NEW ROUTE

From December 12th 2012

Carcassonne, Salvaza (CCF) to Paris, Beauvais Tillé (BVA)

When you book with Ryanair the possible additional charges are made very clear, so if you make a mistake then you should just take it on the chin and not moan about it.

I do wonder, though, on why online check-in has been set at closing at 4 hours before departure (LS, by the way, is 5)? Why so early? Given that BA's closes 1 hour before departure it does suggest that it is not operationally necessary.

Airports/handling agents need enough time to sort through the web checks. The FR check in system isn't widely used around the network, airports/agents use their own automated check in systems ie KLM's codeco was widely used by Servisair in the UK in bases. Airports need 2 hours to prep these systems at least. One day all airports might use the FR system and it can be reduced.

I did exactly that last week in Newcastle, except it was train tickets rather than boarding passes. I was also unable to make a pre-booked train trip today. I have a health condition which could explain why I missed both trains, but is that really the responsibility of the train company? Sometimes you have to accept that, even with planning, things can go wrong, and it is easy to look for someone else to blame. For the serious losses, there's always insurance. For anything else, you have to carry enough spare cash to cover the worst case eventuality, or just make sure you don't f&^ up!

Speaking of which, just exactly who should she complain to about MOL's bad language? Afaik, our laws would cover racial, gender or sexuality hatred, but he was merely describing the stupidity of her actions, which I think a Ryanair lawyer would argue is technically accurate. If he called her a stupid b*tch, he might have been in trouble, but he must have a PA to check this stuff with before pressing send, and no doubt he wouldn't have done that.

So how much time does it actually take to re-issue a lost or never printed boarding pass? How much does it actually cost Ryanair to do this?

I'm not suggesting that should bear a direct relationship with the charge, just curious. Is the aim of this fee to keep the check-in process running smoothly or is it simply a device they know will have the 0.2% of passenger who get screwed by it fuming, in which case more Facebook walls, tweets, and free BBC advertising?

Passengers complain about tick bites
 

Bit of a non-story but since someone was saying that MOL was trying to fill planes, people were clearly not the only thing...

Incident: Ryanair B738 at Rome on Sep 6th 2012, passengers complain about tick bites

No matter how deaf to warnings MOL could be, they emerge all too often to be ignored. In today's Independent.ie Liam Fay publishes his point of view afer Ryanair chief executive has described thousands of his customers as "idiots".
The entire text can be found here.

Except he didn't, and wouldn't do that. :=

He called one passenger an idiot, and let the free PR dollars roll in. Kerching! :D

LOVE MOL
 

You have to love Mol, he knows how to get free advertizing:ok:

Quite similar situation as in Tampere. Not enough flights, hence the already accepted plans for a new low-cost terminal to be build by 2013 will not realize. The same should take into account everybody who envisages building new low cost terminals anywhere in Europe. While Spain with its Ciudad Real, Lerida and many else failed investments could serve as an extreme example how the money can be wasted pointlessly, recent whims and dodges of Ryanair are forcing to reconsider the appropriateness of low-cost airport investments practically anywhere in Europe.
¨

Where will Fr end up? It seems they go into airports, then leave when they don't get their way. Eventually they will run out of airports to threaten, where then?

TB

The long-awaited attitude change can finally happen, but when?

Surely every airline will only go to a destination if it makes money? otherwise they wouldn't have a very profitable business......

It all depends how much the airport pay them to fly from there.

Summer 2013
 

Does anyone have any idea when summer 2013 flights are provisionally scheduled to go on sale? I've asked before but to no avail.

Any hints/advice would be welcomed.

Thanks in advance

PP :ok:

"Surely every airline will only go to a destination if it makes money? otherwise they wouldn't have a very profitable business......"

It all depends on how you make your money and how you define the product. Most companies that sell a product make their money from the sales of said item. RYR does not do that, i.e. tickets. They make money via many backdoor routes. MOL even boasted a few years ago that he could make money/profit with free tickets. Hence the rather mafia style of squeezing contracts out of local struggling airports. The bully boy tactics have been rumbled. When everyone stands up and refuses to be cowed into subjugation the might of the many will win the day and the bully backs down. It's beginning to happen, perhaps. RYR needs somewhere to fly their a/c. The airports will not prostitute themselves anymore. RYR will have to find tiny airfields who will, but no one wants to go there, or he'll enter the real world of having to pay the going rate for what you get and need; just as he does to his pax. His business model will have to be modified into the real world sooner than later.

"That's my point, Ryanair wouldn't be coming knocking on your door if they didn't think they could make money out of you so you don't need to let them walk all over you...."

From what they tell us RYR does not go door knocking or cold calling; it's the other way round. Airports have been on the phone pleading with MOL to let they play with his shiny toys. Knowing he has the whip hand he has never hesitated to crack it. He has a philosophy, and enough cash to risk it, that if he puts an a/c into almost anywhere and offers tickets cheap enough the pax will crawl out of the woodwork. For how long is another question, but he'll try it and see. Look at some of the routes he tried and pulled off very shortly, e.g. Clermont F and other small ones; or reduced severely the frequency.

The whip cracking was highlighted at a road show speech given by one of his henchmen 10 years ago. RYR had only 20 x 732's & 10 x Ng's then. An order of 50NG's was in the offing. They hadn't yet got the money power. The philosophy was to promise a new base a 3 year contract, 3 a/c and 2m pax in that time. For that they got zero landing fees and reduced costs. After 3 years the airfield had other customers paying full whack. They sent RYR the new contract as the old one had expired; similar to all the other users. RYR demanded a continuation of the freebee deal. The airfield said NO, so RYR pulled the a/c out and went down the road to the next saliving money dreaming airfield. The presenter was very proud of this strategy It showed strong business acumen.

Look what happened at GRO. A/c reduced to 1/2 when there was a change of local government and the freebee's were reduced. 6 months later, cap in hand, the locals caved in. Make your bed and lie in it.

I am trying to book a ski weekend with Ryanair for next January. There appears to be no availability on any of the routes that I request. MAN to MMG for instance and I cannot find a timetable listing route dates on their website.

Have they dropped MAN-MMG and EDI-MMG?

I have to admit I question whether Ryanair will have any airports left to fly to as they seem to start a route with full fanfare and loads of promises then if the airport dares to increase prices or the route is not performing then they cut the route. I fully understand that they are there to make money but they seem rather short sighted with their bully boy tactics - what goes around tends to come around! Maybe they should consider 130-150 seat aircraft for slightly thinner routes.

This was the time of year when 10-15 years ago they were shutting down at the end of the season rather than having a 12 month operation.

chris - do you mean FMM airport (Memmingen) as opposed to MMG ?
If so, you might like to look at:
Memmingen Airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The page on wikipedia gives a good indication as to which routes at Memmingen are year round / seasonal and when any of them begin or end. You could also try looking at other airports in the area, like Friedrichshafen, Innsbruck, Munich or Zurich to see which airlines take passengers to the UK

Sorry - meant Memmingham.

It's Memmingen ;)
Manchester - Memmingen ends November 6 (Route cut)
Edinburgh - Memmingen is seasonal, so will end beginning of November as well.

"Memmingham". Wow! If an English-language name for Memmingen didn't exist, now it's been created! ;)

Located in the foothills of the Alps, only 70 km from the ski jump in Oberstdorf. I see. The winter period is obviously low season on the slopes, without any doubt ...

Thats er a Launch Pad not a jump, wonder what MTOW is for the launch pad and will a 738NG fit down it. :E

ASFKAP

Good to see that you have not lost your sense of humour !

MM

Was it not Tony Ryan who said "you can't fly people from nowhere to nowhere".

I suggest that the failure of these two airports, and of CR in particular, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Ryanair.

That would seem to make sense, especially as it would also open up airports where you couldn't get a 738 in/out, but it would go against the whole mantra of keep it simple, one type can fly all routes.

I think being too simple means that a lot of the routes they closed might have worked on a B737-700 at a minimal additional cost.

Assuming at least 50 737-700 aircraft were in any subfleet to spread any extra fixed costs, and allowing for an average 1,100 km bog standard route flown 6 times per day, standard depreciation, and equivalent discount from list price what's the approximate difference in total cost per year of buying, fueling, crewing, maintaining and operating a 737-700 compared to a 737-800 ? How much reliance is currently placed on absolute interchangeability of aircraft that would be partly lost with the existence of a second type ?

Or to put it another way, how big an impact would an additional but slightly smaller aircraft really make to Ryanair ?

New ski route: TRN-DUB every saturday effect dec. 22nd.

TRN-STN increase from 7x to 10x: extra flights on mon-fri-sat... in these days first flight is at 10:25 am and second one is at 10:35 am... are they completely crazy in FR scheduling office??

Does anyone know why, after a couple of years, the only route RYR has into NCE is from Dublin? Curious. They tread on ez toes every where else, and it would surely be a prime route from NL, De. and the Scandinavian countries. What's so special about the Dubliners, or is it just to poke AerLingus in the eye?

You seem to make good conclusions, why hesitating to accept them?

My assumption was based on using a smaller type to cover thinner routes and get in and out of smaller airports. I was essentially talking about the Flybe fleet with Ryanair's route network and business model.

I guess a smaller 737 family frame would be a half way house between these two options.

Either way, my understanding is that these options are evaluated all the time, and that the gains they would offer are not sufficient to justify the expense of fleet modification. Now knowing MOLs bargaining ability, would now be the time to snap up a deal on some cheap Sukhois - or is that a bargain too far?

NCE is to expensive for FR but there DUB route is very profitable but there has being large reductions over the last few years and it has now being made seasonal. Aer Lingus have the majority market share on the route.

Most Nice pax have the money to not fly Ryanair :E

fr-

issues in Spain
 

Quite a bit if media coverage in Spain in the last week, relating to Ryanair and safety.
A number of emergency landings including one with a loss of cabin pressure. I believe Spanish civil aviation authority had something to say about these...

Another one reported today, a 738 enroute to TFS landed in MAD.

Surprised this info hasn't been reported here already.....

Ei-bud

issues in Spain
 

I've noticed that as well, but it's (too) easy to become accused of pointless mocking etc. Anyway, there were clearly too many incidents in a very short period of time, is it already a real cause for concern?

All designed to weaken their image I'd say. Spanish airspace seems to have become a sort of Bermuda triangle all of a sudden?

Spanish authorities need to clean their own house first afterall 2 AESA people are facing criminal charges in Spain for falsification of records.

Iberia have had as many incidents reported as a proportion of their fleet as Ryanair so why aren't they being investigated ?

Chaos at midnight at BHX-Pax T2,luggage T1
 

http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airpo...am-5-a-75.html
#1495

In no way could there be any blame on FR, it was a handling problem, but if it does get into the media it will,no doubt, be featured as a "Ryanair cockup"

The Spanish authorities/Ryanair story has been picked up by many continental media - e.g. virtually every German media outlet features the story. Reports take it a bit easy on the facts with little attempts to understand how many planes of other airlines may have some technical issues every month.

This is becoming quite a PR issue (with MOL usually getting all his comments published everywhere as free PR, this time the tide may be against him).

You have low cost carriers with the ability to weather tougher economic conditions compared with the likes of Iberia who have uncontrollable costs. These can't compete against the Ryanair cash machine but they can try and fuel and create a negative media frenzy.

When you read some of these media reports you can almost sense the writer suffers from anxiety associated with flying to the point of being phobic. Such a thought process when it later appears in print is not designed to appeal to the rational side of the reader.