Originally Posted by
LGS6753
They will look at opportunities like that wherever in Europe they occur.
(...)
I for one don't believe the wheels have fallen off the model yet.
In my view Ryanair-preferred sector of the point-to-point market is already saturated. Surely, the collapse of Alitalia would give a boost to Ryanair operations in the region, but can they build their future on such kind of speculations only?
Let's see Ryanair's view on the current situation. A short quote from the new presenation: "(we) plan to double traffic
and profits by 2012". And as cited by the press: "Ryanair will respond as always with lower fares and aggressive pricing in order to continue filling its seats". A delusion, dear gentlemen! Nothing new, this remedy will not work any more. When the demand weakens, lowering the fares is not the only one factor that should be considered. Want to make the route between, say, Haugesund in Norway and Bremen in Germany profitable? Haugesund has just 30 thousand inhabitants. The planes on such a route can only be filled by giving these people the opportunity to change in BRE and continue towards e.g. Italy or France. Why not give the passengers from Finnish Tampere or Polish Wroclaw some destinations in Spain via HHN, or maybe Czechs twice-a-week connecting flights to Portugal? It's not unthinkable to charge them €10 or so for making this connection viable, it could work. The policy of "aggresive pricing" is in current situation simply not enough.