The Manchester-Dublin Route
Following the dramatic announcements concerning the MAN-DUB route over recent days I have been doing some further research.
When I did my original survey of Ryanair's MAN flight programme for Winter 2015-16 (with numbers based on a typical week in February), RYR was showing a planned 30 departures weekly on the route. This has now risen to 42 departures per week ... a straight 6x Daily schedule ... a healthy increase of 12 departures per week. RYR will be offering an impressive 7938 round-trip seats per week on the route with many fares available at just £19.98 return all-in. Worth considering some daytrips?
Meanwhile, Aer Lingus, whose announcement hit the headlines first, is still showing a completely unchanged schedule on the MAN-DUB route (based on availability searches on their website). Have they got cold feet and quietly shelved their plans for additional capacity on the route, or are they just remarkably slow loading the new flights onto their website? Meanwhile, their lowest price round-trip deal appears to come in at £73.98.
Basically, one can do 3.7 round-trips on Ryanair for the price of one on Aer Lingus. And Ryanair is offering a better spread of timings based on what is currently displayed on the respective websites. There is little to choose between the two carriers in terms of cabin service on such a short sector.
One has to wonder whether this battle for market-share has ended before it has really begun. Of course, in terms of yield the picture may vary. At £73.98 base return fare, EIN must be building in a good margin there (if they can shift them). RYR's £19.98 return appears very attractive ... perhaps that first tier is regarded as a loss-leader? They do seem easy to obtain though. These prices certainly put UK rail fares into perspective!
Following the Dublin changes, Ryanair's mid-winter programme now features 149 scheduled departures per week to 25 destinations from MAN. A total of 28161 round-trip seats are on offer each week, representing a potential 56322 passengers through the terminal.
Question: Is anybody able to confirm Aer Lingus intentions on MAN-DUB? Have they quietly dropped plans to increase flights on the route or are they just remarkably slow updating their online booking engine?