 2009, 02:26
If only all passengers could be aware of what they want to take to their flight and make a search of which airline gives the best deal for their needs everything would be much easier. I don't mind Ryanair cause I've made two trips in the last two months, both during 5 days and I weighted my hand luggage all the ways, and it never was over 9 kg, neither i needed more than what I took, so Ryanair is a good deal with me. If I had to take a suitcase and even a Golf club or whatever then I would look at Easyjet or British Airways and see if Ryanair would still give me the best price. Of course there are routes that don't give any choice, but that happens and you have to accept what is offered. or just stay at home or make a much complex intenerary..

Nice (supposed) new routes btw..Would really like to see Faro-Bremen happen.

RAT 5
22nd Jan 2009, 09:49
True to most of that. However RYR seem to have the philosophy that they must be able to claim the lowest 'fare'. They still have to make a profit. They try to claim "why should day pax subsidise longer time baggage carrying pax?" Some merit in that, but the charges bear no relation to the incurred costs. Indeed it is the baggage carrying pax who subsidise the hand bag only pax. Thus RYR can claim the lowest fares. Con.
The government (UK) has agreed with the consumer that bank charges have to be realistic relative to the costs involved. Many refunds have been imposed due to over charging. What's the difference in other consumer products namely airline tickets. Imagine if restaurants lowered their food prices on the menu and then added outrageous 'service charge' for the table, chairs and cutlery. OK, eaters would look at the bottom line, or just take-away. Either way I'm sure the restaurant would lose out eventually. Cinemas with very cheap tickets to watch the film, but a heavy charge for head phones to listen. The possibilities go on & on.
Imagine where it could go if airline policy wormed its way into everyday life? Everything, restaurants, films, hotels, etc. etc. were cheapest for those who booked earliest. Life would collapse. There are those who'd say the market would decide. Perhaps so, but what a mess it would be in the meantime. It no longer would be a 'service industry' society, but profits at any cost. Dog eat dog. The viloence of capitalism. Is that what we really want to live in? A fair price for a fair product. Value for money. What's wrong with that? It used to be a similar price across many products in many areas and the customer service and customer experience decided it. Agreed, the internet shopping has changed life, but after sales service still sways the choice of many.
However, I doubt it will change; not quickly.

racedo
22nd Jan 2009, 10:26
Rat5

You make valid point but within the service sector there has always been differentiated prices .

Go to Paris and visit a Cafe, stand at the bar, sit inside or sit outside and you will pay a different price.
Book a Holiday inn and if well in advance it can be pretty cheap but again depends whethers its weekend or weekday, book a Travelodge and it can be very cheap but non flexible or expensive and flexible.
Go to McDonalds and order a burger and they will suggest a meal, order a meal and they will suggest upsizing or a dessert, you can still have your basic burger but the stress the value in Big Mac Meal.
Restaurants add in service charges be it for only 1 person or for large parties and often on Weekend nights they will not have a table for a singleton as minimises revenue.
Pubs do it as well with pensioner specials or a cheap specials board during the week at lunchtime and more expensive meals in the evening or cheap beer during the week and not on Friday or Saturday night.

Airlines are just doing what the service sector has been doing for years in realising if you break every single activity down and looking at whether its a cost or revenue earning opportunity then you can decide how to run your business.

FR in fact are offering people menu of so many items and getting people to make decisions on what they want to add.

Many of the charges FR have imposed have been picked up by other airlines and tailored to their own requirements.

ryanair1
22nd Jan 2009, 10:40
RYANAIR NEW ROUTES yet to be announced

BOH-LIMOGES
BOH-FARO
BOH-REUS
BOH-CARCASSONE

FROM JULY 09 BOH TO:

BELFAST
STOCKHOLM
TENERIFE
FEZ
MALTA
BIARRITZ
BERGERAC
BERLIN
VENICE
ROME

fms_fail
22nd Jan 2009, 10:42
Hi Guys,
At the risk of possibly repeating somebody else, there is a site that i discovered that is raising the pro's and con's of the FR bidding for AL.. Here is the link....Say No To Airline Monopolies (http://www.snotam.com)

racedo
22nd Jan 2009, 10:52
Fms

So who are the people behind it and what is their vested interest ?

Just curious as this site seems to being punted around a bit but always useful to know what their agenda is.

As to content I'm afraid reading on here has more than the whole site.

Sober Lark
22nd Jan 2009, 10:57
What I want to know is why my 10kg daughter should subsidise Mr & Mrs Overflow who can hardly fit in their seats? They don't even thank her for it. They just flatten her because she is in the way of the stampeed to get a seat. Some of them even have the nerve to think there should be child free flights. :)

Recession lesson 1 - Stay at home and don't subsidise anyone.

EGAC_Ramper
22nd Jan 2009, 11:50
Because in todays "politically correct/fun police" environment charging the larger proportioned pax would result in law suits. :ugh:

Skipness One Echo
22nd Jan 2009, 11:53
I can't believe racedo is asking what someone ELSE's agenda is !

PeterPaul
22nd Jan 2009, 12:37
racedo
So who are the people behind it and what is their vested interest ?

A good question. But,

What is the "vested interest " in the part of the one raising the question?
and
"who are the people behind " the one asking?

If one has to take the possibility of eventual interests, why not ask the same question to you? You have been consistent to your views.

It is dangerous approach. Do not ask others, or you will have to answer first.

racedo
22nd Jan 2009, 12:43
I can't believe racedo is asking what someone ELSE's agenda is !Here we go again going after the poster.

I note you have not posted anything on the blog content.

1.) Website keeps going on about "WE" but doesn't seem to give anything more than the person punting it.

2.) Its a blog and a pretty poor one at that as even you have produced better material.

Dominic Nortney
22nd Jan 2009, 12:58
Why people are complaining about subsidising other peoples seats, and moaning about extra charges I dont know.

That is what Ryanair does! You pay a bare minimum for tickets and they claw it back on extras onboard the aicraft. Other charges such as the check-in charge and baggage charge are included in this but they are all optional. Ryanair don't force you to check-in they actually encourage you to check-in online because it saves them money (and you).

If they were to charge extra for flights they wouldn't be the cheapest. O-Leary has gone as far to say that eventually Ryanair may be able to let people obtain a ticket for free and they will still make revenues for passengers.

LPFR
22nd Jan 2009, 16:29
Looks like the new routes are confirmed in their website as it's already in the route map and for booking :) No official announcement though.

Bournemouth to:

Faro
Limoges
Reus

Reus to:

Bournemouth
Eindhoven
Nador
Poznan

Bremen to:

Faro

London (Luton) to:

Limoges

Seljuk22
22nd Jan 2009, 17:41
Official:
Bremen to Alghero and Trapani were operated last summer and it looks like they come back.

Hollymead
22nd Jan 2009, 20:05
THIS COULD CATCH A FEW OUT !


""Currently Ryanair carry unaccompanied minors aged 14 or 15 years ONLY upon completion and signature of a form of indemnity at check-in of EACH departure airport, by a parent or guardian. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS FACILITY WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE AS AND FROM THE 1st APRIL 2009
Children under the age of 14 years must always be accompanied on the same reservation by a passenger over 16 years. AS AND FROM THE 1st APRIL 2009 ALL CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 18 YEARS MUST ALWAYS BE ACCOMPANIED ON THE SAME RESERVATION.""

groundhogbhx
22nd Jan 2009, 20:35
WHBM Nice idea but I don't think it would work too well. FR shut the gate at -10. If you aren't through your bags are automatically offloaded, as are you. With the normal hold baggage loads we get in BHX it takes less than 5 minutes to locate your bag. The only thing you would do is add to FR's profits as they get to keep your money and burn a little less fuel. Does it happen? Most days for us, as the gate closes you get the choice of offloading or leaving the unpaid bag behind. Paperwork gets changed and the flight departs on time, bit of a pain if the lmc is 500kg or more because it means a new loadsheet but that only takes a couple of minutes. There are exceptions when it doesn't go to plan, but it is a rare occurance. FR have got it down to a fine art.

en2r
22nd Jan 2009, 21:22
Ryanair seem to have abandoned the attempted hostile takeover of Aer Lingus after the Irish Governmment rejected their offer for the airline. Source RTE News website

The Government has rejected Ryanair's offer of €1.40 per share for its 25% shareholding in Aer Lingus. Transport Minister Noel Dempsey said the Government believed the Ryanair offer greatly undervalued Aer Lingus and would have a significant negative impact on competition in the market.
'Because we live on an island Irish consumers depend very heavily on air transport. A monopoly in this area would not be in the best interests of Irish consumers,' Minister Dempsey said.
Ryanair said it was disappointed by the Government decision, but would respect and abide by it. The airline said the decision meant Ryanair's offer would not be successful, as it could not achieve acceptance by 90% of shareholders.
Ryanair said it believed the Government's decision was wrong. 'Ryanair will now focus all of our energies on continuing to successfully grow and develop Ireland's biggest airline,' chief executive Michael O'Leary said.

eu01
23rd Jan 2009, 04:14
Ryanair keep negotiating with several partners about the conditions required to create the carrier's new operational bases. For example, there are good chances to finalize the deal to base 2-3 planes in Krakow, Poland and 1 in Zaragoza, Spain. As always, the conditions are tough. Like in Zaragoza: "La empresa puso sobre la mesa una oferta económica que los políticos aragoneses quieren rebajar en un 10% para poder afrontar esta inversión en tiempos de crisis" (the locals negotiate to pay [Ryanair] 10% less for this priviledge in these tough times). In both cases the results of the bargaining will be known within a few weeks.

holybejaysus
23rd Jan 2009, 17:57
I read in the paper 2 weeks ago (the Irish Examiner I think) that Ryanair are negotiating with Niagara Falls airport to open a transatlantic route, and they are looking at flights for as little as $10! Anyone got the lowdown on what stage things are at? And what's the catch, as there always seems to be with Ryanair? Maybe $500 "airport taxes" and the like.....

LPFR
23rd Jan 2009, 18:33
Oh no, not again.

There was already a heavy discussion about Ryanair and Niagara Falls a few previous pages ago. Nothing new about it.

Your right Seljuk22, they're not really brand new like all others. Post eddited.

frnikolai
23rd Jan 2009, 18:41
Hi,

I am moving to Portsmouth tomorrow! I was pleased to see that Ryanair would be offering a flight from Bournemouth to Wroclaw.

It appears that they might be pulling out of this route? There is a lot of Polish people in Portsmouth, and this route is quite talked about - and now it is disappearing?

Seems bad to me as there is a lot of us in the South - and we do need to fly to Poland.

Are Ryanair finishing the route or what is happening? I can't seem to be able to book tickets at all, after March?

Thank you very much.

Nikolai.

OliWW
23rd Jan 2009, 21:39
Have FR got any plans to release any new routes from EMA this summer, was some word a few weeks ago about Malta, Stockholm and Ibiza

ryanair1
24th Jan 2009, 06:39
frnikolai- correct we are pulling the Wroclaw-Bournemouth sector.

But don't worry too much. Internal discussions about Warsaw and/or Krakow to Bournemouth from July 09

pubicAir
24th Jan 2009, 08:34
Irish Government wins this round. MOL licks wounds.

Take-off aborted but expect more turbulence ahead - Irish - Independent.ie (http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/takeoff-aborted-but-expect-more-turbulence-ahead-1613412.html)

frnikolai
24th Jan 2009, 09:58
So there will be a Bournemouth to Warsaw/Krakow route starting from July? I think you should really get a Bournemouth to Poland route, as this will be FULL each way.

Thank you.

Lord Lardy
24th Jan 2009, 11:36
Irish Government wins this round. MOL licks wounds.

The offer isn't dead yet. I've yet to read that they have officially pulled out of the offer. However, personally I think it is a dead duck for the next couple of years anyway. The Ryanair chief executive has been unusually reserved about the whole thing. Perhaps when the figures were run, based on the market as a whole and their own balance sheet that they felt that now is not the right time to go offering more. The offer as it stands was never going to tempt the larger shareholders, notably the Government. In terms of the money offered it's only peanuts in comparison to what the country's troubles are. Getting just over 50% of the company would have been useless to them. All they would gain is putting in place their own board and management. They wouldn't get access to Aer Lingus money unless they had something in the region of 75% from recolection from a media report on it. Ryanair themselves are quoted as saying they wanted at least 90% for it to work. If a new offer comes in in the next couple of years I suspect it will only work if there is a new Chief Executive at the helm.

Ryanair may have their own challenges, like all airlines to deal with over the coming months. Large aircraft deliveries in the teeth of a recession, coupled with growing unemployment in a deepeing European financial meltdown has to considered by their board and I'm sure that is exactly what has been done by Ryanair.

This years results will give an indication to the market as a whole how serious things really are out there in the industry. UK now officially in recession along with most of Europe and America. The amount of 'free seats' being given away pre and post Christmas is staggering. However, if you are to keep your load factors as promised to your shareholders there really is no other way, however yield is going to take a hammering.

euroxx
24th Jan 2009, 13:07
According to www.maltairport.com (http://www.maltairport.com) in flight schedules, ryanair will start daily flights from STN to MLA from 29th March. Schedule:

Daily exSAT FR 0912 STN-MLA Arr. MLA 1205
Daily exSAT FR 0913 MLA-STN Dep. MLA 1235

SAT FR 0912 STN-MLA Arr. MLA 1235
SAT FR 0913 MLA-STN Dep.MLA 1305

This is in addition to the Daily Luton flights to MLA.

Can anyone confirm this, as nothing is mentioned on Ryanair's website, only source is the website of Malta airport.

eu01
24th Jan 2009, 14:56
Ryanair called on Regione Lazio to accept the factual findings of the official noise report conducted at Rome-Ciampino Airport which confirmed that there is no noise issue for the surrounding region, and to admit that they commissioned a false and biased (Cristal) report into noise pollution in order to call for unlawful and unnecessary flight reductions at Ciampino airport.

The airline highlighted that the official report into noise at Rome-Ciampino airport, which was undertaken by the AdR and the independent Airport Technical Committee, found that:
Just 100 households, which were built in 1997 (before new legislation governing noise pollution was introduced), are affected by noise. These 100 homes will receive noise reduction improvements, paid for by AdR.
Air pollution levels around Ciampino were in line with that of a medium sized town, with private cars being the main cause of these normal levels of air pollution.
The unlawful 30% reduction in capacity imposed at Rome-Ciampino in July, 2007, did not reduce noise levels in the area and so this restriction on flights had no effect on noise in the Ciampino area.The carrier confirmed that calls by the Regione Lazio to further reduce the capacity at Rome-Ciampino Airport are unlawful and unnecessary and are designed solely to remove competition (...) from the Rome market".

Source: WAPA (http://www.avionews.com/index.php?corpo=see_news_home.php&news_id=1098922&pagina_chiamante=index.php)

BigT2207
24th Jan 2009, 15:50
In the Daily Mirror today in the Holidays section. There is a Advert for Malta showing a Ryanair aircraft.

en2r
24th Jan 2009, 18:25
But don't worry too much. Internal discussions about Warsaw and/or Krakow to Bournemouth from July 09
Warsaw is highly unlikely. Ryanair pulled out of Warsaw last November when they axed the only route they have ever operated out of Warsaw, Dublin-Warsaw. They are very unlikely to return to Warsaw given that the low cost Etudia Terminal is closing meaning they would have to operate from the high cost main terminal.
I think you should really get a Bournemouth to Poland route, as this will be FULL each way.
If Bournemouth to Poland would be as successful as you claim, why did Wizzair axe Bournemouth-Katowice and Bournemouth-Gdansk, and why are Ryanair axing Bournemouth-Wroclaw?

racedo
24th Jan 2009, 20:29
Getting just over 50% of the company would have been useless to them. All they would gain is putting in place their own board and management. They wouldn't get access to Aer Lingus money unless they had something in the region of 75% from recolection from a media report on it. Ryanair themselves are quoted as saying they wanted at least 90% for it to work.

50.001% gives you control over board appointments and at AGMs but Minority shareholders do have rights in a Public Limited Company (PLC), some things cannot be voted through unless you have 75% of the vote of the shareholders in favour so having more than than effectively ensure certain things can be changed in Articles of Association etc.

The 90% issue is that if you hold 90% of the shares in a PLC then you can legally acquire the rest of the shares of dissenting shareholders at the offer price which the other shareholders accepted at, it can't be more and it can't be less.

The reason you would want to acquire the rest of the shares when you have 90% is that you can cancel the listing of a PLC on a stock exchange which is very expensive in terms of costs both in Legal, Audit and Statutory reporting with no benefit to the company as shares won't be traded .......£1-2 million a year is rough guesstimate cost. Private companies have less legal requirements.

Example is Glazer family acquired last 9.9% of shares in Manchester United Plc once they had got to 90% even though the shareholders didn't want to sell.......it then reverted to Manchester United Ltd.

It happens all the time with companies taken over as most shareholders sell once 50% reached as realise have little or no power after that.

h&s
25th Jan 2009, 16:33
one of the very few who will return to profit very quickly, if not so already. Pretty good for a low brain airline eh?
It's actually possible to be a low brain airline and to be profitable! What I don't like to see are comments such as they are genius, with very good network, very good revenue management etc whereas they actually have the worst of the inustry in all these fields

Ryanair is making money mainly thanks to Dublin and the situation of monopoly with many airports (= plenty of subsidies). There are few others such as no distribution costs (nothing genius here, just have a website that works... and even that, they can't make it...) and very low salaries, especially to cabin crew and HQ staff (which explain a huge turnover at HQ).
Few questons I would be happy to ask MOL:
- do you expect any of these routes to be profitable: BOHLIG, BOHREU, REUNador, LTNLIG, plus the dead in the water MALDVLC, BRIMLA etc etc
- if you know that curent toughest europen market is obviously the UK, so why do you continue to base all your expansions plans in the UK market????
Ryanair last annoucement was for an expansion in: BOH, BRS and EDI!!! This is crazy. Just few new routes outside uk for ALC, but actually was mainly UK/irish routes and few at REU.

What is the network strategy of Ryanair??? Expanding in the most difficult market? Do they really think they could kill easyJet which is going from success to success, especially in... continental europe?

6 months ago, I said that contrary to what were saying MOL, the biggest winner of the crisis will be easyJet (because they use main airport and business high yield PAX will switch from major to EZY) AND NOT ryanair, because contrary to 2001, its main competitors were now offering lowest fares. In 2001, business PAX swith from EI and BA to ryanair because the prices differences were huge, but as these airlines restructured, the price difference is nowday not big enough to change and to loose FF points. At the end, yes a business passenger could swith from AZ to EZY for CDGMXP, but will never swith from AZ to FR to do a BGYBVA.
This is exactly what happened

anna-list, I can see we agree for a majority of our points of view.

To call them 'low brain' seems a little bit harsh, but in any case I'm sure they will continue to make mistakes and will continue to amuse us with their press releases
he he :ok:

Ryanair's management has a very weird attitude towards any researches concerning the destinations, route selection, demand otlook and the passengers' opinions. In many occasions they simply prefer the empirical approach (try-as-you-go) – but it looks pretty chaotic sometimes
totally agree with eu01. Ryanair should go in an optimisation era but still prefer the brutal low brain solutions, that is less and less working

Another thing I am thinking about: the transatlantic airline. I know they are working on it, but MOL always said that they will have a business class to subsidies the eco class, as always. But I ma wondering if there is a potential for business passengers with an airport like Niagara falls? Just a question here, but looks like very weird to me

45989
25th Jan 2009, 22:40
Anyone got news about the err..... "site" planned for upstate NY
Maybe he's got an itinery with some sightseeing (not optional) in Greenland at a nominal extra charge for let's see, mabye

Polar Bears
Glaciers
Icebergs
Northern Lights Etc....
or whatever

Great way to use the 40 or so surplus a/c though
Low cycles when its time to flip them too

ryanair1
26th Jan 2009, 01:35
bournemouth poland demand isnt really the issue, its more a uk poland issue. but there is still a massive jewish and polish community in bournemoth and the south coast which is going to be traveling up to london or bristol if it is not served from bournemouth. warsaw would be more central to appeal to more poles

eu01
26th Jan 2009, 15:59
Michael Cawley is expected to hold a press conference in Marseilles tomorrow. Most probably the Marseille Provence base will get one more aircraft (a fourth one) and four new routes will be announced.

euroxx
26th Jan 2009, 17:26
MRS new routes....im guessing Malta & Trapani for sure

GnRdL
26th Jan 2009, 18:52
Biarritz: Monday / Thursday (from 30th March 09)
Gatwick: Daily (from 30th March 09)
Nantes: Daily (from 30th March 09)

CorkEICK
26th Jan 2009, 20:34
Ryanair appear to have reduced the fee from 4euro per sector to 2 euro per sector since last week


Ryanair.com - FAQS : Table of Fees (English) (http://www.ryanair.com/site/IE/faqs.php?sect=CHARGES)

PeterPaul
26th Jan 2009, 22:08
Who's buying?

Steviec9
26th Jan 2009, 22:09
Ryanair appear to have reduced the fee from 4euro per sector to 2 euro per sector since last week


Indeed, I've just paid £1.90. Result.

BTW, i may want to use the 'return' portion of a ticket soon without using the outbound section (online checkin) - I reckon this should be OK? I'll have a valid boarding card for the return flight. Anybody think diffferent?

johnref
26th Jan 2009, 22:22
You should be fine just using return leg -have done it a few times now. Ryanair deals with returns as two singles so no dependency on using the first leg to be allowed to travel on the return.

vkid
27th Jan 2009, 11:57
"shouldn't fees be reasonable and fair, like the banks?"


Oh yes, because the worlds banks are a shining example right now of how to do business or how to treat your customers....?!?!

840
27th Jan 2009, 12:08
It appears to be an adjustment based on changes to the Euro/Sterling exchange rate. Everything seems to be converted at €1=£0.95 now.

Expect the sterling price for items sold onboard to go up soon (even if they're sourced from the UK, in which case the Euro price should go down with the sterling price remaining constant :rolleyes:

racedo
27th Jan 2009, 13:28
Biarritz: Monday / Thursday (from 30th March 09)
Gatwick: Daily (from 30th March 09)
Nantes: Daily (from 30th March 09)

Also added a twice daily service to Lille.

owenkirk2005
27th Jan 2009, 13:37
Hi, im traveling from Girona airport tommorow, does anyone know if they announce the gate number prior to boarding? aso can you use the self service machines if you have not paid for airport checkin? thanks

davidjohnson6
27th Jan 2009, 15:22
I cannot believe they have jacked up the fee for 98% of card users to £9.50/return

I have an Electron card, so could quite easily adopt the 'I'm alright Jack' attitude' and not care about the high credit card fee. However, something tells me that if the cost of flying a plane is loaded too heavily towards ancillaries and less of the cost to Ryanair comes from the part of the ticket relating to the route and time/date selected... doesn't this then diminish the power of differential pricing ?

Filling a plane from (for example) London on a Saturday morning is much easier, compared to Tuesday afternoon. As the ticket price differential between the two decreases, those offpeak flights rather start to lose their appeal and their load factors begin to fall

Jippie
27th Jan 2009, 15:45
It's been free for years and I suppose they continue to do that. If the CC fee is unavoidable then they will have to change the prices that they advertise(and they will become twice as high).

vkid
27th Jan 2009, 15:49
"And Ryanair is a shining example of how to treat customers?????"


No, but the banks should not be held up as an example in anyway regardless of their charges.

daz211
27th Jan 2009, 17:39
I have never had any problem with customer care from FR over the many many years I have used them, infact they have helped me just as much as you would expect from any Airline.

frnikolai
27th Jan 2009, 18:21
I have noticed that Ryanair have changed the unaccompanied minors policy?

Why do this - as when I have to get Polish family over which are younger than 18 - they will have to go with Easyjet! I am sure a lot more people under 18 will have this problem?

So even a 16 year old boy/girl can't bring someone under 18 with them? Even as it says on the webhome page - 16 old year old's are adults!

It seems like a stupid idea to me - unless they are actually saving money?

Nikolai.

P.S

I am not a Pole - I am a Pol!

frnikolai
27th Jan 2009, 18:37
Ryanair does not carry unaccompanied minors (under 14 years). Escort and special facilities are NOT available. Currently Ryanair carry unaccompanied minors aged 14 or 15 years ONLY upon completion and signature of a form of indemnity at check-in of EACH departure airport, by a parent or guardian. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS FACILITY WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE AS AND FROM THE 1st APRIL 2009
Children under the age of 14 years must always be accompanied on the same reservation by a passenger over 16 years. AS AND FROM THE 1st APRIL 2009 ALL CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 18 YEARS MUST ALWAYS BE ACCOMPANIED ON THE SAME RESERVATION.



FROM THE UK WEBSITE


Firma Ryanair nie przewozi osób nieletnich (w wieku poniżej 14 lat) bez opieki. Opieka i usługi szczególne są NIEDOSTĘPNE. Linie Ryanair przewożą osoby nieletnie w wieku 14-15 lat bez opiekuna WYŁĄCZNIE po wypełnieniu i podpisaniu przez rodzica lub opiekuna formularza ubezpieczenia na stanowisku odprawy w KAŻDYM miejscu odlotu.
Dzieci w wieku poniżej 14 lat muszą podróżować z osobą towarzyszącą w wieku powyżej 16 lat w ramach tej samej rezerwacji.
Pasażerowie w wieku 14 lub 15 lat, którzy podróżują bez opiekuna, muszą podczas odprawy okazać swój ważny dokument ze zdjęciem. Rodzic lub opiekun musi pozostać na lotnisku do czasu odlotu.


FROM THE POLAND WEBSITE


Ryanair no aceptará en ningún vuelo a menores (menores de 14 años) que no vayan acompañados de un adulto. NO disponemos de servicios de acompañamiento ni servicios especiales. Ryanair SÓLO permitirá el viaje a menores de 14 ó 15 años de edad sin acompañante si alguno de sus padres o su tutor legal firma un formulario de exención de responsabilidad en el mostrador de facturación del aeropuerto de salida, tanto en el vuelo de ida como en el de vuelta.
Los niños menores de 14 años deberán ir siempre acompañados, en la misma reserva, por un pasajero mayor de 16 años.
Los pasajeros de 14 ó 15 años de edad que viajen sin acompañante deberán presentar un documento de identidad con fotografía válido en el mostrador de facturación. Los padres o el tutor legal deberán permanecer en el aeropuerto hasta que salga el vuelo.


FROM THE SPANISH WEBSITE


They don't mention about the 1st of April the change in not allowing under 18's to fly. I understand you may not speak Polish or Spanish (I speak Polish, English, Spanish and Russian and it is not that difficult!!! :ok:) but you can see that there is no CAPS LOCK typing?



Nikolai

eu01
27th Jan 2009, 19:00
@frnicolai.
As I can see, you have already found the thread:
Passengers & SLF (Self Loading Freight)
(http://www.pprune.org/passengers-slf-self-loading-freight-61/) http://static.pprune.org/iconimages/passengers-slf-self-loading-freight/ryanair-questions-comments-bouquets-brickbats-merged_ltr.gif (http://www.pprune.org/passengers-slf-self-loading-freight/345056-ryanair-questions-comments-bouquets-brickbats-merged-6.html) Ryanair-Questions, comments, bouquets & brickbats (http://www.pprune.org/passengers-slf-self-loading-freight/345056-ryanair-questions-comments-bouquets-brickbats-merged-new-post.html)
- and I believe the above question/comment of yours also belongs there.

_Woody_
28th Jan 2009, 12:37
New:
Nottingham, East Midlands (EMA) to Ibiza (IBZ)
Stockholm, Skavsta (NYO) to Palma Mallorca (PMI)
Stockholm, Skavsta (NYO) to Zadar (ZAD)

beaucaire
28th Jan 2009, 14:09
Is there anything cooking for Bratislava tomorrow ??
A German forum mentiones a press-conference in Vienna for tomorrow..

Seljuk22
28th Jan 2009, 14:58
I've read that there is a press conference in "Hilton Vienna Danube Hotel" in Vienna, 14:00 local time and it should be about the expansion at BTS. HHN-BTS is not bookable for summer (last summer 7/7) and there are rumours about NRN-BTS.
So let's see what will come. If a FR base will be announced tomorrow the funeral of NE can begin. :ouch:

davidjohnson6
28th Jan 2009, 15:20
I've read that there is a press conference in "Hilton Vienna Danube Hotel" in Vienna

Sounds a bit extravagant for Ryanair. Did the local youth hostels not have any rooms available for hire ? :}

adam12345
28th Jan 2009, 19:29
New:Bratislava, M. R. Stefanika (BTS) to Alicante (ALC)
New:Bratislava, M. R. Stefanika (BTS) to Pisa, Galileo Galilei (PSA)
New:Pisa, Galileo Galilei (PSA) to Maastricht, aachen (MST)

Taken from theAirDB

toledoashley
28th Jan 2009, 19:35
This looks like them getting a foothold at BTS before W6 moves in. Makes sence for W6 to stick to PRG, and FR to expand at BTS where they already have a market.

Severn
28th Jan 2009, 21:53
I was wondering if this was just a problem for me or a known error on the Ryanair Timetables.
If you go to the timetable section on the RYR website and choose a route to show (say DUB to STN as it is daily) for any chosen date it will show all the flights on that day.

If you then click the "next day" button above the DUB - STN flights section (the top section) it will not move to the next day.

Then try the "next day" button above the STN - DUB section (the bottom section).
This works but will only move the bottom section flights to the next day leaving the top sections (DUB - STN) flights on the previous day.

If you then try the "next day" button above the top section again this then allows the DUB - STN flights to move to the next day which eventually allows you to view the whole outbound and return flights for the next day.

..... is this not a very long winded way to get to the next day of timetables?
Or does this seem just a problem with my computer? I know that it used to move both outbound and return flights to the next day just by clicking the top sections "next day" button.
Any help would be muchly appreciated.

Sorry its difficult to describe.

horatio_b
28th Jan 2009, 22:01
This is presumably to stop your outbound flight being later than your return flight

Severn
29th Jan 2009, 12:54
I think you have misunderstood. If you actually go onto the site and try you will see my point..

What used to happen once you pressed the top "next day" button, was that the timetable would move both outbound and return flights to the next day.

Now you have to move return flights to the next day, before you can move the outbound flights to the next day, which made me ask is this a mistake?

racedo
29th Jan 2009, 15:34
James

Don't ever remember it doing that as that would be assumming that you stay in a particualr place was always going to be the same length. Always changed the outbound/inbound separately.

janus627
29th Jan 2009, 15:49
Quote:
I've read that there is a press conference in "Hilton Vienna Danube Hotel" in Vienna
Sounds a bit extravagant for Ryanair. Did the local youth hostels not have any rooms available for hire ? http://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/badteeth.gif



I do not know how it is in other countries, but in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other countries under the influence of the german marketing team they usually do their press conferences at Airport Conference Centers / Rooms (Lübeck, Weeze) or in "Premium-Hotels" in the "main" city the airport is connected to (Frankfurt, Vienna, Hamburg... Hilton, Four Seasons, ...)
Even their shareholder meetings are not in Fair-Centers like some other well known bluechips do but in Hiltons, FourSeasons and so on...

Severn
29th Jan 2009, 15:50
Racedo
I can see what you mean, but i am absolutely positive that if you were looking for outbound and return flights the same day, say a Monday and then you decided to look at the flights outbound and return the next day,the Tuesday then you just had to press the one button to look at the next days timetable. You were also able to do what you said, which is move them separately to find return flights on a different day than the outbound flights, but this seems all you can do now.
James

eu01
29th Jan 2009, 17:40
they usually do their press conferences at Airport Conference Centers / Rooms or in "Premium-Hotels" in the "main" city the airport is connected to
Concerning Bratislava Airport, it's a bit awkward situation this time. While the airport is "connected" to the capital city of Slovakia (it's the main airport of a biggest town there), the press conference was held in Vienna, thus in the hotel located on the territory of... another European country. Waiting for the press conference in, say, Astoria Hotel, St Petersburg, Russia, concerning flights to the... Finnish-Russian border. :ok:

In Vienna, FR's marketing manager Anja Seugling was cited saying:Bisher kommen davon nur etwa 30 bis 40 Prozent aus Österreich. Hier gebe es noch Potenzial, das gehoben werden soll, sagte Seugling. Das Problem sei - trotz Shuttle-Bus - nach wie vor die Anbindung des Flughafens mit öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln. An dem Thema werde in Gesprächen mit den Flughafenbetreibern gearbeitet.Only 30-40% of all BTS passengers come from Austria. There is still much potential to improve. Better public transport links are required, the issue will be discussed with the airport.

Hollymead
1st Feb 2009, 14:47
World Duty Free are worried .

Ryanair stands firm on baggage allowance (http://www.dfnionline.com/article/Ryanair-stands-firm-on-baggage-allowance-1857827.html)

eu01
1st Feb 2009, 16:24
Ryanair stands firm on baggage allowanceHeavily relying on all kind of ancillary revenues itself, Ryanair expected the airports to do the same (and keep lowering fees). While some of FR airports have never been profitable, others have entered a phase of unprofitability already last year. With these new regulations, it's easy to predict more troubles, the partnership with airports could worsen significantly. Where is the logic?

Rhodes13
1st Feb 2009, 17:45
The logic EU appears to be the fact that a small minority of pax take the mikey by bringing everything in bar the kitchen sink!

I have seen hundreds of times pax getting on board with 3+ bags and then getting all angry when there is no space for their precious stuff! Unfortunately a small minority have spoiled it for the rest of us! The rules are fairly simple and fair, one bag per person (size permitting) you have more/ bigger bags check em in and pay. Thats the rules don't like it don't fly simple. :rolleyes:

eu01
1st Feb 2009, 18:35
That's why pax should be forced to abide the rules while entering the post-security zone. If bringing just one bag in compliance with the regulations, one "tax-free" bag on top of that shouldn't make a difference. I'm just deliberating where from the airports will get their income from now on...

davidjohnson6
1st Feb 2009, 19:17
Suppose that an airport is served by 2 airlines with different rules on hand luggage allowances. Perhaps one allows a laptop to be taken in addition to the 1 piece of baggage for those flying in C / J class rather than Y class, or maybe there are greater weight allowances for that 1 item.

Suppose also that both airlines allow passengers to checking online and print boarding passes at home.

We can expect the security screening staff employed by the airport to implement rules set by Govt, but is it really their job (when employed by the airport) to enforce varying rules by the airlines as well ?

Now suppose that the same airport is served by 20 airlines, each with their own rules. What do the security staff do then ?

Sikpupi
1st Feb 2009, 22:09
This is a non- runner ...airports will NOT accept this new Ryanair rule. Ryanair 'charges' are propped up by this ancillary income either derived directly by selling the Duty Free themselves or from the franchise income of the shops airside. Airports will stand by deals made with Ryanair whether good or bad in hindsight BUT this will not be tolerated. This hits directly at the airports bottom line....and the Airports will quickly pull Ryanair up on same and make them think twice.

The Real Slim Shady
1st Feb 2009, 22:16
Just come home after a 4 sector Belfast / Dublin and the 1 bag rule wasn't being enforced.

anna_list
2nd Feb 2009, 06:10
http://www.londonstockexchange.com/LSECWS/IFSPages/MarketNewsPopup.aspx?id=2081361&source=RNS

http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/news.php?yr=09&month=feb&story=fin-en-020209

davidjohnson6
2nd Feb 2009, 06:34
Seems they took a bit of a hit on the fuel costs.

I'm not an expert on Irish or IASB / FRS accounting standards so if anyone out there is more familiar, please do correct any of my monumental errors.

Did Ryanair hedge jet fuel for Oct-Dec of 2008 significantly forward, or were they paying largely spot prices ?
If they were purchasing forwards / futures, accounting standards presumably recognise these derivatives as being for the purpose of hedging / mitigating business risk. As such, how much flexibility does the company have in choosing whether to recognise earlier than necessary any losses on a mark-to-market basis, or can any changes in value be recognised only in the period to which they apply as hedges ? Or, to put it another way, do Ryanair have the possibility of the 'big bath' by taking one really painful quarter while everyone else is hurting, so as to make themselves look good later on ?

In addition, does anyone have historical data showing some sort of average price of jet fuel for Oct-Dec 2007 against Oct-Dec 2008 ?

OFSO
2nd Feb 2009, 11:55
The BoG wasn't on duty last week, certainly at lunchtimes, and the fair sex were being allowed to carry a handbag as well as a carry-on bag. In fact the op. at GRN was as smooth as it ever is, including the friendly security staff.

en2r
2nd Feb 2009, 12:14
I'm not an expert on Irish or IASB / FRS accounting standards so if anyone out there is more familiar, please do correct any of my monumental errors.
Ireland follows International Accounting Standards, like all EU countries. It doesn't have any of its own Accounting standards.

Charlie Roy
2nd Feb 2009, 12:45
It doesn't have any of its own Accounting standards.

Yes it does.

befree
2nd Feb 2009, 15:24
One year ago Ryanair reported that it had sold 5 planes for 26.5 million euros each. Today Ryanair reported selling 8 planes for 21.2 millions euros each. This imples the 2nd hand value has dropped over 5 million euros per plane. Ryanair has loads of new planes on order and has to sell a dozen at least each year. I cannot remember how many of the planes it owns but we are looking at 100s millions of euros in lost value.

Ryanair are to cut more flights at Dublin and Shannon according to MOL. Planes that it take after the summer will have to wait till spring 2010 before they are needed. Ryanair are heading for big problems.

Charlie Roy
2nd Feb 2009, 15:35
This imples the 2nd hand value has dropped

I think this has more to do with the euro/dollar exchange rate than the supply/demand for aircraft.

So yes, with the exchange rate, Ryanair are getting less euros for their sold planes, but they are also paying less euros for their delivered planes.

pabely
2nd Feb 2009, 16:22
I thought Poland was a core operation for FR?

"Ryanair will suspend its services to a number of popular destinations in Poland from March 2009.
That is according to the Polish Press Agency, which reported that the budget airline will halt flights to Gdansk, Katowice, Lodz, Poznan, Szczecin and Wroclaw.


This will affect connectivity to the eastern European country from Bristol Airport, Liverpool Airport, East Midlands Airport, Birmingham Airport, London Luton Airport and Bournemouth Airport. Daniel de Carvalho, Ryanair spokesman, suggested that this decision was made on the basis of increased fares placed on the aviation industry by the Polish government.
He told the press agency: "These connections will not be available in the summer due to an increase in Polish navigational fairs introduced in 2008. Ryanair is unable to accept these costs and continue to offer the lowest prices."
Poland's largest carrier is LOT Polish Airlines, which carries the country's flag and is responsible for more than 50 routes across Europe."

davidjohnson6
2nd Feb 2009, 16:46
It's possible that I'm being rather cynical, but this is meant as a serious question...

During 2009 as Boeing build the new 738 airframes previously ordered by Ryanair, will they be delivered to Dublin for revenue service, or are they more likely to go straight to a storage facility (e.g. Mojave) ?

The Real Slim Shady
2nd Feb 2009, 17:40
pabely, note that KRK is not on the list. KRK is a popular destination for UK travellers, whereas the others are more relevant to Polish nationals.

The cost to the economies around the airports will be enormous: as will the cost of travel for Poles around Europe.

I expect the services to and from SXF will increase as the west of Poland uses that gateway, as will PRG, BTS and maybe even BUD to compensate.

eu01
2nd Feb 2009, 19:49
the budget airline will halt flights to Gdansk, Katowice, Lodz, Poznan, Szczecin and WroclawI've found the original news - a nonsense interpretation! Why don't they use more competent translators?! FR will halt SOME flights to Poland.

The routes involved are: to Gdansk (2 out of 7)
- from Bristol
- from Liverpool
to Katowice (1 out of 6)
- from Bristol
to Lodz (3 out of 5)
- from Liverpool
- from Shannon (still in talks)
- from EMA
to Poznan (1 out of 8)
- from EMA
to Szczecin (4 out of 6)
- from Bristol
- from Birmingham
- from Liverpool
- from Luton
to Wroclaw (1 out of 15)
- from Bournemouth.
No reductions in KRK, RZE, BZG.

Patuta
2nd Feb 2009, 20:24
DUB-BRE to be scrapped from April. Likely because of a new 10€ surcharge at Dublin airport.

Re-Heat
2nd Feb 2009, 21:45
I think this has more to do with the euro/dollar exchange rate than the supply/demand for aircraft.

So yes, with the exchange rate, Ryanair are getting less euros for their sold planes, but they are also paying less euros for their delivered planes.
2 points

(a) I believe they are hedged for the new purchases, so x-rate movements won't affect them for the cost

(b) Ryanair is a big arbitrage trader on aircraft prices - the missing €40m from 2008 to 2009 prices is a big hit (for which the employees will ultimately pay)...

airbourne
2nd Feb 2009, 22:12
Couple of questions:

How many more approx airports are there in europe that FR could operate from?

What happens to FR when they no longer have the option of 'do it our way or we pull out'?

Airport fees will ultimatly go up, this is something that FR will have to eventually account for.

Who outside of MOL and managment are the biggest shareholders of FR stock and can they influence board decisions at all?

en2r
2nd Feb 2009, 22:22
Quote:
It doesn't have any of its own Accounting standards.
Yes it does.
No it doesn't. I'm an Accountant. While in the past it did, since Ireland adopted International Accounting Standards (IASs) in 2005, it no longer has its own Accounting standards.
But anyway the main point is Ryanair, like all Irish companies now prepare accounts under IASs, meaning the way they treat fuel hedges in their accounts is the same as the way British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa etc. would treat them i.e. according to the way set down by the International Accounting Standards Board.

Charlie Roy
3rd Feb 2009, 09:01
How many more approx airports are there in europe that FR could operate from?

It yesterday's quarterly report Ryanair said that the recession is resulting in flag carriers reducing services (at their big main central airports) meaning Ryanair is now presented with opportunities at these airports.

The dramatic cuts in flights and capacity by many of Europe’s flag carriers has created traffic collapses at many of Europe’s larger airports. This is creating enormous opportunities for Ryanair, as these airports compete to reduce charges in order to attract Ryanair’s growth and to develop low cost facilities to take advantage of Ryanair’s quick turnarounds and our improved web check-in facilities. This movement towards lower cost, more efficient airports in Europe is welcome, even if it is 20 years too late.

befree
3rd Feb 2009, 09:53
Airports having a hard time may not be so good for Ryanair. Some get state aid that is going to dry up. others only serve a few low cost airlines and may no longer be viable when some of the other cariers pull out and Ryanair cut winter services. The airports other income streams are shrinking.

After a few more airlines go under I would expect to see a few tiny airports to go.

GnRdL
3rd Feb 2009, 12:26
New: Alicante (ALC) to Oslo, Sandefjord (TRF)

Start: 3rd June.
Frequency: Wednesday / Friday / Sunday

FR195W
3rd Feb 2009, 16:33
NRN-VST now visible at the Ryanair Online Check-In. Anybody got any information ???

Greets,
Matthias.

Seljuk22
3rd Feb 2009, 17:56
BRE-DUB and NRN-LGW will be cancelled from summer.

GnRdL
3rd Feb 2009, 19:44
New Route: NRN-VST

Start: 29th March
Frequency: Mon / Wed

eu01
3rd Feb 2009, 20:23
The HHN airport is no longer owned by Fraport. It's just been sold for symbolic 1 euro to the Land of Rheinland-Pfalz, according to Frankfurter Rundschau (FR-online) (http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt_und_hessen/nachrichten/hessen/?em_cnt=1669855).

pikkuprinssi
3rd Feb 2009, 20:25
Morningstar - : Ryanair Sees Italy Overtaking UK As Dominant Market (http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/DJ/200902020816DOWJONESDJONLINE000269_univ.xml)

"Cawley said the company is planning to open another five bases in Italy over the next three years as an increasing number of people look to travel" :p

GnRdL
3rd Feb 2009, 22:12
New Route: SDR-CRL

Start: 1st April
Frequency: Wed / Sun

Ametyst2
4th Feb 2009, 14:25
New Route:- Liverpool to Ibiza - 3 x Weekly - Monday, Wednesday & Friday from 1st April

chipsbrand
4th Feb 2009, 14:42
I have been scanning the Ryanair site for hours to try and find a way to get in email contact with them about potential new business opportunities. I cannot find an email address for anyone, even a general customer service address which might be used as an initial contact. I have tried ringing them from my home on Spain but keep getting recorded announcements. I am thinking that in such a wall of communications problems I might have to write by snail mail to Michael O'Leary. But that seems absurd in this day and age. I have impeccable credentials to discuss new opportunities with them. Can anyone out there help with this logjam?

ESCNI
4th Feb 2009, 14:55
Ryanair Campaign (http://www.ryanaircampaign.org/contact.html)

wawkrk
4th Feb 2009, 15:01
It's easy,contact Jet2:ok:

Bagmanlgw
4th Feb 2009, 16:13
New Route for Gatwick ?

Now showing in the drop down booking engine on Ryanairs website

LGW- VST ( STOCKHOLM )

Anyone with any idea if any others are to be added ?

GOAROUNDMAN
4th Feb 2009, 18:13
Just flew back from Knock to Liverpool on the day of the big snow. We were three hours late but the Bmibaby to BHX was cancelled and the pax crammed on to the MAN. Amazing sight seeing an aircraft loaded like a panic evacuation of Saigon and then do a 180 infront of the terminal (no pushback), speeding away like a cat with it's tail on fire. The look on those Brummies going to the first city and boarding the airline with tiny profits ye olde classic 737 -

priceless

leisurelad
4th Feb 2009, 18:13
Ryanair are probably one of the most arrogant of business to deal with. I know they no longer allow agents to book their flights even if we go direct on their website, so for that reason alone, they have lost nearly £50k of business a month from us, and we were a small agency but very very busy.

Easyjet / Jet2 / Globespan now get our low cost carrier business and to be honest, are far more agent freindly and see it as, well if the agent hadn't of packaged it together, i doubt joe public would have even thought of using us to put together the same deal.

Ryanair :E

Easyjet/Jet2/Globespan :ok:

frfly
4th Feb 2009, 18:21
I think LGW is earmarked as a potential base...especially now the EI takeover didnt go through. Time for MOL to throw a spanner in the works down in LGW!

Ametyst2
4th Feb 2009, 18:42
Gatwick to Vasteras is interesting as neither airport is a Ryanair base at present.

pee
5th Feb 2009, 10:11
News from Ireland:
Ryanair is today expected to announce a major scale back in its services at Shannon airport, in protest at the introduction of the Government's ten euro airport tax.

The airline's CEO Michael O'Leary is holding a press conference later, where it's reported he will announce a reduction in the number of their planes based at the airport.
Reported by: Midlands Radio (http://www.midlandsradio.fm/news_detail.aspx?footer=1&news_id=7488).

AndyH52
5th Feb 2009, 10:56
Down from 6 to 4 based aircraft from March 30th with five routes dropped and reduced frequencies on others...

Powerjet1
5th Feb 2009, 11:13
Luton has gone. No surprise there.

840
5th Feb 2009, 11:27
They're reducing flights from 136 to 116 per week, but passenger numbers will drop from 1.9 million to 1.2 million

How can a 15% drop in flights produce a 35% drop in passenger numbers? They'd hardly target their most successful flights.

Actually,

20 * 52 = 1,040

700,000 / 1040 = c. 700

Are we supposed to believe that there is 700 people on each of those flights?!?!?

Leaving aside my incredulity, any idea which other routes have gone?

racedo
5th Feb 2009, 11:35
Actually,

20 * 52 = 1,040

700,000 / 1040 = c. 700

Should be 2 * 20 * 52 = 2080 but even at that I reckon its a 300,000 potential passenger number drop max unless further cut is planned post Summer.

en2r
5th Feb 2009, 12:25
Down from 6 to 4 based aircraft from March 30th with five routes dropped and reduced frequencies on others...
The 5 routes axed are Berlin, Hahn, Lodz, Luton and Newcastle. The summer only Biarritz service is also not operating this year.

frfly
5th Feb 2009, 15:00
edi becomes edi based a/c to snn now

iwhak
5th Feb 2009, 16:52
More importantly reducing further to two based aircraft after the summer!

VanBosh
5th Feb 2009, 17:37
So another 4 aircraft to allocate, and there are Dublin reductions pencilled in for next week. A nice way to get rid of some underperforming routes etc, I mean SNN was never big enough to handle 6 aircraft, as is shown by the constant reference to it in annual releases as an underperforming base.

The question now is where do these aircraft go? Did I hear in an M Cawley interview that they have 8 to allocate before Summer. Maybe a LGW base to go after EI.

What ever happened to that FCO Talk?

boyzinblue
6th Feb 2009, 05:17
Ryanairs decision to reduce their presence at SNN has nothing to do with the 10 € government tax from April onwards.
It has more to do with their only poor base and route policy.
How can any airline based 6 aircraft at an airport where the average fare for 6 months of the year is 10 € - Ryanair quote?
I do not believe that the pre booking for 2009 are significantly down because now 20 € has to be paid.
SNN got into bed with the devil and not the devil gives them the 2 fingers. Hahn was the same but FR's blackmail policy worked here.

FR need to seriously look at where all the reallocated and new aircraft are going to be based.

Seat62K
6th Feb 2009, 07:25
Does anyone know what has happened to "hand-luggage only" flights and mobile 'phone use onboard?

Seems to have gone very quiet on both.

positive
6th Feb 2009, 08:45
Any reductions by Ryanair at Dublin will surely be picked up by Aer Lingus,Shannon is too dependent on Ryanair.

racedo
6th Feb 2009, 09:25
Does anyone know what has happened to "hand-luggage only" flights and mobile 'phone use onboard?

Mobile phone flights supposed to start at end of Feb and have seen signs hanging from ceiling indicating when phones can and can't be used.

Barking idea as one place nice for quiet and calm without Tracey or Kevin shouting at their mates where they are has been on a plane.

iwhak
6th Feb 2009, 09:43
Shannon is facing very serious difficulties going forward. It was always recognised that the level of FR activity at SNN was not sustainable. It would probably be more beneficial in the long-term if FR withdrew completley. They will however maintain a presence, and that presence no matter how small will prevent any other carrier from launching routes, knowing that there is the potential as has happened in the past for FR to launch against them, in what are already thin very low yield markets. Serious strategic thinking required to develop a route incentive scheme that gives carriers some sort of comfort to develop new business!

en2r
6th Feb 2009, 12:20
The 5 routes axed are Berlin, Hahn, Lodz, Luton and Newcastle. The summer only Biarritz service is also not operating this year.
It now appears that 8 Shannon routes are to be axed; Berlin, Hahn, Lodz, Luton, Newcastle, Biarritz, Katowice and Gdansk.

DILLTHEDOG
6th Feb 2009, 18:57
So, now they have Aicraft available, will they keep their promise and put some into Bournemouth. The whole place is ready and Easyjet are sniffing about !

The catchment for BOH is lucrative, if anyone will spend on travel, it will be the residents of the south coast, do the right routes and you would put a big dent in BAA Southampton.

MUFC_fan
6th Feb 2009, 21:50
Ryanair try to offer the cheapest fares on the market place, could they reduce them further?

Now that less people are putting bags in the hold, could they look at transporting cargo on some of their routes? Obviously some wouldn't work but maybe on some LON and DUB routes?

It would raise costs I am sure but the profits from cargo would be a lot bigger and would surely reduce what the people are paying who are sat above it.

What do we think PPrune?

EC-ILS
6th Feb 2009, 22:29
I dont think FR could botherd with the hassle associated with cargo, altough in these tough times every little helps.

frfly
7th Feb 2009, 07:39
FR could build this in on the crew change turnarounds, generally 50 mins to an hour.

Haha - FR, the cheapest way to send cargo, from €1, plus €500 in charges

lplsprog
7th Feb 2009, 10:32
EZY inherited a cargo business when they took over GB Airways however they promptly shut it down as it doesn't fit the Lo-cost model with tight turnarounds. I doubt if FR will ever contemplate cargo on their aircraft.

anna_list
7th Feb 2009, 12:00
Who remembers FR promising massive capacity cuts at STN and DUB this Winter? We were told that there would be scores of aircraft parked up doing nothing in view of the outrageous high charges blah blah blah ...

I'm sad enough to have wondered what actually happened this Winter. The stats below are all available from sources such as ACARS. In each case I have compared Nov-Jan 08/09 to the period Nov-Jan 07/08:

STN:
14% capacity reductions at STN
In reality, FR movements at STN are down by about 8.8%. It's a fairly savage hack, but nowhere near as severe as EZY's 20% reduction at STN (Nov 08 vs Nov 07) or the 40% reduction by Air Berlin (also Nov 08 vs Nov 07).

And what about DUB?
18% schedule redctions at DUB
The threat doesn't seem to have materialised: FR movements at DUB are actually down by about 2%. Interestingly, EI short haul at DUB seems to be down by about 3.4%.

What's the story at other UK bases?
EDI, BOH and BHX not surprisingly see large increases as they are all new bases.
BHD is up by 17% (increases vs last year on EMA and PIK making up for the reduction on STN)
LTN is up by 3.4%.
PIK is flat.
EMA is down by 1.7%.
LPL is down by 4.3%.
BRS is down by 7.5% (looks like the different mix of routes has led to a reduction in the number of sectors).

racedo
7th Feb 2009, 15:33
I doubt if FR will ever contemplate cargo on their aircraft.

They have in the past reptariated bodies back to Knock flying from UK as do remember a neighbours family taking home a family member who passed away tragically while visiting via this route.

Only comment I remember from them was that they were looked after very well on both sides at what was a really bad time.

No idea if they still repatriate remains.

positive
7th Feb 2009, 19:16
At Dublin they said they would park 4 aircraft over the winter in reality its 2 aicraft they moved which would be normal as summer only routes apply.

conradmueller
7th Feb 2009, 20:23
A good joke:
SaverJet.com (http://www.saverjet.com/index.html)

Gold Rivet
8th Feb 2009, 14:13
I see they've posted a Load Factor for January of 69% on their website.

Anyone know what the break even Load Factor is?

How will 47 new aircraft impact on the Load Factor?

Coquelet
8th Feb 2009, 14:48
@ racedo :
"Ryanair only carry human remains on the London Stansted - Knock route" :

From the Ryanair website

daz211
9th Feb 2009, 18:07
"We are talking to Copenhagen about the possibility of opening with 10 routes. We could easily get up to 10 million passengers in two or three years,"

davidjohnson6
9th Feb 2009, 18:21
Might well happen..... but the 'low-cost terminal' SWIFT at CPH is not due to open until summer 2010. Don't get too excited yet !

CPH Swift - Københavns Lufthavne (http://www.cph.dk/CPH/UK/ABOUT+CPH/Building+for+the+future/CPH+Swift/)

eu01
9th Feb 2009, 18:23
Yeah. MOL has given an interview to the Danish press. Some of his claims were:
- nobody believes Norwegian Airlines will exist five years from now
- SAS will be melted into LH and thus CPH's significance will deteriorate
- the only long-term airline in Kastrup will be... Ryanair (not yet started flying there, though)

daz211
9th Feb 2009, 18:49
Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’ Leary has thrown down the gauntlet to SAS and said the Irish airline aims to carry more passengers from Copenhagen than the Scandinavian airline.

Ryanair has already been linked with the new low-cost terminal CPH Swift, currently under construction at Copenhagen Airport and O’Leary said that if the airport could provide a 25-minute turnaround, among other guarantees, then Ryanair will begin flying from the Danish capital this summer.

‘If we get it [the guarantees] we could open this summer. But the decision rests with Copenhagen Airports and not us,’ O’Leary told Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

davidjohnson6
9th Feb 2009, 19:01
daz - you have a point, it is possible that FR may start up this summer.

However, with Cimber Sterling, Norwegian and Transavia as LCCs already with bases at CPH, I'm not convinced there is really sufficient local demand for 4 locally-based LCCs, all paying hefty fees until at least 2010. Oh yeah, and there's a rather large network airline called SAS with a big hub as well.

Something somewhere has to give....

boyzinblue
10th Feb 2009, 07:43
New:
Mrs - Bsl
Mrs - Tuf

DILLTHEDOG
10th Feb 2009, 16:48
So why was MOL at Bournemouth today ?

Maybe for an all day breakfast !! :yuk: That could just finish Him Off !!:E

NJTCF
10th Feb 2009, 21:30
MOL Was Seen at EMA last night and the RYR flight he was on came in from Liverpool. The aircraft was supposed to leave EMA for BHX But stayed the night at EMA due snow at BHX. So he might have been visiting BHX Aswell.

MAN777
10th Feb 2009, 21:47
I passed through Dublin today and noticed a wide mix of registration batches in Ryanairs fleet, can anyone explain what rule of thumb is being used for disposal of the older jets.

Also is the unique minimal interior limiting the second hand value of these aircraft ?

johnnychips
10th Feb 2009, 22:38
As most things are moulded in plastic, I assume the (very garish) colour scheme can't change, but what else is different? Legroom seemed normal, can't think of a problem with fold-down tray. It's about a year since I flew FR (and I've never had a problem) so I can't remember if they had that netting to hold in-flight mags and vomit bags or a footstool bar.

MAN777
11th Feb 2009, 07:16
No seat recline, no table, yellow plastic all over the place, very tight pitch.

Yes fine for cheap cheerful short trips, thats what we expect for the price we pay.

But unless they are passed onto similar operations, surely they are limiting the number of buyers.

Rhodes13
11th Feb 2009, 07:25
MAN777 not sure why you think it would limit it to other buyers as all the interiors would be stripped out anyway for the receiving airlines decor. Its not like a car that once you buy it thats it. Everything inside can be pulled out and put back in, indeed it has to be as how else would you get to some of the wiring etc.

MAN777
11th Feb 2009, 07:45
That is my point. Changing interiors must cost a fortune, therefore your customers must fall into 2 groups, those that have money to refit and those that just put up with what they get.

Obviously i am no expert, that is why i ask the questions.

So, who are the new operators of ex Ryanair aircraft ?

Rhodes13
11th Feb 2009, 07:55
All airlines have individual interiors, I don't think there would be one airline out there that would have the same interior as another so the cost is small compared to buying a new aircraft in small batches, add in the fact that in most cases the companies already have the stock in the form of spares then overall its much cheaper. I would suggest to you that if you cant afford an interior they shouldn't be buying a 25 millions euro aircraft!!

Most of the airlines that have been buying the ex RYR are South American ones, several went to Varig etc. There would be a database on the net if you are that interested.

MAN777
11th Feb 2009, 08:03
Thanks for that, I will take a look.

Next question -

How on earth can Ryanair justify £4 for a very small can of lager ??

Knife-Edge
11th Feb 2009, 08:51
How on earth can Ryanair justify £4 for a very small can of lager ??

Possible lack of choice / competition at 35,000 feet!

Of course you fly a full service airline pay £200 more and have a 'free' larger.

Steviec9
11th Feb 2009, 08:55
How on earth can Ryanair justify £4 for a very small can of lager ??

It costs them that to re-seal the can after they've p**ed in it to refill it after each flight.

Why on Earth would anyone buy anything onboard? Bags of industrial grade alcohol, 'luxury' dehydrated tea and microwaved bits of old pizza, not to mention Pish Beer.