An employee from Zadar airport said in a Croatian aviation forum that the airport undergoes an audit for a summer base in 2013

Summer base? A new approach. It looks somewhat unclear what operational benefit would be created this way (emphasis on operational), FR are having so many small "bases" already. Nevertheless, Dalmatia is a pleasant region indeed.

I can only imagine that they see opportunities to fly between this destiantion and non base airports, i.e. avoiding need to do W patterns.

Perhaps they are being incentivised to this and hence that itself is the driving force behind such a move.

EI-BUD

Journalist posing for photos with with Michael O'Leary & Stephen McNamara just now at @Irelandwest (NOC), route announcement imminent?

pic.twitter.com/MeA32yLA

I note that Ryan Air, get some bad press on this forum, but having used them a few times in the last few weeks,have to say impressed with the punctuality.
Crew have been friendly and aircraft interior clean.

Flying out Sunday afternoon with Jet2 and back Tuesday afternoon with Ryan,
so will be comparing the two flights.
Jubilee

Ryanair cancel Cash Passport benefits
 

"Dear Cardholder,
Firstly we would like to thank you for purchasing a Ryanair Cash Passport card. We have seen thousands of our cardholders benefit from the offer of avoiding the admin fee charge on Ryanair.com since the launch of the card on 1st October 2011. We thank you for your continued support.
It is with regret that we write to inform you that, as a result of decisions by the UK Office of Fair Trading, Ryanair Cash Passport card users will no longer benefit from avoiding the £6 admin fee for transactions made on Ryanair.com from 1st December 2012. While we are disappointed at this development, Ryanair is obliged to honour the decisions of the UK Office of Fair Trading.
We are committed to providing you, the cardholder, with further updates on card promotions and intend on notifying you shortly on our planned changes in the card offering."
:E


What next- Isn't it funny that there are no words from MOL!

"As far as I know it will be 7 aircraft for East Midlands, 6 for Liverpool and 5 for Manchester in 2013"

It will be at least 7 aricraft at Liverpool for next year, maybe 8.

So does that mean there is no "free" payment method and the admin fee is unavoidable?

End of 'free' admin charges with the Ryanair cash passport
 

I knew this day would come sooner or later, once the OFT made their ruling a few months ago. The bottom line is literally the bottom line; if a flight, including charges, is'nt value for money, fly with somebody else. As simple as that.

Personally, I only fly Ryanair when they are significantly cheaper than the alternatives (this has nothing to do with their service- more to do with my sincerely held feeling that they are willing me to fall foul of their regulations so that they can sting me with some charge or another). I rarely fly easyjet since they introduced their £9 booking fee. I'm a single traveller who books one way flights - the traditional carriers tend to work out cheaper when baggage and fees are taken into consideration. Vote with your feet I say. If you can get a better deal elsewhere then go for it!

I am intrigued to see what they do to entice people into keeping the card. It had one of the worst foreign exchange rates when I got it. Now it's one of the best (a 'limited' promotion which still seems to be ongoing). Wonder whether they'll offer anything else to keep hold of their customers...

Well, still no news of the loss of benefits from the Prepaid Mastercard...Does this mean that it will be possible again to avoid the fee with a Prepaid Mastercard in the countries that had the Ryanair Cass Passport? Or simply no more avoiding of the fee?

I'm not sure it will be. Liverpool had only 6 for summer 2012 and in the recent expansion announcement for 2013 by Ryanair, it doesn't say they will add another aircraft to Liverpool whilst saying East Midlands and Manchester will both get another one.

Since 2012 was:
EMA - 6
LPL - 6
MAN - 4

Then that would surely mean for 2013:
EMA - 7
LPL - 6
MAN - 5

You may just get more flights with aircraft not based in Liverpool. Also, since Liverpool has a lot of short flights to Ireland, aircraft can do more rotations in one day so they could still do it with only 6 even after the new Lublin and Zadar routes commence.

Jorik:

Good question. I doubt it personally, although in theory there's no reason why flights which do not either (a) originate in the UK or (b) do not involve a sale on UK territory need to be subject to UK consumer law (this includes the Ryanair cash passport which I think is underwritten by a Irish bank, so is outside the OFT's jurisdiction...).

Or perhaps it still would be possible to avoid the fee with a Prepaid Mastercard in the countries where the Ryanair Cash Passport was never introduced.

However, simply the total price showing without any unnecessary "atomization" (disregarding only the truly optional fees) would certainly make the best impression of decency. Fortunately some positive changes were already made, one has to admit.

Technically EMA had 7 based, but one was used as spare and for training, so it should be 8 next summer, although it will probably all change come next year anyway!

First time I have checked with Ryanair to book a flight in a long long time and I remembered exactly why I dont fly with them these days;

1. I searched for flights and then exited Ryanair.com and the webpage was closed. I then returned and it then brought up the message, you have more than 1 copy of the Ryanair website open at the same time and this can lead to booking errors, something to this effect. I didnt have any other Ryanair web pages open. What a nonsense, I said this to a mate, who said he had the same issue during the week. He cleared cookies and rebooted and then successfully booked. I ultimately cancelled my search. Aer Lingus to the rescue and at a reasonable price for a last minute booking.

2. Captcha, drives me mad. A total annoyance.

Also:

Anansis,

I couldnt agree more.This very point colours my complete judgement of the company.

OK, if it is last minute seems reasonable but if it was for an important flight on the 19th Nov or after would you have booked EI?

The CAPTCHA can vary. Very occasionally you get an unreadable one or two in a row but otherwise I find it no problem.

In relation to the two FR web pages being open just wondering what browser you're using as I don't have that problem with either Firefox or Chrome.

Definetly another aircraft for LPL (so at least 7, maybe 8) , however the aircraft going to EMA and MAN are new aircraft but the one/two at liverpool is a re-introduction of the one/two that was taken out a couple of years ago. This seems to have caused a bit of confusion.

ayroplain, flight is for early next week. regarding my browser, good point, I have explorer, and I should be upgrading to chrome, though I dont have problems like this with any other airline....

Thanks for the prompt though...

Correct me if Im wrong, but 180,000 extra passengers doesnt sound like an extra based aircaft or two at LPL.

Woman hauled off Ryanair jet by police after luggage row | Irish Examiner

Why is it that passengers in the UK and Spain can never ovay the rules of flying FR. Its always something from boarding passes or baggage.