Ryanair - 7

[racedo]

GO used to have a flight to there but not sure what their load factors were like.

[Fernanjet]

Iceland
Hi guys,

What do you think about Ryanair flying to Iceland, at least from the UK?
Possible, or not possible?

It's possible of course as they have the aircraft spare.....

but i can't see it happening in reality as i can see a big enough demand to warrant much of a service there tbh.

[Charlie Roy]

Are there Open Skies between the EU and Iceland?

[airhumberside]

Yes. Iceland is in the European Economic Area which as far as traffic rights are concerned I think usually means Iceland are treated as an EU member

[pee]

a batch of announcements not only in Sweden

Oops! Very far from that. There are quite a few routes pending (also this NYO-BRI mentioned) but... did you notice the change of attitude there @FR? Not so optimistic any more, more cautious as it seems, maybe trying to improve yields?

[babemagnet]

Ryanair aircraft are not equiped to fly in oceanic airspace and the pilots are not trained for that

[tangarizie]

What do you mean by "oceanic airspace"? What's the difference between flying to Canarias Islands and flying to Iceland?

[underfish]

Ryanair plans Finnish routes to attract Russian travelers - Irish, Business - Independent.ie

Quote: Ryanair is in talks with Finnish airports near the Russian border on flights to help the airline attract more Russian customers.

pee, which airports it could be, excepting LPP?

[Robert1992]

Tangarizie, Ryanair flies through France and Spain to get to the canaries. Other operators that are equipped will fly airways through the oceanic airspace. There is no alternative to fly to Iceland without going through oceanic airspace therefore at the moment they cannot fly there.

[fivejuliet]

Oceanic Airspace in that there's no radar control. Its not the pilots might not be trained its that not all acft have a HF radio anymore in the RYR fleet

There is a VHF route to Iceland via RATSU alright. So its do-able certainly.

[dublinaviator]

Originally Posted by Robert1992

Tangarizie, Ryanair flies through France and Spain to get to the canaries. Other operators that are equipped will fly airways through the oceanic airspace.

Not always, they also fly through Shanwick airspace sometimes.

[pee]

pee, which airports it could be, excepting LPP?

Err... What the hack? There is in fact no other airport situated close enough to target St. Petersburg.

Theoretically very well located is Kouvola-Uitti, with 2000m runway and close to the St. Petersburg - Helsinki highway and railway line. That is, however, a strictly military airfield. Then there is Savonlinna airport, with very beautiful surroundings, but substantially further from Russia's population than LPP. Varkaus with a rwy long enough but not much else around. The biggest in the region, Kuopio-Siilinjärvi, has an excellent runway 2800 m long and some population nearby, but it's located already over 400 km from St. Petersburg. Finally Joensuu, closer to the border but still too far from St. Petersburg. Anything more towards North (Kajaani, Kuusamo) has practically no catchment area across the border. The "plans" look like a bluff, unfortunately.

Targeting Russians? Look at the eastern part of Germany, the former GDR. Remember how many Soviet troops were stationed there? To harness any remaining sentiments, creating a W-pattern route base-SXF-LPP-SXF-base would be a brilliant idea.
¨

[EISNN]

The biggest in the region, Kuopio-Siilinjärvi, has an excellent runway 2800 m long and some population nearby, but it's located already over 400 km from St. Petersburg.

I was in Helsinki recently and there are train AND bus services from Helsinki to St Petersburg.

Coaches (buses)

So I don't imagine a 400km journey would be too much for people to cope with if they really want to travel.

it fits with the FR mantra - "if it can be in the middle of nowhere and costs next to nothing we'll fly there."

look at beauvais, charlerois, hahn, torp, weeze etc etc etc.

I'm not slagging off FR. In fact I'm saying they've been able to fill the seats and make it work from what many - including me - would consider obscure places. If it works it works. It's making some people happy.

[underfish]

pee, thank you. Kuopio is as far from Spb, as Tampere and it even takes less time to reach Tampere because of the 100-120 kmh highways almost all the way.

Don't you know if there are any plans to convert Kouvola-Uitti to civil or military/civil airport? Savonlinna is great place to come, there are thousands of rent cottages out there, and it is only 300 km. from Spb. The only real option, imho.

EISNN, 400 km by bus is not huge problem but border passport and traffic control longs 3-7 hours sometimes. Why are you talking about HEL?

[pee]

"St. Petersburg West :)"

I was about to answer: No, I'm not aware of any plans to convert Kouvola-Utti airfield to military/civil airport. Meanwhile however I made a brief search and was able to find an interesting text dated 11/2009 (in Finnish) with the Kouvola City Council unanimous resolution to increase the level of operation at Utti and start the civil traffic as well. It's a long way to achieve it, but hopefully could be done...

Soon it will take just 95 minutes to travel by the express train from Kouvola to St. Petersburg with passport control taking place inside the ICE. Moreover, the travel time between Helsinki centre and Kouvola railway station has already been shortened to 1 hour 23 minutes. If the upgrade of Utti airfield proves successful that could become a viable option even for travellers visiting the capital city of Finland(!)

[racedo]

it fits with the FR mantra - "if it can be in the middle of nowhere and costs next to nothing we'll fly there."

SNN is another airport which springs to in in that regard

Not slagging you off but it does fit into the middle of nowhere idea.

[EISNN]

@UNDERFISH

I was saying that I was in Helsinki - not HEL- but just stating the fact if there are bus and train services from Helsinki Central Train Station to St Petersberg, ergo people up that neck of the woods are willing to travel that long and as so as you mentioned probably willing to put up with the long queues for immigration and customs. So if speculation about Kuvola Utti airfield being upgraded is true well I'm sure it would make a possible destination for FR. I don't think my speculation isn't too off the wall ........ is it?

@RACEDO

well RACEDO I think you should reconsider your last statement. SNN is a fair bit closer to towns and cities than some of the aforementioned airfields. Limerick city is 25 mins by bus, Galway city is 1 hour 10 mins and Ennis is only 20 mins and all of them are served with very frequent bus services served by at least three bus companies. And there are bus services to other surrounding areas also. And did you know that there are currently 1 million people living within 1.5 hours of SNN and that will increase later in the year to 1.6 million when the rest of the motorways and road works are completed/upgraded - courtesy of CSO Ireland figures.

And don't worry I wouldn't dream of thinking you were slagging me. Why would I think that? One shouldn't take anything personally on 'web' forums or indeed any forum.

[Keyvon]

FR is expected to make an important announcement tomorrow for its base in Cork, with a bunch of new routes including Alicante, Girona and Faro, amongst others. This could be also seen as their latest challenge to Aer Lingus.

Aircraft based are set to increase from 1 to 3. It would look like a big switch of capacity from its Shannon base, which has been deeply scaled back this year.

[escapeeRYR]

ekbi

Three new routes annonced out of Billund today, bets are on Billund to become first danish base within a year or two.

[davidjohnson6]

Unusually candid words from the CFO

Ryanair Plans First Fare Hike in Four Years, CFO Says (Update2) - Bloomberg.com