Last week it was announced another plane (number 5) to Porto base.

This plane will start operating in March, but only two new routes were announced: Rome, starting in January and transfered from Santiago and La Rochelle, with only two flights/week.

Does anyone know if it I should expect more routes to be announced?

As promised (threatened?!) Ryanair have reopened their base at Valencia. Their winter timetable shows 32 destinations Europe-wide with four to UK. They have Valencia-Madrid, despite AVE high speed trains starting in mid December with ten trains per day in ninety minutes at, supposedly 40 euros return. Could be good competition for our Irishman - keep him on his toes!

Valencia - Madrid
 

I certainly prefer MOL fighting with... well, taxes, fees, politicians ("morons"), airports, other carriers, but do not like him fighting with trains. It resembles me Don Quixote and his windmills, sorry. TheAVE high-speed train will travel from Valencia to central Madrid in just 90 minutes.

I'm not a "crazy green activist", but certainly would prefer trains on that route. Just to remind you, formerly even the Brussels (CRL) - London (STN) flights had to be discontinued in spite of the train travel taking some three hours at the time.

So called route planning strategy is seemingly not the the strongest point of FR. Possibly they didn't even bother to analyze the regional infrastructure development plans.... :hmm:

eu01 - I wouldn't worry too much about Ryanair fighting with trains. The train will not go away, but in a reasonable period of time, the airline will realise that they are losing lots of money on the route and just choose a different route where flying has an advantage instead. It's all part of the capitalist system - to punish those who make stupid decisions with a loss of money.

davidjohnson6
MOL is kind of a penny-pinching capitalist, able to make some really awesome savings and extraordinary deals where you would not have expected the money could be found. But at the same time he openly neglects good research and thorough planning... why? In fact there are not so many unpredictable things on Earth, you can anticipate to a great extent average people needs and potential behaviours.

You can talk of an early "wild" capitalism but also of a modern, much wiser and sophisticated one. There is NO NEED to try blindly and with no expertise what happen if we start this or that arbitrary, what for? It can result in selling tickets for six or twelve months for just a few euros, reducing frequencies, losing money without any logical reason. Right, Ryanair is strong enough to afford it, but there is simply no need for it. Carrying out some research, not expensive indeed, could be in fact another form of SAVING real money. Good research to assess the potential of some new routes could also bring some encouraging hints and solutions where at first sight you wouldn't expect any good results at all (e.g. casus Lappeenranta).

Clearly, I hate leaning on consulting firms where it's obviously costly and unnecessary. Selectively and in the reasonable form the expertise/ research should not be rejected, though.

In life, everyone has to learn some things the hard way. If anything, being hurt occasionally makes us a little bit more human

+1. Proof that MOL has never really suffered any pain :E

"A man who makes no mistakes is a man who makes nothing"

Ryanair's 'babes' have got their bits out again for the charity calendar. Last year's 'making of' video is hysterical!

You could have embedded this video:

You're right, I could have.

As travelweekly (UK) writes, Lebanon courts no-frills carriers, especially Ryanair and easyJet.
Let me tell this straight. Mr Aboud doesn't have to "play ball" with anybody, at least not with FR. Just reduce the airport fees (why not 1 euro per flight or so?) and use your promotional budget to start the marketing support right away, you'll get almost as many connections as you wish.

PS. I'm not MOL's spokesman, by the way :}

Does anyone why Ryanair cancelled the Alicante to Derry route

Just hearing that Ryanair is to significantly expand its operations in Spain, Norway, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Cyprus & Bulgaria next summer as well as introducing new routes to Tunisia & Turkey. Any one else heard this?

When you say "just hearing", you mean you (or someone you were talking to) read this article? :hmm:

^^
How big opportunities are to be found in these countries?

Spain? Well indeed, the sunny destinations will always be viable. But limiting at the same time the activities in e.g. UK, Ireland, France and Germany will generate a kind of asymmetry. Pax want to fly to Spanish resorts from the above mentioned countries rather and not so much from one Spanish resort to another.
Otherwise, in Spain there are some not-quite-necessary airports that would even agree to pay for flying (Lleida, Ciudad Real), but could go bust first.

Italy? Already pretty much saturated. The potential still exists, some risk would be associated with a possible closure of Ciampino that would have a very negative impact on internal activities. Hopefully it won't happen.

Norway? Isn't it too small country to create a "major" opportunity?

Portugal? The possible development is pretty much limited to Lisbon, where easyJet is already ahead of FR.

Greece? Well yes. But are they likely to offer terms good enough for Ryanair? Furthermore, long distances to go.

Bulgaria? Wizz is more advanced in that country so far. Apart from commuting workers, the Black Sea coast could indeed handle more tourists, mostly in Summer though.

Cyprus? The source said: “My own view is that the gap between our positions narrowed because Ryanair decided that it could not wait any longer to implement its strategy for the Middle East”. Less than million inhabitants means mostly the inbound and seasonal activity, however.

Russia? Oh yes, the potential is great, but any "future open skies agreement" is still very unlikely. I don't believe FR will enter Russia, they could make some use of the neighbouring countries' airports rather.

Turkey? Although the potential seems good, the flight distances are not very optimal.
Tunisia? Ditto.

Georgia? We learn that Ryanair “is very much interested” in launching flights to Georgia starting from next summer. Vera Kobalia, the Georgian economy minister, met Ryanair executives in Ireland and was told that Georgia should at first upgrade its Kutaisi Airport in its second largest city and to sign a common aviation agreement with EU. Meeting these conditions would pave the way for Ryanair’s entry into Georgia. Fine, but this country is too small and too distant anyway.

Ryanair closed the Kerry base today.

Another case of the toys being thrown out of the pram cos he didn't win this round against the Government. Shame on the staff who moved there who now have to move again.

Do Ryanair really care about anything other than share price?? Staff, loyalty, business relationships etc etc???

Can't see him winning this one against the Govermment! Picked himself a bad fight this time...

eu01 - I may be wrong, but the tone of your post seems rather more negative than the opportunities that others might see. The following are just random guesses - I don't claim any accuracy on the size of the opportunities presented, just trying to give reason for optimism for Ryanair rather than pessimism.

Spain - can anything be done at any of the other cities in Spain ? Out of 46 million people, there must be residents outside Madrid + Barcelona + beach resorts who want to fly places in Europe.

Italy - is there nothing do-able from Naples or Salerno ? Turin ? Genoa ?

Norway - small population, but wealthy. Norwegian seems to have found plenty of opportunity for flying. Is there room for Ryanair to take a little bit of market share off them in western or mid Norway ?

Greece - has very little in the way of LCC flying. With Olympic and Aegean merging, that leaves just one main domestic carrier. Perhaps time for other airlines to enter the market ?

Bulgaria + Romania - I know that Ryanair and Wizz tend not to compete head-to-head, but will Ryanair really leave these 2 countries almost entirely to Wizz and the currently troubled Blue Air ? Yes, incomes are low, but they are EU members and these 2 countries make for 30 million people

Cyprus - yes the population is small, but being so far south, the climate is good for a big chunk of the year. Malta has a population about half that of Cyprus

Russia - perhaps now is the time to start opening more routes to Estonia and Lappeenranta ?

davidjohnson,
I'm not negative about Ryanair, maybe just less optimistic than I used to be a few years ago. The potential does remain in both “old” and “new” territories. The significant expansion is still possible and indeed expected by many. What I dislike in Ryanair is kind of their attitude: “You don't like us? We can go elsewhere. Look at the opportunities here, there and in Africa too ;).” While the opportunities do exist, the wrong thing in FR policies is the conquistador's way of thinking. It's not enough to exploit one place and after some time just go to another, one has to care about the places you are already recognized, maybe valued in some way. For their own sake the enterprise should do its best to maintain good relations there, to get as much new opportunities as possible and to continue the growth in these “old” places as well.
Look at forestry. Would we still have forests in Europe without managing, growing and protecting them? The resources (as well as the conquering opportunities here in Europe) are limited, unfortunately.

The care about partners and customers as well as the entire imago question are imperfect at Ryanair, expressing it in a restrained manner. What I wanted to highlight here – look at the possibilities you have in the places you already operate. And they are still huge.

It's a very large issue, so let me reiterate just one thing. The potential of small airports. Once fascinated by the opportunities hidden there, FR is now trying to shift the operations partially to bigger places. Well, but there's still much to achieve in there. Just that people from, say, Vaxjo/Smaland, Sweden, will soon be fed up with Weeze/ Düsseldorf and its surroundings and also the perspective of flying every year for the sunbath just to Alicante doesn't suit everybody. They would likely fly with Ryanair again, but elsewhere (Rome, Krakow, Malta, Madrid, whatever) and will probably never be offered a direct connection, it's impossible. Think different, I have to say, look at the opportunities coming with the introduction of connecting flights for such a people. In Germany one doesn't even have to pay a government tax at the airports if connecting flights.

Read this:
“Major opportunities remain in Europe� – Ryanair route director :: Routesonline

22 new a/c arriving in 2011 and 9 are already allocated!? (I guess to FAO, OPO, RYG, Spain and Italy)

Trapani: winter 2 additional a/c. I think there are already 4 a/c at TPS. Going up to 6?

With Eurocypria going bust and Blue Air closed its LCA Base there is plenty of room left for FR.