Ryanair - 8

[BigFrank]

Ryanair Catalonia unreal-Barcelona CORRECTION

Though my previous post about a 50% cut in routes at Girona over the winter was correct, the suggestion that they will continue to operate at Reus was wrong. Current plans are for a complete withdrawl from the latter at the end of October.

The war of words between the Low CLASS Carrier and the Generalitat de Catalunya continues.

[Jamie2k9]

Ryanair are operateing from Reus in 2012. From other bases.

[anna_list]

Ryanair vs Wizzair. Are the gloves finally off?

Hello,

It has been mentioned here (and elsewhere) many times in the past that Ryanair and Wizzair seem to have tried to avoid each other as much as possible. Some have pointed to the involvement of TPG in both companies as a possible explanation.

In the last couple of days Ryanair have launched Poznan to Barcelona, Oslo RYG and Rome CIA; Eindhoven to Gdansk, Krakow and Kaunas and also Vilnius to Barcelona, all of which have a substantial overlap with existing Wizzair routes. Do you believe in coincidences, or is it really the case that there are very few untapped markets left for LCCs in Europe?

It's not one way traffic: Wizzair also recently launched Luton to Brno and Lodz, which were Ryanair monopolies to London until that point.

I count over 30 routes where there is a substantial overlap between the two carriers. Here's the list - it's mainly routes from Poland and Lithuania at the moment (Ryanair gave up Budapest, Prague and Warsaw and are weak in Romania and Bulgaria compared to Wizzair):

W6 Route / FR Route
---------
KTW - BGY / KRK - BGY
KTW - FRL / KRK - BLQ
KTW - FCO / KRK - CIA
KTW - BCN / KRK - REU
KTW - MAD / KRK - MAD
KTW - BVA / KRK - BVA
KTW - TRF / KRK - RYG
KTW - NYO / KRK - NYO
KTW - LPL / KRK - LPL & KTW - MAN
KTW - LTN / KRK - STN & KTW - STN
KTW - DSA / KRK - LBA
KTW - EIN / KRK - EIN

POZ - BCN / POZ - BCN
POZ - FCO / POZ - CIA
POZ - TRF / POZ - RYG
POZ - LTN / POZ - STN

WRO - FRL / WRO - BLQ
WRO - LTN / WRO - STN
WRO - TRF / WRO - RYG

LCJ - LTN / LCJ - STN

GDN - EIN / GDN - EIN
GDN - TRF / GDN - RYG
GDN - DSA / GDN - LBA
GDN - LTN / GDN - STN

VNO - EIN / KUN - EIN
VNO - BGY / VNO - BGY
VNO - LTN / VNO - STN
VNO - BCN / VNO - BCN
VNO - FCO / VNO - CIA

RIX - TRF / RIX - RYG
RIX - LTN / RIX - STN

BRQ - LTN / BRQ - STN

Are we seeing the outbreak of a serious skirmish? If Ryanair are being predators (perish the thought!), are Wizzair strong enough to withstand the pressure (as they did successfully on Gdansk to Liverpool and Stockholm in the past)?

[j636]

Wizz
WRO - FCO
FR
WRO - CIA (from nov)

FR operated it for 2 months earlier this year and they dropped it so why will it be different this time round. Wizz will withstand FR a lot longer than many other carriers.

[FR-]

Its been said that wizz is on its way to EMA, moving its flights from DSA. Wizz air managers were in EMA about a month ago, and a team from EMA was in BUD about two months ago. Be interesting to see what kicks off over the next few months.

fr-

[johnnychips]

The Catalan government are accusing FR of wanting to 'lowcostitzar' El Prat - what a lovely verb. This doesn't tie in with their idea that Girona and Reus should be the low-cost/holiday airports and El Prat be the hub.

Having said that, Go/Easyjet have operated there for years, and the new and old terminals put together look rather underused, though a second runway was certainly needed; so I suppose BCN is glad to accommodate Ryanair - unless their competition forces established operators out.

The following link is in Catalan, but you should get the drift. Girona airport thinks it will attract other airlines in future.

ryanair

[peba]

wizz have a monopoly in cork too,hopefully the gloves will come off.its about time ryr put the flag flying in ireland again.

[vytgri]

W6-FR overlapping markets

Not to forget the following:

W6 VNO-DSA / FR KUN-LBA
W6 VNO-LTN / FR KUN-LTN/STN/LGW

KUN and VNO is only 1hr by car

[BigFrank]

Ryanair unreal-Barcelona this coming winter

Although Ryanair may well be (currently) planning to return to Reus in spring 2012, I believe they plan (currently) to have no flights there in the period Nov 2011 - "March" 2012

[barossavalley]

Go ahead for OFT investigation

London Competition Appeal Tribunal has ruled that the Office of Fair Trading is “in time” to investigate Ryanair’s minority shareholding in Aer Lingus under England’s merger control legislation.

[pee]

FR vs. Wizz

wizz have a monopoly in cork too,hopefully the gloves will come off.its about time ryr put the flag flying in ireland again.

I sincerely believe the competition is good for customers, but under one condition: such a route must have enough potential for both competitors. Otherwise, there could be unnecessary bloodbath, losses and a possibility of simultaneous retreat, including dropping routes in question.

Most of the about mentioned routes could be too fragile to sustain the competition. Like e.g. Oslo - Poznan, where not only FR and Wizz, but also Norwegian is about to start flying directly and SAS introduces new links via CPH.

And indeed, Wizz is not doomed to become the looser, not everywhere. Their costs are probably as low as Ryanair's and they have one additional advantage; several bases in Central Europe. You don't claim that the costs of maintaining a base in Poland are equal to these in Norway, do you? Polish workforce must be cheaper and taxes lower, aren't they? If that's correct, why on Earth FR has not yet decided to use these opportunities? In a few years these costs might rise there as well...

PS. I don't know the precise numbers, but I visited Poland this year. They told me some examples of wages there. A qualified nurse earns 600 euros per month. Argh!

[jpthomas72]

KUN and VNO is only 1hr by car

There's of course also the excellent train from Kaunas to Vilnius centre (1:15).
But the problem is not KUN vs. VNO, it's that FR entered VNO now and competes very directly there, replicating the routes. Normally, FR would shut everybody out of the sky in such a situation. However, the good thing is that Wizz has a A320 based there, now effectively the one and only scheduled Lithuanian plane (in very sense apart from its reg) at the capital city's airport, I think people appreciate this. Wizz flies to London in the morning, while FR goes in the evening, can be nicely combined as one-ways. If MOL gets really angry though, he'll blast Wizz out of VNO with a based jet, then retreat to KUN again. My friends who use BTS say FR has basically ruined that airport. They've had EZY in the good old days, no more.

[vytgri]

@jpthomas72 - correct. And VNO cannot really do anything about it. Ryanair feels challenged on it's own turf, and won't let that go easy...

[Jamie2k9]

This weekend will be Ryanair's bussist ever. Over 550,000 passengers will fly on Saturday and Sunday. Over 275,000 each day.

[fivejuliet]

Bussist? I thought they used planes, not buses

[racedo]

London Competition Appeal Tribunal has ruled that the Office of Fair Trading is “in time” to investigate Ryanair’s minority shareholding in Aer Lingus under England’s merger control legislation.

Pretty much little chance of standing up in an Appeal as on that basis it allows Govts to decide at any point in time to investigate anybodys minority shareholding even after a bid has failed and ignores EU rules.

OFT and its lots never found there was a problem with competition issues in relation to London airports until the day after Ferrovial bought BAA...........which speaks for itself.

Additionally as both companies are Irish and registered in Ireland then I can't see how UK have any juristiction in this case.

Of course if the UK gets its way then they will have to accept that French and German courts have equal rights regarding UK companies in takeover situations which you can be guaranteed City of London will not wish for.

[Jamie2k9]

In court yesterday Ryanair indicated its intention to shut down its Alicante operations if the air bridge problems are not resolved. ALC airprot said they can walk on/off during winter but not the summer.

First Girona, Reus and now Zaragoza. Ryanair said they would leave Zaragoza or reduce services. Currently bookings for flights this winter have being suspended until 15 August. They have solved some problems but others remain. The current contract is due to run out by the end of the year.

[wowzz]

Ryanair to withdraw from ALC

In the court case mentioned in the above post, the FR lawyer stated that the charge to use an airbridge at ALC was €97.62 per hour. Assuming a turn-round of approximately 30 minutes, this would equate to a cost to FR of €50 [rounding numbers up]. I would have thought that the cost of bussing pax to the aircraft would not be significantly cheaper than this.

Is this for once a case where FR are actually fighting over handling procedures, rather than cash? I would have thought that if FR want to get good terms at the new Covera airport, thay would not want to show their hand too soon by walking away from ALC. Or have they already agrred to move to Covera, and are using this dispute at ALC as a smoke-screen, to try and demonstrate to other airport operators that they cannot be pushed around?

[FR-]

Most pax walked into the terminal, so use to pay for, no airbridge to pay for ( I have only ever used a bus in ALC once or twice). Yes we use an airbridge this summer, and paying for it. But it also takes longer for the turn around, something needs sorting.

[RAT 5]

ALC is surely a golden destination in summer, and no doubt has strong demand in winter as well: i.e. a strong profit route. Would RYR really pull out in a fit of pique and forego such an income/profit? I assume they must have firm data about the profits. Considering the pax numbers that visit ALC from many countries I'm assuming decent profits. Will all that be jeopordised for what is a drop in the ocean in the overall picture? Could this be just a power struggle? RYR use bridges at AGP and numerous other airports. What's the fuss here? I think there is more to it. Use some of the EU261 tax to cross subsidise ALC.