Originally Posted by
mart901
Granted yes, I agree. But, if FR was making money they'd be there. And my sources tell me they literally could only fill all that capacity by deep discounting. easyJet have basically beaten them, twice, first at LGW and now in the holy grail of FR territory STN.
I agree. The issue with easyJet is that at Belfast, unlike some non core markets they have decided to hold tight and not be twarted by Ryanair's protracted war on price. Sadly, easyJet have in the past walked away from some big city bases due to the intensity of competitive pressures e.g. Madrid and Rome ... great that this hasn't happened here. The new head of easyJet clearly has been faced with the challenge of Ryanair and others, and strategically if they wanted to hold on to what they have, they need to hold firm in core markets. Ryanair seem to invest very heavily in low prices over a protracted period, until the competition walk away and they have the market to themselves, and most likely in the process racking up losses. This was the case I suggest on LGW, where commonly at any stage, you could bag a very low price in the days pre departure £12.99, which would hardly cover part of the costs.
INn BFS it is most likely that easyJet have taken a huge hit financially the face of Ryanair too.
Kudos to easyJet for holding firm.
Surprising that BHD has not tried to poach Ryanair. With these new 737s with short field performance etc, though the max issues will no doubt curtail Ryanair expansion in the very near term...