Originally Posted by
JulietNovemberPapa
FR will never offer proper connections, with through ticketing, connecting baggage, increased responsibility, etc, not least because it results in greater complexity and reduced yields.
In principle, I agree. It's hard to imagine FR implementing connecting flights as is the case with the majority legacy airlines (and some LCC's as well). At least not at every airport in the Ryanair's network, not in the same way. However, one should not underestimate the vast potential markets that could be won simply by making just a few basic changes.
Can you tell the probability to get a direct connection of, say, Stockholm and Italian Pescara in a foreseeable future? Very low indeed. But some people are brave enough to take "self-responsibly" connecting flights, they hardly disappoint. You could, however, triple the number of passengers between these destinations just by selling them flights from start to the end on a single ticket, even if telling them to still pick-up luggages at the interchange airport. FR could even make some financial gains by, let's say, making the purchase of travel insurance obligatory on such a flights. I can envisage designating
one or two centrally located bases (e.g. HHN and/or CRL) to be the exception (by
providing connections) and carefully
selecting some routes that could be SAFELY included in connecting flights. After all, FR knows well which connections are "safe" and the failure unlikely. There are many dots in the network that be connected (like Sweden/Finland/Poland/Hungary to Italy/France and Spain, for example). The load factors and yields could improve. And if you single out just one airport, you can be more flexible, can't you?