Banjul
 

Then why not to Gatwick as scheduled on the 3G website

Because Titans base is STN, aircraft is positioning back after operating for them

Anna Aero are questioning the future of Air Berlin at STN:

airberlin to launch Berlin services from London City Airport predicts anna.aero (or possibly Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart) | anna.aero

Apparently MAG are expected to announce a deal with Ryanair over landing charges at Stansted. Unfortunately, I don't know much else about it.

Ryanair to grow stansted traffic by 50% in 10 years
 

http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryana...al-at-Stansted

4 NEW ROUTES (BORDEAUX, DORTMUND, LISBON & RABAT)
43 BASED AIRCRAFT (UP FROM 37)
2,000 WEEKLY FLIGHTS (UP FROM 1,800)
14.5M PASSENGERS (UP FROM 13.2M)

And hopefully this just proves to all of you who think Stansted is a dead dog that you were wrong, and under new ownership, Stansted can now look forward to growing once again!

This is just a return by Ryanair of the aircraft they removed until they got their own way. It's not a dead dog by any means, it's just going to have to raise revenue by other means as it's core base remains overwhelmingly at the cheaper end of the locos.

FRatSTN

Ryanair have no choice but to stay at STN if they want to have a share on London traffic. No other airports in London for them.

True but not that simple. They would not be growing by over a million passengers next year at Stansted after the continued decline if MAG didn't give them an attractive reason to do so. And especially as aircraft will have to relocate from elsewhere because the new aircraft deliveries don't start until September 2014.

Ryanair to cut Stansted fares in drive to reach passenger targets | Irish Examiner

Announcing the deal with MAG at a London press conference, Mr O’Leary said charges were still “very high”.

He added: “We’ll be cutting some capacity at other airports for summer 2014 because there’s now incentive for us at Stansted to grow aggressively.

“Stansted’s already our biggest business but it’s about to get an awful lot bigger.”


Some other interesting quotes...

Mr O’Leary said it expected to grow passenger numbers by a million a year over the first seven years of the deal, but admitted that fares and margins will have to fall, and some services will have relocate from other airports.

Mr O’Leary also said Ryanair was working with the airport to help attract long-haul airlines.

Many ways to negotiate............being direct and doing it is one.

Raise revenue by extra throughput is easier than by continually raising prices and pushing business away...........doubt there will be that much additional cost to increasing airport by a million.

Now if only Border Agency woke up and staffed the airport correctly it would be good. They are a shambles with inadequate staffing and a hostile attitude problem to passengers arriving.

Development of a family line for people with kids under age of 2 (none myself) would be a good idea.......amazingly that have seen it abroad where Pax push people with very young kids to the front as a matter of course.

Consequences of the Ryanair growth announcement:

Stansted becomes less attractive to new airlines due to the market strength of the dominant operator.

Ryanair represents an even larger proportion of STN's operations.

MAG are buying business - always a worrying strategy. They are obviously realizing they overpaid BAA.

As usual, Mr O'Leary is laughing all the way to the bank!

Agreed but this is a consequence of the commercial imperative of the last wave arriving pretty much en masse, meaning the "staff" need to put their cuppas away, drop the crossword and get back to work, at midnight. I mean that's not a great job for anyone....
Welcome to London, sorry you've missed the last train, bus to Stratford anyone? Been there, done that....
LGS6753 is right, but you know what? I think it's all good, STN is getting back to where it was a few years back, drop the delusions of long haul and get back to doing what they do quite well. A Ryanair experience in a modern terminal building, that's pretty rare !

Sadly were it drop the cuppa and run to your desks then it would be ok. On more than one occasion late at night I counted half the booths unmanned.

I assummed Border Agency was a service rather than an a Govt anti visitor initiative.

I watched a B Agency official come out heading to where a mum had a crying baby in arms and toddler by the hand, thinking fair play he will bring her forward as queue had taken 35 minutes to get to there. Having travelled with kids its not fun in situations like this.

Moron got most upset about someone daring to have taken a photo and ignored the mum despite getting asked can he bring her forward because of baby / toddler by other passengers.:ugh::ugh:

Depends whether you want it to be negative or not.....

IF your biggest customer is growing, you can grow as well, if you stifle their growth they will do it elsewhere and you won't.

Why P*** off your biggest customer when not required.

MAG Stansted cannot afford to upset Ryanair. This IS good news.

Yes it's not ideal that Ryanair will become increasingly dominant at Stansted. But at the end of the day, it's much needed growth, investment, employment and gives more choice to consumers.

Ryanair is really the only quick fix, or short-term solution to promptly address Stansted declines and MAG would be highly stupid to turn it down.

Thomas Cook will more than double seat capacity next year, but while that's only very little in terms of passenger numbers, it shows that other airlines are willing to commit to Stansted.

Let's remember MAG have only been here for six months. In that time they have got an £80m terminal development underway, introduced a new "meet and greet" parking option, won back Air Moldova from Gatwick, had Aegean Airlines for the peak summer period, signed a deal to allow growth with EasyJet, more than doubled Thomas Cook flights and now got themselves a major deal with Ryanair.

All things considered I think so far they have done tremendously well! So those of you being so dull, please take all the negativity elsewhere, as it is not welcomed here!!:=

And by the way LGS6753 - You are so predictable that it's laughable! Where is your enthusiasm or optimism? You must live a really miserable life to be so negative about GROWTH in an industry which you should, as a member on this forum, be passionate about!!

The long term deal STN/MAG announced on 13th June with easyjet.......

Stansted pins hopes on easyJet to stem decline in passengers - Telegraph

Does it still apply in light of FR deal?

FRatST your enthusiasm is laudable but there are people on these boards who have seen this sort of thing before. It's not about growth to increase choice, that's a by product, it's about profit. MAG have to make back the money from somewhere that they no longer get from FR and EZY in charges. Hence there will be more charging for parking, pick up, drop off, trollies, looking out of the window and breathing. If you discount Peter, Paul must pay. It's not religious, believing in your airport like a football team, it's a business.

Stansted airport owner admits it could be run for £5m less - Telegraph

Or maybe MAG are just making the cost savings that BAA could have done years ago?

In terms of profits, BAA had always had the strategy to pass on all the costs of operating/running an airport and funding huge infrastructural developments to the airlines through raising landing fees and airport costs, even if that does send business away. They get away with this more at Heathrow as airlines operating there are never going to want to move away, because it's the hub and obtaining slots are very valuable there due to the lack of them. All that happens is that those airlines then just pass the higher costs onto the passenger! In my opinion that's an awful way to do business!

MAG have taken the sustainable option. They have invested a reasonable amount, with other funding from elsewhere to improve terminal facilities and agree reasonable costs with airlines, adding much more value to the airport through effectively offering better facilities and at a lower cost (where the airlines can then REDUCE costs for passengers, so in this respect, making it cheaper for people to fly from there!)

The strategy is that MAG can now encourage MORE PEOPLE to spend MORE MONEY in those facilities invested in, boosting profits through retail as well as existing facilities like car parking, drop off charges etc. through the EXTRA passenger demand. It will not necessarily be through "Ryanair style" charges like paying to use a trolley, or a toilet!

Came through Stansted this week, first time for a while.

Previous excellent drop-off point from architects' original plan now closed - now have to enter what was once part of car park, well away from terminal and at bottom level.

Taxi (and anyone else) had to pay £2 to drop us off - seemingly doubled if you are not out within 10 minutes.

Luggage trolleys are indeed now charged for, with coin lock mechanism. I had no relevant coins and thus had to manhandle suitcases all the way up ramp and into terminal - where drop-off entrance (at northern end) is at opposite end from all the check-in desks (at southern end).

In one of busiest months of the year at a very seasonal airport, main restaurant in departures area closed for building works.

Thinking of attracting "proper" airlines ? - In Your Dreams, Stansted.

All well and good if your airport handles passengers that are receptive to the retail and parking offer.

Unsurprisingly, however, Ryanair pax rank among the lowest in the industry for airport spend therefore it’s hard to see how MAG are going to make a return on this arrangement.

Funny how that is because on outbound Ryanair flights from the UK you tend to only see teas and coffee's being served on-board with some people brining their own food on-board. On flights back just about everyone orders food eg. sandwiches, snacks, hot food etc.

Why? Because the extortionate prices in airports in Spain and Portugal in particular make people buy on-board rather than in the airport, to the point where sometimes it feels like a big picnic event on the plane.

One must only assume that Ryanair passengers must be buying in UK airports. I certainly do! €2.70 for water on Ryanair? €4.50 for a premium sandwich? No Thanks! Just get a Meal Deal from Smith's in Stansted Departures.

€4 for water in Faro Airport? €6 for a bag of Malteasers? No Thanks, €2.70 and €3.50 respectively on Ryanair! See the trend?

I disagree with you JonEMA, Ryanair passengers seem to be very good at buying at UK airports because the prices are often lower than onboard. It's those who have inflight meals with Thomson, Thomas Cook, Jet2 or Monarch pre-booked that don't spend a penny.