Ryanair - 6

[Powerjet1]

Credit card fees can give Ryanair a 1900% profit : Stansted Airport News Stories

[eu01]

I doubt MOL would share my opinions!

That is, presumably, a problem too. MOL has his own vision of the business which, very successful until now, might be in need for more radical adjustments (I bet it is). Isn't Ryanair's board too uncompromising to adapt to this new situation? There exists, as said, the necessity to improve e.g. the load factors on some routes and not much room for fare changes. One way to achieve it is by reducing the flights (and that will happen). An other would be to make the services more attractive in order to tempt more customers (and better fill the planes). Hence, isn't it just about time to try something else? For example, why insist on "100% point-to-point only" rule? If you fly to a smallish town, 200.000 dwellers or so, gradually your offer will become unattractive for the people living there if you continue to sell them just London flights and nothing more. Try to select just one airport in the middle of the continent to provide connecting flights. Try it just with several selected flights, just at this one airport. I'm sure this would radically improve the profitability on many "small size" routes. By concentrating some resources on one carefully selected (cheap) airport, you can afford to be more flexible... while you'll have quite a few planes idle this winter, won't you?

But, as I said, MOL is too tenacious in his policies, I'm afraid...

[LGS6753]

There are lots of ready-made new route opportunities about to open up for FR as other airlines drop routes. BA are expected to reduce short-haul services. When they do, FR will be offering 1p fares on a similar route, and picking up the volume.
They will look at opportunities like that wherever in Europe they occur. If Alitalia were finally to collapse, FR would be enhancing their services from CIA and BGY to the destinations once served by AZ, or a field nearby.
I for one don't believe the wheels have fallen off the model yet.

[Powerjet1]

ABTN – The latest air travel & airline news

[MUFC_fan]

There are lots of ready-made new route opportunities about to open up for FR as other airlines drop routes. BA are expected to reduce short-haul services. When they do, FR will be offering 1p fares on a similar route, and picking up the volume.
They will look at opportunities like that wherever in Europe they occur. If Alitalia were finally to collapse, FR would be enhancing their services from CIA and BGY to the destinations once served by AZ, or a field nearby.
I for one don't believe the wheels have fallen off the model yet.

Remember...there isn't only FR who will take the BA routes, if any are to be lost from LGW (which I expect as LHR has a 'use it or lose it' policy) then U2 will compete on the EXACT same route which will probably be more effective.

If Alitalia were to go (which I doubt), U2 again will be on the hunt offering services from MXP which are EXACT route duplication. Not to mention Air One who would be the big benefactors as they move into the long-haul.

Ryanair do have a good model that works well in a healthy economy but when it comes to the crunch - they struggle more:

1. Not a huge business base
2. Rely a lot on seasonal traffic
3. Don't serve business airports very much
4. Have a lot more seats to fill than other carriers
5. Don't have a large commited customer base because of their lack luster service

When we come out of the troubled economy, which I have no doubt we will do, the airline will prosper and they have the money to keep them going through this period.

[eu01]

Originally Posted by LGS6753

They will look at opportunities like that wherever in Europe they occur.
(...)
I for one don't believe the wheels have fallen off the model yet.

In my view Ryanair-preferred sector of the point-to-point market is already saturated. Surely, the collapse of Alitalia would give a boost to Ryanair operations in the region, but can they build their future on such kind of speculations only?

Let's see Ryanair's view on the current situation. A short quote from the new presenation: "(we) plan to double traffic and profits by 2012". And as cited by the press: "Ryanair will respond as always with lower fares and aggressive pricing in order to continue filling its seats". A delusion, dear gentlemen! Nothing new, this remedy will not work any more. When the demand weakens, lowering the fares is not the only one factor that should be considered. Want to make the route between, say, Haugesund in Norway and Bremen in Germany profitable? Haugesund has just 30 thousand inhabitants. The planes on such a route can only be filled by giving these people the opportunity to change in BRE and continue towards e.g. Italy or France. Why not give the passengers from Finnish Tampere or Polish Wroclaw some destinations in Spain via HHN, or maybe Czechs twice-a-week connecting flights to Portugal? It's not unthinkable to charge them €10 or so for making this connection viable, it could work. The policy of "aggresive pricing" is in current situation simply not enough.

[mika3]

New routes from Dusseldorf Weeze?

News - 2008-07-28 Ryanair

[EI-BUD]

Ryanair set back

alot of chat about Ryanair challenges after the announcement of profit declines today and future outlook.

This is an opportunity for Ryanair, they will strip out other costs to become even more lean an operation. Yes there are challenges but the hedging holiday will soon be over for its competitors and Ryanair is best placed to weather the storm due to a strong bank balance and a fast acting management team. This will be an opportunity for MOL to buy lots of shares cheap in the company and these will grow in value as the company rebounds.

Furthermore, there are loads of opportunies in many of Ryanairs markets, they have barely touched the business community in many countries, ie penetration of primary airports, so desperate times will force MOLs hand on this.

As regards a comment that I read above saying that in a challenging economy Ryanair struggle, this has not been the case. Ryanair have progressed the most in challenging times. In hard times people have less money and hence are more price conscious so they will often be led to Ryanair rather than the more expensive competition.

Ryanair will continue to grow and meet its objectives of size and volume by 2012.

I think think that things will be a lot clearer when we get through the winter?

[JadeGoody]

EU1 dont forget that Haugesund is located 85 km from Stavanger, and 120km from Bergen!

[PAXboy]

befree

Ryanair are also upsetting lots of PAX who have already booked for flights that have been canned. I think it is the start if a downward sprial.

Pax can be upset but there are enough of them. This is NOT the downward spiral - for they will find new ways to save money and make mooney. For an that decide they will never fly RYR again, there is a new generation of pax along every year that want to spend less money. They have pre-eminent status and visibility. Expect them to continue.

[Charlie Roy]

New routes from Weeze

• Ancona
• Birmingham
• Dublin
• Faro
• Gothenburg
• Manchester
• Riga
• Santander
• Berlin-Schoenefeld
• Tenerife
• Oslo

[Seat62K]

It's interesting that there have been no comments on the abtn.co.uk link above (post 2211). The idea of "zero bag" flights is intriguing and is, to a degree, a logical outcome of the airline's encouragement of cabin baggage only/web check in. On the other hand, I would imagine that a lot of income comes from checking in bags. The idea that a premium might be charged for "zero bags" flights is risible: on what basis could you charge more? The article mentions faster turnarounds and less congestion. The opposite might be true if more people try to take luggage into the cabin because it cannot go in the hold. I can't see passengers paying a premium for this (but their employers might....). Interesting, though, that this would seem to indicate Ryanair's growing interest in business travellers (evidenced too, perhaps, by the plan to introduce check-in machines). Now, a frequent flyer programme - that might take off......(and, yes, I know, the "old" Ryanair had one!).

[peter we]

I fail to see the benefit of quicker turnaround. Why would business travellers care about that? And are any of Ryanair destinations viable business destinations?

[Sikpupi]

I can't see the point in getting rid of hold baggage????? First of all...it money for old rope for Ryanair. With a 40 minute checkin close... there is plenty of time for the bags to be reconciled and put on baggage trolleys.

AND...it couldn't be many airports whereby Ryanair pay 'per baggage handler'. This baggage handling is included usually in their 'airport charges (!)'...so they couldn't expect to make savings on utilisising a few less baggage handlers!!! Same for Checkin Desks and forcing people to use On-Line Checkin. They are not paying per 'Checkin-in Girl'......!! Maybe at the major airports (all 3-4 of them!) they have Checkin Desk costs ..but the majority of their airports do not! So going down this route of NO BAGS is not a cost saving excercise....

Personnally - I feel they could save Millions by saving on wasted newspaper advertising space on full page ads slagging off all and sundry ...or even advertising fares at 1c followed by '+ Taxes' and 'Trms & Conditions apply' eg (Travel on Tues before 10am and return on Mondays after 10pm ...oohh and book by midnight tonight!). A waste of paper .....at least the Newspapers loves Ryanair ...ttey're making money from them I hope.

[Crusher1]

After much chasing about my booked and confirmed tickets RYR have finally agreed that all flights from VLC are cancelled for 6 weeks Nov-Dec and tell me I will get a refund.

There is nothing on their web site about this.

Would I have been offered a refund had I not been able to tell "customer services" exactly what was happening with these routes? Probably, but I suspect very much nearer the date when finding an alternative may prove difficult. My impression was that they wanted me to accept a flight to a substitute airport, a refund was the last option offered.

Being a member of PPRuNe obviously has it's advantages.......

[peter we]

Ryanair withdraws 30% of planes from Stansted - Times Online

[lexoncd]

In simple terms the market has changed. In the way the market provided an opportunity for Ryanair it has now changed so much so that Ryanair must review their offering to the market.

They now need to be upfront on all charges and force others to do likewise. if they do as they say they will win other wise adios mol....

[peter we]

They are going for broke with a price war

Ryanair heads for red over Michael O'Leary price war - Times Online

Mr O'Leary said: “If there is not going to be growth in demand we have to take share from our competitors.”

However, the combination of increased supply, falling demand brought about by worsening economic conditions and high costs has worried analysts. One said: “Creating a price war will help drive some carriers out of business but this is a very high-risk strategy because Ryanair is blowing up its own business in the process.”

[Facelookbovvered]

MOL will soon be history, that said a more customer focused Ryanair (like Southwest in the US) would be a much bigger threat to the other operators, you can have new aircraft, run them on time, but if you continue to treat your customers like ****, some will stick and after a while the whole operation get a sort of smell thats not pleseant to be around.

Lets hope is dash for market share is better thought out than his stock buy in Aer Lingus or his thoughts on oil price futures, fast becoming a joke me thinks

[pee]

To my mind, such a price war in the current situation it's not only a very high-risk strategy, it's simply insane. Moreover, a campaign like that would not be a shock nor surprise to anybody, as FREE fligths are being advertised almost constantly. MOL's possible efforts to dazzle the public by further controversies or personal arrogance are doomed as well, we've seen it before, we almost expect it to happen again in a next statement or during a press conference. The only thing we do not expect him to do is, as Facelookbovvered put it, the creation of a "more customer focused Ryanair". So, maybe, dear MOL, you can impress us [only] by doing just that?

Btw. I'm in favour of those connecting flights. With the current fuel prices, I don't have any hopes for a direct low-cost connection from Finland to Spain. I pay double the single fare to get South via Hahn or Bremen. Many thousands more would do the same, they just fear to proceed without any guaranty to be actually delivered there. It's where the "hidden" sources of potential passengers really are.