LEEDS 5

[righthandrule]

It was asked on here last week how Ryanair were doing at LBA, with the ash chaos I never got round to answering but now things are back to normal I’ll fill everyone in with how it’s going at LBA.

After the big launch in March everything started very well, on the first day some flights were full, some had only a handful of passengers on i.e. Krakow and Knock had less than 40 on, however that was the first flights.

The launch was convenient for the start of the Easter holidays and naturally the outbound flights were relatively full. AGP, PMI, CCF, NTE, LIG, MPL, ALC, MJV & FAO were all booked at around 170 for the first few weeks, the others such as KRK, GRO, TSF & PSA were less popular with around 150 booked, and NOC was averaging around 80 or 90. In comparison to Jet2, similar load factors however I don't think on any occasion Ryanair had a completely full flight whereas Jet2 often had 148 and 229 on 733's and 75's respectively on the usual routes.

The last week of Easter saw Ryanairs figures fall quite a lot, PMI was averaging about 100 and Treviso around 80. The French routes were all pretty low too at around the 110 mark. The booked figures for last week were roughly the same around the 100 mark with the exceptions being Malaga, Murcia, Alicante and Faro all with around 140/150 booked. In comparison to Jet2 a lot lower load factor, Jet2's 757's on the usual Spanish routes have not gone out with less than 210 on.

Today was the first day of relative normall-ness at LBA, Jet2's all at 100% capacity as well as extra flights with the exception of AMS and BFS with around 100 on. Ryanair not so busy with only 40 on the Venice Treviso, around 80 on the Pisa and 100 on the Krakow. Malta and Malaga however were both booked in excess of 170 passengers.

Surprisingly it has been a real mix so far for Ryanair, I and most at LBA were under the impression Ryanair's were always going to be full, however this is clearly not the case. Dublin consistently around 150/160 on each flight. As expected Jet2 Spanish flights all packed, the NCE, BGY, FCO and VCE all seeing very good loads of around 130/140 on each flight, I personally thought Jet2 were going to suffer on the Venice flights, however it appears so far that Marco Polo and Jet2 are more favourable than Ryanair and Treviso.

Having spoken to lots of Ryanair passengers over the last few weeks, a lot have never flown from LBA before, but use Ryanair regularly from EMA, but with LBA being more convenient fly from here now. Check-in for the Ryanair flights is very amusing to watch as there are often 20-25 minute queues as they only pay for one desk, and on a typical Malaga over 120 hold bags to be dropped off. Feedback is mixed from passengers and staff, the majority of the FR pax know what to expect and a lot have never flown from LBA and don't realise Jet2 fly to all the destinations Ryanair do. Feedback from a lot of the Jet2 passengers is not what I expected at all, a lot do not want to fly with Ryanair despite how cheap they are. This is reflected in the bookings which are up on last year for J2.

Ryanair have had a huge PR blunder over the ash debacle, by not putting on any 'rescue' flights from LBA, Jet2 took advantage and actually placed excess coaches and flights into LBA, which carried a decent number of Ryanair passengers who have forked out themselves to get on the Jet2 flights/coaches. It was sad to see them as a lot of people arriving back to LBA yesterday and today on the Jet2 transport (some originally destined for LGW, BFS, STN, BRS - non Jet2 flights) were very critical of Ryanair, easyJet and Monarch who provided no transport for them and a distinct lack of information. They were very tired and several non Jet2 passengers make it clear that had they not have gone onto the Jet2 website they most likely would still be stuck abroad as they have had no contact from Ryanair. Of course the Jet2 passengers are to be refunded the cost of booking the extra flights put on but non Jet2 passengers will not.
I think a lot of people thought that Ryanair coming into LBA was going to have a dramatic effect on the airport, in particular Jet2. So far this seems not to have happened, and in all honesty any Ryanair flight that is not on a promotion are actually very similar prices to Jet2, and I guess surprisingly the Yorkshire folk are willing to fork out a few more quid to fly with a superior airline. Interesting times ahead.