Another kick in the teeth for LTN today...
Ryanair annouced two new routes from LGW today to Madrid and Rome and also easyJet are to start flying to Luxor from there too.
Just looked at the Ryanair destination map, and never knew they flew to so many destinations from that little old airport south of the Thames, looks like they now fly to 9-10 destinations. Not bad considering its not a base.
If Ryanair get into bed with the new owners of LGW, could mean they set up a base there. I think LTN could then potentially be vulnerable, it would be questionable if they need three London bases and both STN and LTN's catchment areas very much overlap. While at LGW Ryanair can continue to serve the London traffic while attracting passengers from the south.
Some people might think I am scare mongering, but it has happened to quite a few FR bases over the years, where after a while of Ryanair has built up a number of routes and then turned it into a base. Also the airline doesn't have a huge amount of new aircraft to arrive from Boeing and these will dry up in 2012 when no new aircraft orders have been placed and could mean aircraft being positioned where it deems there is demand!