Tenerife opens up to no-frills
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Tenerife opens up to no-frills
Source: TTG
http://www.ttglive.com/NTTG_fullstor...ArticleID=3802
The market to Tenerife looks set for a radical shake-up as the island earmarks funds to entice a no-frills carrier from the UK to fly to its northern airport.
A subsidy of £1.2 million has been generated by tourism bodies to tempt a no-frills airline to begin services in April 2006. Tenerife North is currently served direct from the UK only by GB Airways.
The island’s hotel and tourism officials confirmed advanced talks had taken place with Ryanair, which has said it could run six return flights a week from Stansted and Nottingham East Midlands, plus flights from two airports in Germany, mainland Spain, and possibly Dublin and Belgium.
But before any deal could be struck with the Irish carrier, Tenerife is legally required to put its subsidy offer out to tender, which it will do within the next two to three weeks, according to Jose Barreiro, a councillor of Ashotel, Tenerife’s hotels association.
Barreiro, who is also a member of the North Tenerife Promotion Board, said the invitation for applications would then be “published in an official bulletin” in November and a carrier chosen in December.
But he hinted that a smaller airline was unlikely to be chosen as Tenerife is keen to work with a big-name player that has a reputation for reliability and value.
Barreiro said Tenerife “desperately needed” more flights to improve visitor numbers, especially to the upmarket north.
Officials predict the benefits will be similar to those gained by Sardinia, which Ryanair has opened up to UK visitors.
The UK is the Canary island’s biggest source market, with 1.7 million British visitors a year heading mainly for mass-market resorts in the south. But numbers have dropped after a shifting of capacity by the big four to the eastern Med and subsequent price rises.
Barreiro said: “Flying to Tenerife is expensive compared with low-cost carrier fares elsewhere. We need more competition which is why we have spoken to Ryanair.”
He insisted the introduction of a no-frills airline would not threaten existing charter carriers, which fly to the south, but warned: “It could be a way of getting them to be more competitive on price rather than making £75 profit on every seat.”
Ryanair’s interest in Tenerife – four hours from the UK – is a shift from its traditional preference for flights of up to two hours, and it could now be enticed to the Greek islands and beyond.
The carrier refused to comment on the Tenerife talks.
The developments tie in with a drive to promote Tenerife to the UK industry. Advantage will be holding its conference there next May, and the island looks set to host the Abta Travel Convention in 2007.
http://www.ttglive.com/NTTG_fullstor...ArticleID=3802
The market to Tenerife looks set for a radical shake-up as the island earmarks funds to entice a no-frills carrier from the UK to fly to its northern airport.
A subsidy of £1.2 million has been generated by tourism bodies to tempt a no-frills airline to begin services in April 2006. Tenerife North is currently served direct from the UK only by GB Airways.
The island’s hotel and tourism officials confirmed advanced talks had taken place with Ryanair, which has said it could run six return flights a week from Stansted and Nottingham East Midlands, plus flights from two airports in Germany, mainland Spain, and possibly Dublin and Belgium.
But before any deal could be struck with the Irish carrier, Tenerife is legally required to put its subsidy offer out to tender, which it will do within the next two to three weeks, according to Jose Barreiro, a councillor of Ashotel, Tenerife’s hotels association.
Barreiro, who is also a member of the North Tenerife Promotion Board, said the invitation for applications would then be “published in an official bulletin” in November and a carrier chosen in December.
But he hinted that a smaller airline was unlikely to be chosen as Tenerife is keen to work with a big-name player that has a reputation for reliability and value.
Barreiro said Tenerife “desperately needed” more flights to improve visitor numbers, especially to the upmarket north.
Officials predict the benefits will be similar to those gained by Sardinia, which Ryanair has opened up to UK visitors.
The UK is the Canary island’s biggest source market, with 1.7 million British visitors a year heading mainly for mass-market resorts in the south. But numbers have dropped after a shifting of capacity by the big four to the eastern Med and subsequent price rises.
Barreiro said: “Flying to Tenerife is expensive compared with low-cost carrier fares elsewhere. We need more competition which is why we have spoken to Ryanair.”
He insisted the introduction of a no-frills airline would not threaten existing charter carriers, which fly to the south, but warned: “It could be a way of getting them to be more competitive on price rather than making £75 profit on every seat.”
Ryanair’s interest in Tenerife – four hours from the UK – is a shift from its traditional preference for flights of up to two hours, and it could now be enticed to the Greek islands and beyond.
The carrier refused to comment on the Tenerife talks.
The developments tie in with a drive to promote Tenerife to the UK industry. Advantage will be holding its conference there next May, and the island looks set to host the Abta Travel Convention in 2007.
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Cant really see this working for Ryanair or Easyjet, Go tried and failed on this route before. Long sectors for a no-frills carrier, mind you Flyglobespan seem to be making a go of this, but im not really sure.
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The only reason Go Fly gave up on TFS, was because the leg was a bit long, economically, for the 733. The A319 would cope perfectly, and quite expect eJ to make a move to stem Globespan expansion at STN, as they have done with STN-GVA.
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I dont think Jet 2 are really in the same league as EZY, FR or Thompson with two ageing seven fives. Heard yesterday that the big launch will be with Titan aircraft and crews due to problems getting the aircraft out of maintenance.
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I think it's the next step for the no frills to go to, they have more or less took over Spain from the charters and there is not much left in Europe to fly to, so I think it's only a matter of time before the low cost airlines start flying to Tenerife and the likes of Kos and start putting the squeeze on the charters again.
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Why would you wana do four hours with Ryanair, when for £99.60 you can board an A320 allocated seats, in flight chuck, tv screen, leather seats 31" pitch, courtesy of GB Airways.
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How many airports do GB fly from to Tenerife?. The answer to that may go some way to answer your question Mouser. They certainly don't fly from any in Scotland so leather seats TV's etc don't do me any good.
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Surely stage lengths like UK & Germany to Canaries would be far more the domain of "holiday" airlines like Monarch, Thomsonfly, Hapagfly or Air Berlin, rather than someone like Ryanair. They prefer to have lots of little hops with their aircraft to get the most utlisation of their equipment, although perhaps night flying would be an option for them?
Either way, on these sort of sectors, passengers tend to be prepared to pay a little bit more for improved service. Tenerife doesn't have the weekend break or second-home market that the Costas or the Algarve do, so it shall be interesting to see how FR do if they chose to do it.
Either way, on these sort of sectors, passengers tend to be prepared to pay a little bit more for improved service. Tenerife doesn't have the weekend break or second-home market that the Costas or the Algarve do, so it shall be interesting to see how FR do if they chose to do it.
