Do we have any news on new routes / bases?

Santander-Paris is official.

BVA - Gutenburg City also announced

Still no mention of PIK-BGY and PIK-CIA for the winter?

think there pulled for the winter, unfortunately

The fact is that Ryanair will put its aircraft somewhere else at the first sign of a better deal, or if they don't fill them, or whatever. Just look at what happened in SNN; FR were paying well under the published rates and still couldn't meet their own promises.

Personally I feel that the government should scrap the travel tax, and instead put a 50% levy on all additional charges added to the base fare charged by airlines. It'd be interesting to see how Mick would react to that one :)

I have heard a rumour that Abertis Airports (owner of LTN, BFS & CWL and operator of others) may be looking at Barcelona El Prat, the basics of the info was that Abertis would be running the airport. This would replace AENA.

Lead on from this is that Ryanair are in discussions with BFS airport. So within the context of Ryanair now having a 5 aircraft bases at El Prat, is there some developments coming from BFS + Ryanair?

EI-BUD

That is one route BFS does not need - BCN. If EZY bring back Luton, BFS does not need FR.

Please cut out the politics! The drift from Ryanair is NOT acceptable and many posts have been deleted - and will be again if it continues. We might close the thread too so be warned. Stick to the topic.

does anyone think that after olearys comments that he will look to get int0 more primary airports, that ryanair at GLA is going to happen? even if ryanair have the main maintenence hangar and basically paying nothing to use the airport? handling, power units, landing fees, parking fees, baggage, its all for free, opinions please

I don't really see Ryanair moving to Glasgow. If they did, let's be honest Prestwick as a commercial passenger airport, dies (again!). Hence he can demand anything from PIK and assume he'll get it as he knows that BAA Glasgow will still want a commercial return in the mid term. PIK don't have the same business model.

What he might do, is start a couple of routes from continental bases into GLA to put the fear of God into the management at PIK.

I notice that there are no huge "Ryanair" titles on the hangars. Are they like the Polar hangar, owned by the airport and leased to Ryanair? If so, I wonder who is taking the risk on this.

Forgive my ignorance, but are you saying that PIK is not making money, or that PIK has lower costs per unit passenger and can therefore afford to charge its customers lower fees ?

Actually this is your opinion which is fine but it's not actually as simple and clear cut as you imply. What MOL and Ryanair say and do are not the same thing. I don't recall anyone seriously suggesting that I fly Ryanair on business to save money. If they were the most convenient then yes, but for price God no!

Let stewardesses land planes.
Passengers standing up.
Pay for the toilets.
etc etc

Sure Ryanair will move into new markets but in this particular case, there's nothing to be gained. PIK is already 45 minutes on a subsidised direct train service from Terminal to City Centre.

I think PIK will have a good future serving the West of Scotland and their never ending fascination with the same old places. Personally I am going to miss BHD and already miss ORK, SNN and BOH but if that's what they need to do for the base to be viable then excellent.

Second one I would say. They have to focus their whole operation in a way that supports the customer that allows them to survive. GLA adapt from Continental all the way to easyJet. Horses for courses!

Why should Ryanair move to GLA from PIK?

In the absence of a rail connection to Glasgow International, Prestwick is a grand alternative, the train from the airport leaves you right into the centre of Glasgow in 40 minutes and only costs £3.

The time for a GLA base has been and gone. Jet2s decision to get in their for April 11 suggests that there will be no FR competition. If anything, the GSM void will now be filled and it would be good to see Jet2 doing a good job at it. I believe summer 10 has been a success for FR at PIK, so if it isn't broken; don't fix it. EDI is achieving the main concentration of growth for FR in Scotland and will hold on to it's 6 a/c through the winter with possible further growth penciled in for Summer 11. If GLA get's anything, as Skipness suggests, it may be a few routes served from other bases. STN is dropping down to one a day from PIK (didn't there used to be 9 services per day at one stage); so maybe a route like this is better served from GLA where the majority of London business traffic resides.

“It’ll be an evolutionary process,” he said. “When fares aren’t being reduced every year in 2013, 2014, 2015 there’ll be more of a focus on quality, service, customer satisfaction and all that, because the prices will be rising.

From the bloomberg article.

Its all well and good making a statement like that, but when you have been burned once by ryanair you go ok, twice, at a push but 3-4 times being burned, screwed in charges, cancelled flights, the general careless attitude that ryanair have about their passengers I find it hard to think that business travellers will move to them.

Let me ask you this, if Ryanair had a good level of customer service, treating the passengers and staff alike well, how many more people would travel with them. 73 million passengers a year, what is the number for those that just refuse to fly ryanair?

I have taken the same flights sometimes paying 2 cent, sometimes paying ¢100. Is there any difference in the service? NO, it generally average. Getting people to pay that ¢100 on a regular basis with no improvments wil be difficult.

airbourne - will the bean-counters in finance in most companies who are always looking for ways to cut costs ignore the possibility ?

Get the airport pair and timings right, make the fare a significant discount to traditional carriers, remove the cheap+nasty image, build a website for corporate travel management, and businesses may well take notice.

If easyJet can do it, then there's no reason as to why Ryanair can't do the same.

Nothing to do with inability to get any slots, useful or otherwise, at these airports then? :rolleyes:

Here we go again. MOL talking to Irish Times (in the Friday Interview):
No, thanks. This populist-style erudition can't get my attention, really. Neither the iteration of "charging for toilets" or "let's take out the co-pilot" issues. What could we filter out of the interview? Maybe this: “We don’t need to grow out of Dublin, thankfully,” or perhaps this: “Aer Arann will go bust . . . It’s a subsidy junkie airline that can’t make any money. They still got €13 million for the [PSO] routes and still can’t make money. The subsidies are insane”.

Another, somewhat intriguing subject could be found here:
Interesting indeed. In which country one has to sign a deal with the GOVERNMENT to open bases there? France perhaps? Poland?

Isn´t in France a judges decision due how they treat the long-running dispute concerning the payment of pensions and health care contributions for french based FR pilots? The topic that was threatening the MRS base?

If that is going pro RYR a couple of french bases are imminent!

FA10