stevobeevo: FR's plans here must be to push MyTravel off certain routes
Certain routes?! Do you really think that before MyTravelLite announced its DUB flights, Ryanair management were sitting around saying “do you know what we should do: start Murcia and Barcelona out of Birmingham...”, “yes that something we should get a piece of...”, etc. The only BHX route that Ryanair were/are bothered about is DUB: Ryanair don’t like BHX and don’t particularly care for Spain (until the airports get more independence from AENA anyway). They are doing these routes for two reason only: to punish MyTravelLite and to send another warning to other airlines.
PlaneHappy: so long as the competition is not deemed by the regulatory officals to be unfair
After MyTravelLite announced DUB, Ryanair instantly starting giving away flights for £1. Anybody can see that this was predatory pricing. So why didn’t MyTravelLite hold its fares steady and lodge a complaint with the regulators you ask: because that would take months to be resolved, by which time Ryanair would have won out. So MyTravelLite’s reduced its prices to 50p. Now they’re both falling over themselves to give the flights away for free.
But Ryanair couldn’t leave it at that because they know that MyTravelLite might actually be able to give them a run for their money on a straight BHX-DUB scrap. So they take it to the next level and jump on two routes served by MyTravelLite out of its home base.
So what’s the next step?
Scenario 1: Capitulation MyTravelLite makes a behind closed doors deal with Ryanair to drop DUB if Ryanair drops BHX-MJV and BHX-GRO;
Scenario 2: See you and raise you MyTravelLite launches an operation out of DUB. Say maybe DUB to BCN, FAO and AGP to choose three destinations at random
. Using the DC10-10s
.
Scenario 3: Doomsday MyTravelLite drops DUB but Ryanair keep its new BHX services anyway (or even launches more) to destroy MyTravelLite and really drive its point home.
PlaneHappy: From a consumer's point-of-view, this competition is good
Fair, sustainable competition is good for consumers. Wild price wars aren’t. Remember four years ago when the supermarkets had their
bread war and the price of a loaf was 3p? It couldn’t last and now the prices are 10 times that level. So who benefited?