Ryanair - 6
Join Date: Feb 2008
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The good old days where only the few could afford to fly...what Ryanair have done for the travelling public is amazing...yes they've bent the rules here and there and they've challenged the traditions of the industry..but look at the success of it, the jobs, economies and lifestyles it supports. I dont agree with Ryanair on every policy, and believe me, I work day in day out with Ryanair, but I can see what they have done and to be honest good on them.
I wish people would recognise that they are a business, not a service. They are a business before they are an airline if that makes any sense...their business is mainly flying people around europe. They aren't the BA or the Lufthansa for Ireland, nor do they try to be. They want to ferry people from A to B for a good price.
If VLC couldnt be a part of that then that is a shame, why should FR lose money in such difficult times at a base that clearly doesnt work for them. Its a shame for those involved at VLC, but thats just business.
I wish people would recognise that they are a business, not a service. They are a business before they are an airline if that makes any sense...their business is mainly flying people around europe. They aren't the BA or the Lufthansa for Ireland, nor do they try to be. They want to ferry people from A to B for a good price.
If VLC couldnt be a part of that then that is a shame, why should FR lose money in such difficult times at a base that clearly doesnt work for them. Its a shame for those involved at VLC, but thats just business.
Join Date: Aug 2006
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What amazes me here, it's the (uneven) geographical spread of the bases around Europe and the concentration of bases in some places very close one to another. Two bases around London it's nothing wrong, these do not really compete. But Alghero and Cagliari on the same not-densely populated island? Or Bologna and Forli? As you know, Forli will not be realized. I believe it's better this way. Otherwise it looked as if FR was unable to make the choice, like the young man who coudn't choose between his two girl-friends. Yeah, some might prefer to have two or more girlfriends in the same city, but the smaller the city is the riskier this situation usually tends to be. 
Gerona / Girona
Before we end up with a shouting match...
Gerona airport has historically been used for holiday charters.
No it hasn't, unless by "historically" you mean the past few years. "Historically" there were a few flights each summer and the airport was unutilised for almost half the year.
I believe this is discussed further by WHBM
Barcelona is about 90 mins drive away and has a large airport supported by a hefty city population. One can think of Gerona airport as really a sort of overflow facility for Barcelona that happens to be near some beaches.
One can think this, but it isn't true. the beaches at Barcelona are within 2 kms of the airport; at Girona the nearest beaches are 55 kms away.
I agree that Barcelona is closer to a beach, but if people are coming to the region by plane, they will tend to choose those nearer Girona. I believe from NW Europe, Barcelona tends to get more of the city-break-focussed holidays rather than beach-focussed.
The area that's nearer to Gerona airport than Barcelona is largely rural.
Completely false. Past the farming area, and you'll find the area near Girona airport (by the way, Girona is the correct spelling) is a mass of industrial estates, light industry especially, and I usually do the drive (SALT to GRN) in 10 minutes. OTOH, the industrial area of Barcelona isn't anywhere near the airport (which is south of the city) but is north of Barcelona, about an hour's drive away.
Yes, there is light industry, but looking at the province as a whole, the population is 598,000 while the area is 5,910 sq km. This gives a province population density of 101 people per sq km. Perhaps the word rural was not be the best choice, but certainly compared to counties in the UK, the province as a whole would be an area of low population density - it's similiar to Shropshire. The province of Barcelona has a density of around 630 people per sq km.
My apologies for making the cultural error of using the Spanish spelling rather than Catalan spelling
Valencia on the other hand is a large city. Not quite as large as Barcelona, but definitely a big city none the less. It also has a large airport.
And you think Girona a small city ?
The city of Valencia has a population of 800,000 and Valencia province has a population of 2.3 million. The city of Girona has a population of 86,000 while the province has a population of 600,000
Small is a relative term, but it seems Valencia as a city has a population 9 times as large as Girona while the province has a population about 4 times as large.
Unlike with Girona, where originating passengers are few - and thus an airline cannot get bi-directional traffic, Valencia is a commercial centre, has the tourist attractions, is on the coast, and has locally originating traffic.
The majority of SLF's using Girona are (a) tourists staying on the Costa Brava and (b) businessmen from Girona, followed by (c) from Barcelona. Hardly "few originating passengers". As for the implications that Girona doesn't have the tourist attractions - think again, better still, go there.
The implication was that Valencia as a region has more offices from large corporations (i.e. business passengers), a bigger population than Girona province and thus can provide ample locally originating traffic for airlines. Like Girona it has plenty for tourists, so has ample opportunity for inward traffic. My comment about tourist attractions in Valencia was meant to demonstrate that it's also capable of pulling in its own tourists - the beaches in Girona province alone are capable of pulling in substantial tourist traffic
In sum: another posting from someone who doesn't know what he's talking about.
My original post was intended to demonstrate that the Valencia regional Govt made absolutely the right decision not to give Ryanair all the subsidy they wanted (even if MOL wants to make a big public fuss about it) - not to denigrate Girona. I'm very sceptical as to the opinion of dicksorchard that the Valencia Govt should have given Ryanair everything they wanted.
Gerona airport has historically been used for holiday charters.
No it hasn't, unless by "historically" you mean the past few years. "Historically" there were a few flights each summer and the airport was unutilised for almost half the year.
I believe this is discussed further by WHBM
Barcelona is about 90 mins drive away and has a large airport supported by a hefty city population. One can think of Gerona airport as really a sort of overflow facility for Barcelona that happens to be near some beaches.
One can think this, but it isn't true. the beaches at Barcelona are within 2 kms of the airport; at Girona the nearest beaches are 55 kms away.
I agree that Barcelona is closer to a beach, but if people are coming to the region by plane, they will tend to choose those nearer Girona. I believe from NW Europe, Barcelona tends to get more of the city-break-focussed holidays rather than beach-focussed.
The area that's nearer to Gerona airport than Barcelona is largely rural.
Completely false. Past the farming area, and you'll find the area near Girona airport (by the way, Girona is the correct spelling) is a mass of industrial estates, light industry especially, and I usually do the drive (SALT to GRN) in 10 minutes. OTOH, the industrial area of Barcelona isn't anywhere near the airport (which is south of the city) but is north of Barcelona, about an hour's drive away.
Yes, there is light industry, but looking at the province as a whole, the population is 598,000 while the area is 5,910 sq km. This gives a province population density of 101 people per sq km. Perhaps the word rural was not be the best choice, but certainly compared to counties in the UK, the province as a whole would be an area of low population density - it's similiar to Shropshire. The province of Barcelona has a density of around 630 people per sq km.
My apologies for making the cultural error of using the Spanish spelling rather than Catalan spelling
Valencia on the other hand is a large city. Not quite as large as Barcelona, but definitely a big city none the less. It also has a large airport.
And you think Girona a small city ?
The city of Valencia has a population of 800,000 and Valencia province has a population of 2.3 million. The city of Girona has a population of 86,000 while the province has a population of 600,000
Small is a relative term, but it seems Valencia as a city has a population 9 times as large as Girona while the province has a population about 4 times as large.
Unlike with Girona, where originating passengers are few - and thus an airline cannot get bi-directional traffic, Valencia is a commercial centre, has the tourist attractions, is on the coast, and has locally originating traffic.
The majority of SLF's using Girona are (a) tourists staying on the Costa Brava and (b) businessmen from Girona, followed by (c) from Barcelona. Hardly "few originating passengers". As for the implications that Girona doesn't have the tourist attractions - think again, better still, go there.
The implication was that Valencia as a region has more offices from large corporations (i.e. business passengers), a bigger population than Girona province and thus can provide ample locally originating traffic for airlines. Like Girona it has plenty for tourists, so has ample opportunity for inward traffic. My comment about tourist attractions in Valencia was meant to demonstrate that it's also capable of pulling in its own tourists - the beaches in Girona province alone are capable of pulling in substantial tourist traffic
In sum: another posting from someone who doesn't know what he's talking about.
My original post was intended to demonstrate that the Valencia regional Govt made absolutely the right decision not to give Ryanair all the subsidy they wanted (even if MOL wants to make a big public fuss about it) - not to denigrate Girona. I'm very sceptical as to the opinion of dicksorchard that the Valencia Govt should have given Ryanair everything they wanted.
Join Date: Nov 2000
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My original post was intended to demonstrate that the Valencia regional Govt made absolutely the right decision not to give Ryanair all the subsidy they wanted
A compromise would have been a far better outcome.
Join Date: Jul 2006
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A compromise would have been a far better outcome 
.
Ryanair do not need to compromise, There are Airports all over
Europe asking Ryanair to start ops to there Airport.
.Ryanair do not need to compromise, There are Airports all over
Europe asking Ryanair to start ops to there Airport.
Join Date: Sep 2003
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Originally Posted by daz211
Ryanair do not need to compromise,
There are Airports all over Europe asking Ryanair to start ops to there Airport.
.
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Emergency landing in Bremen
News was posted in a local forum: A Ryanair plane heading for Budapest early this morning had to return to the airport of Bremen. Reason wasn't specified only qualified as "urgent". Fire crew awaited the plane.
ASFKAP and Ciampino - you talk utter rubbish. I have visited friends in VLC a few times. The people of Valencia are losers here - they have lost a dozen or so destinations and the chance to get to many parts of Europe direct at reasonable prices. They are now stuck with transfers through Madrid at reasonably shocking prices (or other hubs). Phrases about sticking up to the bully boy and returning to the good old days are sheer snobbery nad equivalent to Marie Antionette and 'let them eat cake' - hopefully you will go the same way (metaphotically of course!!).
Join Date: Feb 2007
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When is the Summer 09 Timetable published
Hi All
I am wanting to book FR flights for next Spring. Does anyone know roughly when the complete Summer timetable is usually first published??
Thanks in advance for any info
I am wanting to book FR flights for next Spring. Does anyone know roughly when the complete Summer timetable is usually first published??
Thanks in advance for any info
VLC subsidy
IMHO...
Does anyone know when the new airport at Castellon (about 75 mins drive from Valencia) opens ? Runway will be more than ample for a 737-800 - might Ryanair be interested in flying there ?
Suppose that the regional Govt gives Ryanair a big subsidy to operate flights to VLC. Then Lufthansa and all the other airlines at VLC want their chunk of subsidy as well. To what extent should the taxpayer subsidise privately owned airlines ?
If Ryanair don't base planes at Valencia, who is to say that another airline won't make it a hub instead ?
Potentially, any of Thomsonfly / TUIFly, easyJet, clickair, Vueling or Transavia in theory might be interested without requiring a subsidy.
Does anyone know when the new airport at Castellon (about 75 mins drive from Valencia) opens ? Runway will be more than ample for a 737-800 - might Ryanair be interested in flying there ?
Suppose that the regional Govt gives Ryanair a big subsidy to operate flights to VLC. Then Lufthansa and all the other airlines at VLC want their chunk of subsidy as well. To what extent should the taxpayer subsidise privately owned airlines ?
If Ryanair don't base planes at Valencia, who is to say that another airline won't make it a hub instead ?
Potentially, any of Thomsonfly / TUIFly, easyJet, clickair, Vueling or Transavia in theory might be interested without requiring a subsidy.
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Does anyone know roughly when the complete Summer timetable is usually first published??
Between now and end 2008 all schedules should be online, for the entire summer period, and as correct as they are ever going to be...
737-800 delivery schedule
Does anyone know the delivery schedule for FR from Boeing (possibly allowing for the current Boeing strike) ?
Apologies if this seems a bit back-of-the-envelope...
The average sector length for both FR and U2 is about 2 hours. Add 30 mins for turnaround, gives 5 hours for a bi-directional trip. FR flies each route on average 6.2 times per week - meaning each route takes up 31 hours of plane usage per week. If a plane is used from 7 am to 10 pm, 7 days per week, this means 105 hours of usage per plane. Alternatively, this means about 3.4 routes per plane
Yes, there will be downtime for maintenance checks and about 4% of the fleet needs to be on standby in case another plane goes technical, but given that some planes are actually flown from about 6 am to 11 pm, and the first pax loading / last pax unloading can occur outside these hours, my guess is this should very roughly balance out.
Based on analyst presentations, FR have about 35 planes being delivered per year, which means about 120 net new routes need to be announced every year - or slightly more routes allowing for the periodic culling of unprofitable routes. Of course, FR may choose to sell some older 738 planes.
MOL presumably has agreed with Boeing to some extent that planes get delivered at times when he wants and not uniformly throughout the year - deliveries in November being sub-optimal. Unless the recession turns really nasty, MOL will probably want to have all planes flying all day every day in the summer season.
Given a delivery schedule, one can work back about 3-4 months to see when batches of routes are likely to be announced.
Is anyone able to provide info on the delivery schedules ?
Apologies if this seems a bit back-of-the-envelope...
The average sector length for both FR and U2 is about 2 hours. Add 30 mins for turnaround, gives 5 hours for a bi-directional trip. FR flies each route on average 6.2 times per week - meaning each route takes up 31 hours of plane usage per week. If a plane is used from 7 am to 10 pm, 7 days per week, this means 105 hours of usage per plane. Alternatively, this means about 3.4 routes per plane
Yes, there will be downtime for maintenance checks and about 4% of the fleet needs to be on standby in case another plane goes technical, but given that some planes are actually flown from about 6 am to 11 pm, and the first pax loading / last pax unloading can occur outside these hours, my guess is this should very roughly balance out.
Based on analyst presentations, FR have about 35 planes being delivered per year, which means about 120 net new routes need to be announced every year - or slightly more routes allowing for the periodic culling of unprofitable routes. Of course, FR may choose to sell some older 738 planes.
MOL presumably has agreed with Boeing to some extent that planes get delivered at times when he wants and not uniformly throughout the year - deliveries in November being sub-optimal. Unless the recession turns really nasty, MOL will probably want to have all planes flying all day every day in the summer season.
Given a delivery schedule, one can work back about 3-4 months to see when batches of routes are likely to be announced.
Is anyone able to provide info on the delivery schedules ?
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Crazy! Next winter they'll need to store 50 planes.
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New Routes???
As oil price drops will planes still be grounded over winter or will new routes open in next few months.
Any rumours? , if you look at destinations map on website big gaps in Eastern Europe or maybe into North Africa apart from Morocco.
Lets not forget possibility of transatlantic as well but all quiet at the mo on that.
Poss rumour that Gerona ( Girona ) will be first base for transatlantic as massive expansion started eg more gates and facilites.
Anyway lots of planes means lots of routes and lots of people travelling
Bravo Ryanair
Any rumours? , if you look at destinations map on website big gaps in Eastern Europe or maybe into North Africa apart from Morocco.
Lets not forget possibility of transatlantic as well but all quiet at the mo on that.
Poss rumour that Gerona ( Girona ) will be first base for transatlantic as massive expansion started eg more gates and facilites.
Anyway lots of planes means lots of routes and lots of people travelling
Bravo Ryanair
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Ryanair
Just been reading the Ryanair news on the valenica hub and it states that the aircraft will be moved to an exisiting hub which will be announced this week...
Anyone have any ideas which hub is going to get an extra Ryanair aircraft.
Ryanair’s investment of over $140m will be moved to another base in its network which will be announced next week.