I don`t believe it`s Ryanair or nothing for passengers. Yes it will be a hard slog, but I believe PIK can attract more passenger traffic.
God know's I'd love to agree.
In the likely market in short haul, the
opportunity from UK based operators :
Thomson
Thomas Cook
Jet2
Monarch
easyJet- stated they're not interested
All bar monarch have existing bases at GLA and Monarch do a fair amount of ad-hoc work from there. I can't see anyone except maybe MON having a go in Ayrshire with a split GLA/PIK operation. Actually
Airtours/
myTravel used to run a split GLA/PIK operation, in both short and long haul in the years they were having their major identity crisis, however that's not something I expect to see again.The best chance was for a core based PIK operation was
flyglobespan who then upped and moved to GLA after one season.
There used to be to be a fair bit of inbound sun flights from the Spanairs, Air Europas, LTEs, Iberworlds and Futuras of this world, but they've mainly either gone bust or moved into scheduled markets. This was in the days when the PIK Ryanair operation was operating to other markets from PIK, mainly European city break types, now that Ryanair are entrenched in sun markets at PIK it's very hard to see anyone going up against them. Their cost base is rock bottom and their market share is huge. They are also well known for predatory behaviour when people try to muscle in as they see it.
So I think UK based short haul is out, foreign inbound sun charters would be up against Ryanair which leaves long haul where GLA would, as I said offer a better deal for much better facilities and access to Glasgow just to make sure PIK didn't get a look in. When
NWA pulled GLA-BOS, PIK offered them a pretty good deal, which even at rock bottom levels was not enough to tempt them to re-consider. I think the loco growth of the late 20th, early 21st century may have been a bubble which now it has matured, has moved on and settled down. PIK succeeded with so many Ryanair passengers because BAA wouldn't make the deal FR wanted at EDI. Once that was done, the existing PIK route structure was moved East for higher yields and PIK got into a full scale battle for the West Coast Scotland to the sun market.
That's a different battle entirely in my view which is why they're struggling as the only thing they can beat GLA on is price and the only company that's in that market segment is Ryanair. The real danger is if GLA just makes FR an unbeatable deal on the grounds FR can keep the maintenance facility at PIK by operating a single lunchtime DUB-PIK and move the rest to GLA. It's a vicious circle, however I think FR also know this, have PIK by the balls and won't feel the need to move while that's the case.