Ryanair - 7

[The Real Slim Shady]

Market forces: Mrs Thatcher introduced the concept. Enjoy.

If you own an airport, it is just a large asphalt field unless you have airplanes bringing passengers or freight.

If the airline / airlines wish to negotiate from a position of some strength....market forces.

You can dislike whoever you like and you can dislike their business practices: that is why you are a pilot and open to exploitation.

[johnnychips]

Reply from an idoit

I did think someone called JS Mill, and probably others as well, explained the theory of a market economy long before Mrs T.

The market economy also implies that the owner of resources can decide what to do with them; and Ms V, for whatever reason, has decided that she doesn't want to deal with Ryanair.

[pee]

They're probably going to have to start being civil to some of the bigger airports soon then.

You don't have to be analyst to realize that at least one end of the route should be located near the bigger population centre to be successful, especially when using 189-seat aircraft and providing no connecting flights.

FR need London, even if not flying to Heathrow. In Ireland MOL is fighting with DAA simply because any other apt in the country cannot offer enough profitability. Without Beauvais or anything else close to Paris also France is less attractive, and so on. MOL has been successful getting deals in MAD and fortunate enough not to be thrown away from Ciampino so far. He will start at El Prat if everything goes well and will reduce the traffic at GRO and REU if necessary. FR could also succeed in CPH when the new low cost terminal is completed and should consider BTS as a good “two-in-one” airport serving nearby Vienna too. “Proudly” present at SXF but a bit unhappy not allowed to have an “own” airport near Berlin while BBI fees are set to rise. But not everywhere the same is possible.

FR didn't succeed in making good deals in places like AMS, WAW or LIS (so far). Also HEL belongs to this group. Of course, even in HEL Ryanair could make money by linking it with some of its present bases and thus becoming eligible for new route discounts. There are for example some 30 thousand Finns living in Spain alone, many more travelling occasionally, lower prices would lure numerous to become FR customers. But besides, it seems unlikely they FR could develop there especially well. In a way or another also Finnavia tends to protect the domestic carrier, hence the Finnish capital city is not an easy goal for anybody else.

FR could create some indirect opportunities instead.

Does it mean, that negotiations with Lappeenranta failed?

To my knowledge, these negotiations were successfully concluded this year, at least one new route was to be announced in October or so – nothing happened. We are witnessing new routes announcements every week now so it's still possible the first route to Lappeenranta will be among them. With FR however, you can't be sure before you see the actual schedules on the website.

don't you know share of Russians, travelling with Ryanair from Tampere?

Not more than 10-15%. Nevertheless I think it's pretty much, taking into account the distance between St. Petersburg and TMP. One can also observe many Russian cars parked near the airport, every day.
If Ryanair wants to intensify its activity in Finland, that's obviously the opportunity I have mentioned.

Living too far from the Russian border I do not travel there regularly,. Last time I've been to Russia in 1990's, it was so cheap there 15 years ago... But now so much has changed. Let's take the Taloussanomat newspaper from yesterday. “Only McDonalds is cheaper in Russia when compared to Finland”. “Finland is a shopping paradise for Russians these days, everything is less expensive here (in Helsinki)”. If Helsinki is so competitive, what about Paris, London or Frankfurt?

The opportunity for FR could lie in getting Russians from St. Petersburg via Lappeenranta-kind of airport elsewhere to the EU for shopping and leisure. Former Leningrad could possibly create bigger passenger streams than HEL, in both directions, with no need to argue with anybody trying to get the privileges and fight the competition elsewhere.

[Charlie Roy]

Charleroi

From next summer Ryanair plan to add 3 more aircraft at their Charleroi base, bringing the total number of aircraft to 11.
They also expect to add approximately 10 new routes. (I am very curious...)

Ryanair va baser trois avions de plus à Charleroi - lesoir.be

[MUFC_fan]

Is Ryanair's 'online check-in fee' a different name for a fuel surcharge?

[darren1]

Of course it is. MOL is the biggest hypocrite out there, abuse airlines for adding a fuel surcharge yet has the audacity to charge for everything else himself. Unfortunately people and airports fall for his nonsense.

[mickyman]

darren1

60+ million every year...............

MM

[DILLTHEDOG]

Why 60+ Million ???

The reason 60+ million fly with Ryanair is not because they like MOL or Like Ryanair, or the way the do business, or due to their excellent customer service record ( Not )

It's because they are Cheapest !

I wish Ryanair would stop trying to justify everything they do by the number of Pax that fly with them.

I actually admire MOL, but then I don't have to work for Him or do business with Him. ( Thank God )

[mickyman]

dillthedog

60+M put 'up' with this nevertheless.
You cannot argue with the figures.
Whether you LIKE the figurehead
of the airline or his methods IS irrelevant.
I dont like WW but it doesnt stop me flying
with them.

MM

[eu01]

A new Catalan airport will have FR?

Alguaire Airport (Lleida) will open on 17 January. One of the airlines to fly in will be Ryanair

The announcement came from the Regional Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Works, Joaquim Nadal.

The airport has an investment of more than 95 million euros and aims to boost tourism in the area, as with the airports in Girona and Reus.

For the next ten years is estimated to carry about 395,000 passengers a year, connecting Spanish and European cities, and generate annual revenues of close to 47 million euros. It will create hundreds of jobs, 60 of them direct.

Vueling will offer two weekly flights to Paris and Ryanair will operate three frequencies per week as well as another company, which has not made its name public yet.

If the rumour about FR coming to El Prat is true, Lleida would be Ryanair's fourth airport in Catalonia. While the place could be of some value to the tourists, Lleida itself is a pretty small city with approx. 130,000 inhabitants.

I have some doubts if this €95 million investment is economically viable, time will tell. Some reports show however that "Spanish airports had some productive inefficiency in their operations, and should have been able to cope with more travelers and aircraft, and that "economies of scale cannot be properly achieved at the sizes studied for Spanish airports, meaning production could be higher, and cost less, if the airports were larger and served more aircraft, passengers and cargo. [Spain should] redirect its airport policy, with operations being concentrated in a single airport in some areas, focusing on just one airport out of the existing three".

It's obviously of no concern for Ryanair, but even for them the profitability of the operations to some of these destinations could be questionable.

[Tom the Tenor]

Any likelihood that FR would fly to Huesca in northern Aragon rather than, say, Pau, France? I note that Iberia/Air Nostrum are starting some seasonal flights from Palma, Valencia and, I think, Seville to Huesca. I guess this is in connection with the ski season at Panticosa and Formigal ski stations.

[davidjohnson6]

Tom - Huesca is only an hour from Zaragoza by (infrequent) train. To get FR to fly to Huesca could well require local Govt paying a *lot* of 'marketing support'.

While a similiar argument may apply to Turin + Cuneo, I would imagine that non-domestic demand for skiing in the Italian Alps is somewhat larger than that of the Spanish Pyrenees

[Keyvon]

@ tom

at the moment, Huesca airport caters only for inbound charter flights run by Pyrenair (spanish domestic destinations such as La Coruna, Madrid, Valencia and Palma) on behalf of Air Nostrum, as well as thomson holidays (which is using a Monarch Airlines weekly charter flight leaving from Gatwick). Passengers flying on these flights are bound to the local ski resorts (namely Formigal, Panticosa) and they mainly travel on a package tour.

[pee]

Copenhagen Airport’s new low-cost concept, CPH SWIFT, is now materialising. The construction of a new building to provide facilities for continuous growth of low-cost traffic will start soon.

As Ryanair too expressed its interest to be one of the future users, you might be interested to learn more on the CPH website.

[geordiejet]

Expansion

Hey. I'm seriously considering applying to be cabin crew with FR. Can anyone tell me where FR are expanding in the coming months? I know I could be based anywhere, but I'm trying to work out the likelyhood of where this would be. So is anywhere in the UK receiving new based AC?

[Charlie Roy]

So is anywhere in the UK receiving new based AC?

From March 28th 2010: Liverpool +2 and Bristol +1.
But there are constantly cabin crew vacancies arising at all existing bases (UK and non-UK) through people resigning, moving base, getting pregnant, getting sick, getting fired.
The only bases where the chance is almost zero of a placement are probably Shannon and Cork. I don't know the ins and outs to be honest, but best of luck with your career.

[potash]

Fr - fue

My source who is very rarely wrong is hinting that flights to Ireland/Spain/Germany and Uk will be operated from fue based aircraft now that will be a shock to the system we shall see

[Charlie Roy]

Krakow expansion

This article (in Polish, sorry) expects 10 new routes for Krakow:
Ryanair uruchamia nowe po??czenia z Krakowa - Rzeczpospolita

Madrid, Girona, Malaga, Charleroi and Hahn are mentioned.

[Seljuk22]

NRN gets a 8th a/c in March
new: Lappeenranta (Finland) and Szczecin (Poland) each 2 weekly & increased frequencies to Gerona, Faro, Ibiza, Malaga and Trapani
Ryanair kündigt zwei neue Strecken für März 2010 an: Ab Düsseldorf (Weeze)* dann auch nach Lappeenranta (Finnland) und Szczecin (Polen)

[pee]

Lappeenranta

Welcome to St. Petersburg-West!

Ryanair are extremely prudent starting just twice-weekly flights on the NRN-LPP route. Well, the airline underestimates the potential coming from across the Russian border, presumably. Never mind, let's wait and see. I live pretty far from Lappeenranta, but intend to fly therefrom to be able to estimate the percentage of Russians aboard.

Edit. Btw. Our beautiful Saimaa lake is nearby. If you don't find any reason to travel to Russia, just come in the Summer to see the Finnish nature at its best.