Frfly, you seem to be in the know with FR, any idea why they have cancelled STN to IBZ for the winter?
Also, if its only a few euros in tax extra, why don't they just add it on for the punter to pay?

Press conference in Limerick tomorrow. End of ryanair at snn?

What was the actual justification for cancelling so many flights today?

Just a small example but todays LBA-AGP flight was cancelled by Ryanair last night, despite the aircraft arriving 35 minutes early today from Knock, it was parked up doing nothing all afternoon. Some passengers hadn't even be told, and the ones that had been told tried to buy seats on the Jet2 afternoon Malaga service, though not many succeeding as it was nearly full already. Did they just chop flights with light passenger loads?

I also noticed several cancellations that do not even route over France, any explanation as to why these were cancelled too?

Money talks so people will do all they can to get the price to a minimum - that is why the likes of Ryanair succeed - by charging low fares they get people who would not be able to pay the high legacy carrier fares to almost impulse buy. If you pay £5 and don't go you have not lost a lot

To all the Ryanair knockers, I have just dug out a 1984 ticket from Belfast to London - £49 return, Saturday night stay, no changes permitted. I recently flew to London for £12 return all in, 26 years later. That is down to the likes of Ryanair.

YET Another hilarious attempt at saying FR is in trouble.

Course if you do the numbers back you will see in 2002 they were flying 1.1 Million in August 2002 v 7.68 Million in 2010.

Funny how you keep away from BA thread which showing a decline and pretty much every other airline.

So why did you leave FR ?

Ryanair will be saving crew hours and fuel with cancellations of unprofitable mid-week flights. Many of the pax will end up flying the next day so that FR keep the income but mos pax would then never take a FR flight again.

With less money to go round getting a little smaller is the correct policy for big airlines. It stops then having to dump seats onto the market which kills ticket prices. Ryanair is now a very big airline and should be adapting to the reducings size of the market.

Racedo - do you work for FR and is your name mike?

Who paid the APD and taxes?

New route coming: GRO - LCA, twice weekly, beginning December 1st. At least something positive for Girona that otherwise faces a few significant reductions there.

Ryanair looking to expand once more but Airbus ain't so pleased...

Airbus Won't Engage In Talks With Ryanair - WSJ.com

All I hope is that the 1p flights make a glorious return!:p

Something comes to my mind when you say this: At HHN, which is now owned by the regional government of Rheinland-Pfalz after Fraport bailed out, it's well known the regional government is effectively paying 5 Euros per passenger in subsidies to keep it running (3 million passengers resulting in 15 million loss per year). But on the other hand the federal government in Berlin collects 8 Euros per flight now. Which effectively means the 5 Euros move straight from Mainz to Berlin. For the FR forum, this is maybe not too off-topic: the HHN-FRA-Frankfurt city shuttle bus was 'demoted' to go to FRA T2 which is awkward to drive in and out with the big bus, drivers are quite vocal about this (costs them 10min all in all). Punishment from Fraport, and surely very welcome by LH. I'm one of the rare profiteers of this as BE and BA go from FRA T2. I use FRA mostly as FR have cut MAN and BHX from HHN, of course. Rumours for years FRA would get an EZY base when the new runway is open, so FRA and HHN would become proper enemies. We're not getting excited though either EZY or FR will open many new routes in Germany now of course, due to the tax.
BTW, if HHN users read this: To connect to trains, consider the Mainz or Mannheim shuttle buses, as it can now be a 30min hassle to get from the HHN shuttle at FRA to the trains (which leave FRA T1-ish).

Ryanair Launches Duty Free Sales on Four Dublin Routes to the Canaries(Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Tenerife)

News : Ryanair Launches Duty Free Sales on Four Dublin Routes to the?

Heard FR are to expand services to Bulgaria & Larnaca for Summer 11 i think STN would have to be in there with Larnaca, maybe even DUB to Larnaca who knows?

Anyone else hear anything about this?

Ryanair can't have any flights between London - Larnaca. This was part of the deal with LCA airport and FR.

Funny clip
 

This is quite a funny clip from Youtube, it doesn't mention Ryanair but it seemed the most appropriate thread to put it under as I'm sure you'll agree:-

YouTube - FASCINATING AIDA - Cheap Flights

Enjoy

Another link for anyone who is not subscribed to the wall street journal!

Ryanair CEO says airline contemplating order for ?up to 300 aircraft? | ATW Online


Also some more nonesense about one pilot flying in this as well.

Nothing know yet about the situation at Maastricht as from January ?

FR can fly London-Larnaca (it would be illegal under EU law to prohibit them). However they won't get any discounts from Larnaca airport, or any other form of support. But if FR feel they can make STN-Larnaca work when paying LCA's normal fees there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it

Uh, wait - since when does any airport have to do business with an airline? Surely it's up to the commercial people to decide whether they wish to sell their services?

An airport could state we refuse to do business with Y because we happy with Y and therefore we refuse to do business with you in any way.

Course expect then a visit by EU Cartel investigating bods.

FR2487 - Ibiza to Leeds Bradford
 

Any idea as to why this flight diverted to Doncaster this evening???. Other flights have been landing into Leeds Bradford tonight.

MOL was on it and dropped in to make it a base 25 a/c opening 1stNov :E

Flap problems, needed a larger runway to land.

The Observer quotes MOL saying: "Ryanair must move away from low fares". In the article we can read among else:
"It becomes more about the brand game". Oh indeed? I'll quote my own post from 2008:And of course, the recent "pee-fee-style" propaganda didn't help the brand either.

Let's wait a year or two and we'll hear about the connecting flights (the issue of such necessity in selected hubs I've been rising for years). For all skeptics: it must happen to improve the demand, the aircraft usage (LF's) and yields. If that conception does not fit the FR business model, this model has to change, other options are scarce. Moving away from low fares can be achieved only partially. FR has educated people to associate "Ryanair means flying cheap", hence the fare level can be risen just in a very limited way. One of the solutions: giving pax flying from smallish end-destination more choices. Not only, say, Hahn, CRL and Barcelona for these guys, but also a few more connections via one of these bases.

MOL is smart to reduce the aircraft usage in winter in order to reduce possible losses. Even smarter, he could have tried a few indirect routes. Just to test them in practice.

Sorry for the late reply, I would say the STN-IBZ is going due to it not creating strong enough yields in the winter. It will be done on a year-on-year comparison with 2009/2010 winter, and then taking into account this years economic climate.

Remember for all airlines, especially Ryanair - the winter is not about what profit you can make, but how you can minimise loses, so the profit from the summer months is not hit too hard. In Ryanair's case the airline is going more and more seasonal as traffic is generated from two main sources, VFR and leisure. Business traffic helps sustain airlines such as easyJet and flyBE in the winter, and Ryanair dont pretend to chase after those customers. As in MOLs interview though expect a big change in the RYR business model in a few years, Ryanair has the lowest cost base now its time to adapt the business model, raise yields and increase profits. I would expect to see a lot of the nowhere - nowhere routes to slowly get phased out in the next 5 years, as more airports like BCN and MAD beg for the "ryanair effect" to regenerate declining traffic numbers at airports with major overcapacity. Ryanair are one of 2 airlines in the industry best placed to do this. Easyjet missed the opportunity at BCN, but with Stelios still ranting on about expansion I feel they have been slightly more cautious with new bases this year.

The 'Ryanair effect' for major airports is next to worthless. It may increase passenger numbers in the short-term, but will not bring in worthwhile income and profit as Ryanair won't pay landing fees at a reasonable rate and cheepskates who want to travel for £10 are not going to spend much in the terminal either. If they've any sense they will show Ryanair the door like Manchester did rather than lose money and upsetting other airlines by pandering to O'Leary.

The €10 Irish Travel tax may be scrapped in the December budget. It will be reviewed between now and December. It will examine if airlines closed routes from Ireland and the fall in tourism has been because of the tax. It will be interesting to see how Ryanair will react. They have said they will add more aircraft and routes from DUB if it is scrapped. They may be some hope for Shannon if it is scrapped.

Scrapping the tax will not just benefit Ryanair but Aer Lingus, Aer Arann, all the airlines flying into Ireland, all the airports and, of course, the passengers and prospective passengers

Ryanair must move away from low fares, says O'Leary
 

Hot towel for you sir?

That's £5 thank you sir.

Actually, a good idea for MOL, provided he can pull it off.
It is generally called....revenue enhancement, IE: offer a slightly premimum product for those that are willing to pay the price.
On a much larger scale of course, there is one quite noteable airline in SE Asia that has made this idea work for many years...SQ.
The SQ chairman at the time, JYM Pillay, started the ball rolling, and it paid off big time.

I guess the stand up seating and pay lavs aren't going to work out.

Low Cost ! Who is he kidding?
 

The cost of the ticket may be low but by the time you have put a bag in the hold, had a Tea and a bite to eat, got the bus to the city you realy wanted to go to you will have paid as much as with one of the majors.

What MOL is telling you is that he is being forced out of the "low service" sector because he can't get enough money out of the rif-raf!

And pilots must move away from low paying jobs

Oddly enough, the range, that is precisely what transpired at SQ...some years ago.
Low fares, low salaries initially, but smartly moved up scale, once the premium passengers started to appear (with senior 707 Commanders on the old high salaries..,training new young First Officers...the bucks flowed in, alright, big time.
I watched it all happen, from my SQ B707 LHS perch.
Make no mistake, MOL is headed in the right direction alright, however, IMO he has outlived his usefullness, in hos position....already.
JYM Pillay (already mentioned, chairman SQ) positively knew when the time was proper for him to step aside, and let others...carry the weight.
We shall see if MOL is as well, informed.
50-50...up 'til now.:hmm:
My bet...he'll **** it up.:ugh:

This is an interesting interview from Michael O' Leary.

However, it's absolutely no surprise that FR fares will have to rise - because the business model is flawed. How is it flawed? - It is a short term model that aims for immediate Revenue and Profit maximisation and requires sustained annualised growth in order to be successful. It relies upon volume revenue generation rather than true yield maximisation.

FR have very limited scope for any further product unbundling. The model is simply unsustainable in the longer term without an increase in fares.

Low fares is their ONE and ONLY true point of differentiation. When that is gone - what airline would you choose?

One with now higher fares and total disregard for it's customers or others with relatively low fares which cares a great deal more about customer service and has several other key points of differentiation? The answer is quite clear and predictable.

That is exactly why FR's recent statement regarding the potential for 300 aircraft is nothing more than a publicity stunt in order to inflate the share price to the maximum possible value before Michael O' Leary eventually departs with FR revenues having reached their peak.

FR has revolutionised aviation without a doubt and is a real commercial success story - but the current exceptionally low fare base cannot be sustained in the long run as growth becomes more limited.

Regards,

EI Premier

Bye Bye Ryanair!!

(Or perhaps just O'Leary)

One cannot polish a turd.....

I will choose Ryanair. Because their product is realy terrific - of my 36 sectors with them this year I had delay only once, and even that was only one hour due to snow on runway. Most of the time I had already been outside of a (usually convieniently small) terminal by the schedulled arrival time. I had worse experience with other carriers.

And I like free seating, I usually manage to get a seat that I like (with a good window position related to a seat).

Interestingly, Beags, I saw an episode of Myth Busters many months back where they did just that - polish a turd! ;)

The turd in question (lion?) had much more substance to it than O'Leary ...... :)

MOL has said often that the future of aviation in Europe will include a few carriers, including LOCOs Ryanair and Easyjet. What is relevant is that while Ryanair may be significantly more profitable than Easyjet, you will find that Easyjet has higher sales and higher average fare. Easyjet operate alot less routes than Ryanair and in many markets have focused on adding frequency rather than routes.

The difference is that Easyjet can be the airline for the business man, on many markets they offer primary airports with frequency. It is probably true that Ryanair offer good frequency on many routes but in the last number of years many new routes coming along were 3/4 per week, suitable mostly for price conscious leisure travellers.

What MOL may be hinting at there is that they will look at big primary airports to operate from where good passenger supply is available.

Anyone who thinks that there is a flaw in MOL strategy would be quite naive. They have cash to burn and can use it to clear out competition.

I have always said that the brand needs to be elevated. Ryanair can be cheap and nasty but it is punctual, good aircraft, strong financials and an extremely flexible business model.

MOL has recognised in the past that building the brand of Ryanair on something other than low fares would have to be done by his successor. Maybe he will embrace this himself. Maybe they will rebrand the airline as a new and caring company!

Many of the locos have moved away from their price orientated slogans
Easyjet moved to Come On Lets fly and Aer Lingus (ok debatable if LOCO) from Low Fares way better to Enjoy your flight. So what would Ryanair's new slogan be?

The World's Favourite Airline!!! Or is that belonging to BA?? :O