I thought it was the Pax Cap at DUB or maybe people just not flying as much. Always an excuse with Ryanair

The increases come in two waves. One in April 2025 and then again April 2026.

The rate in April 2025 for short haul flights is the same as it is in April 2024 so no increase. Only domestic flights going up 50p in 2025.

Ah thanks all, sounds like they may cut a few domestics for 2025 and some of the very marginal routes, perfect excuse to do a clear out

Even if there were increases they would only be marginal in the overall scheme of things taking into account the cost of a weekend break to a European city and given the wanderlust of your average Brit an extra couple of quid per person, per flight isn't going to dissuade many travellers in booking their leisure trip with Ryanair, or anyone else. That is why APD is such an easy tax to levy, rather as IPT (for insurances) is.

The Ryanair rant probably has more to do with aircraft shortages and convenient excuse to cull marginal routes as others have intimated and I fully expect to see blazes of publicity from Ryanair when they "create xx jobs" and "add £xx to the local economy" when new routes are announced from UK. We had similar toothless threats when the UK finally exited the EU.

VCE?
 

Any news on the Venice Marco Polo base for summer 2025? It seems like nothing is on sale… sorry if this has been covered in posts above.

new routes from Paris Orly ?Est-ce un effet de l'arrivée de la ligne 14 du métro à Orly ? Après avoir exclu pendant des années de desservir les grands aéroports parisiens, Ryanair lancera ses premiers vols au départ d'Orly, à compter du 1er avril. La compagnie irlandaise a obtenu du Cohor, l'organisme indépendant chargé de l'attribution des créneaux horaires sur les grands aéroports, de quoi ouvrir deux allers-retours quotidiens au départ de l'aéroport du sud de Paris. Les deux destinations choisies sont Bratislava (Slovaquie) et Bergame (Italie).

L'arrivée de Ryanair à Orly marque un tournant important dans la stratégie en France de la première compagnie low cost européenne. Même si elle avait déjà fait au moins une tentative pour obtenir des créneaux à Orly, Ryanair avait toujours jugé les deux grands aéroports parisiens trop chers et trop compliqués, leur préférant celui Beauvais. Ce virage sur l'aile est d'autant plus remarquable qu'il intervient alors que Ryanair a menacé de fermer la moitié de ses destinations en France. C'est aussi un défi lancé à Transavia, la filiale low cost d'Air France, devenu le premier opérateur à Orly, ainsi qu'au numéro deux,Easyjet

8.000 créneaux remis en jeu

Ryanair n'est toutefois que l'un des bénéficiaires d'une redistribution d'un « pool » de 8.000 créneaux horaires remis en jeu par le Cohor, soit la plus importante opération de ce type depuis la faillitte d'Aigle Azur en 2019. Des créneaux abandonnés par des compagnies ayant fermé des lignes, comme Air Dolomiti, ou n'ayant jamais réussi à les exploiter, comme ceux de l'éphémère compagnie bretonne Céleste, ou encore repris par le Cohor, faute d'être suffisamment utilisés, comme le prévoit la réglementation européenne.
« Ces 8.000 créneaux représentent de quoi opérer environ 11 nouvelles rotations par jour, explique le directeur du Cohor, Antoine Lapert. Leur réattribution répond à des critères réglementaires précis. La moitié doit revenir à de nouveaux entrants. A savoir des compagnies ayant moins de 5 créneaux quotidiens à Orly. L'autre moitié doit servir en priorité à la desserte de lignes intra-européennes, avec une priorité supplémentaire pour les nouvelles liaisons, les lignes en monopole et celles où la concurrence se limite à deux opérateurs. »

Volotea s'invite aussi à Orly

Ryanair cochait toutes ces cases. Non seulement la compagnie irlandaise n'avait jusqu'à présent jamais mis les pieds à Orly, mais la capitale slovaque et Bergame n'étaient pas encore desservies au départ de cet aéroport. Ryanair n'a pu obtenir que deux des 14 dessertes, le Cohor ayant dû satisfaire d'autres demandes tout aussi légitimes. « La totalité des demandes déposées représentait de l'ordre de 70.000 créneaux », indique Antoine Lapert. Et l'aéroport d'Orly est plafonné à 250.000 créneaux.
Un autre nouvel entrant, Volotea, a ainsi obtenu de quoi opérer 13 vols par semaine au départ d'Orly, répartis sur plusieurs destinations italiennes (Ancône, Olbia, Alghero, Turin et Vérone). Là encore, l'inflexion stratégique est notable, la compagnie catalane ayant plutôt privilégié les liaisons interrégionales. La compagnie polonaise Lot a également obtenu de quoi faire un vol quotidien vers Varsovie. Mais elle devra compter avec l'entreprise low cost Wizz Air, qui va lancer, pour sa part, deux rotations par semaine sur la capitale polonaise. Air Corsica a quant à elle récupéré de quoi compléter son programme sur Figari.

Pour les compagnies déjà présentes

Des compagnies déjà bien présentes à Orly ont également pu bénéficier de nouveaux créneaux. Transavia France pourra ainsi lancer une nouvelle ligne quotidienne vers Amsterdam. Easyjet ajoutera Skopje (Macédoine), Sofia et Southampton à son offre. Vueling pourra desservir Salerne. Wizz Air proposera Londres-Gatwick quatre fois par semaine et ASL Airlines lancera une desserte quotidienne sur Alger.

La seule nouvelle destination long-courrier sera le fait de la compagnie française French Bee, qui desservira Montréal cinq fois par semaine. Cependant, contrairement aux nouveaux entrants qui ont l'obligation d'utiliser leurs créneaux pour les destinations demandées, les autres compagnies ont toujours la possibilité de changer de destinations.

Bruno Trévidic

ALEXGVA

Considering that this is an English speaking site I'm sure that the majority of what's in your post goes right over the head for most people trying to read it.

You could have used Google translater before posting it or at least posted an English version rather than a French version 😉

It's just as well that I personally have some grasp of the French language. 😊

But in fairness if your first language isn't English why should you translate it.

Let the notoriously mono-lingual English speakers do some work. Google is after all our friend!!

Will Orly ops spell the end of the infamous ‘Paris’ Beauvais?

Probably not. Ryanair could never replicate the degree of operation at Beauvais with the amount of limited slots available at Paris ORY. It would probably take over a decade or so if indeed they were able to.

Ryanair applied for slots at Paris ORY along with several other airlines. This was an opportunity for Ryanair to further increase it's market share in the wider Paris region. But Ryanair could serve ORY as the southern Paris airport with Beauvais serving as the northern Paris airport.

I can read and speak French but I'm definitely not fluent. This is an English speaking site after all, so you would at least expect that all of the posts would be in English.

Can you imagine posting something on a French site that's in English. The French would go crazy 🤪

In that case from now on all of my posts and everyone else's will be in Cantonese 😃

Can anyone shed any operational light on the Malta Air operation? I am seeing increasing use of 9H aircraft on UK routes.

Do they have their own crew?
Do they have fixed routes?
Can the aircraft/crew be based outside Malta?
Is there a plan to increase the operation?
Do we know how much cheaper the operation is as presumably this is the reason it exists?

Thanks in advance….

Malta Air operate any routes departing EU to UK, They already fly to most UK airports where the inbound flight is from EU and seem to operate to BHX, MAN and STN
with numerous flights per day, with my local airport being MAN they can operate upto 10 or more daily and the same with Buzz from Poland being the same, the only difference is Ryanair UK which UK based but operate in general non EU destinations but also EU outbounds mainly from STN and MAN and domestic flights

Thanks for this. But does this explain why 9H-VUZ has been based at Leeds for at least the last few days running flights to Alicante, Tenerife, Gdansk, Lanzarote etc…? Aircraft is over-nighting at Leeds each night. So is this Malta crew? Or is everything now inter-changeable?

There are large numbers of EI Ryanair a/c based in the UK operating flights to the EU.

Malta Air have their own crew as do Buzz - that's part of the reaon they exist, lower rates. The vast majority of Malta Air a/c are based outside Malta (like the majority of Ryanair a/c are based outside Ireland).

So what we are saying then is Malta Air are now fully interchangeable with EI reg aircraft? And there are times then where Malta crew will base themselves in the UK like the Leeds example above?

Just to clarify for you, yes. Malta Air (9H reg) and Ryanair (EI reg) aircraft are fully interchangeable and can be found based pretty much anywhere on their network and any Ryanair crew can operate on them. Technically the same can also be said for both Lauda Europe (9H reg) and Buzz (SP reg) operated flights. Albeit, the Lauda Europe aircraft tend to stick to certain bases because of the obvious reason of requiring Airbus trained crew.

As already mentioned, the only exception to this is Ryanair UK (G reg) aircraft. These will only be based in the UK, allowing for the operation of UK domestic routes and those routes non-EU to non-EU. Obviously these can and do also operate on any other Ryanair route, so long as it originates from or arrives back into the UK (depending on country). The rostered operating crews on the G- reg can be any Ryanair trained crew too. So as long as they hold both a CAA and EASA licence.

Thanks for the detailed response.

So, the only clarification I have is on the crew where one of you is saying they have their own crew and the other is saying anyone can work on them. On the one hand, I would have thought they would have their own as this keeps the costs lower then again it wouldn’t stack up with seeing 9H aircraft basing themselves at Leeds which would suggest any crew can operate.

So, if the latter is correct, what is the point of having separate 9H aircraft as what cost savings are there?

Really appreciate the informed conversations so far - thank you.

They don't have their own crew as such, other than as outlined above. Lauda Europe do (obvious reasons) and theres also a pool of crew based in Poland for Buzz that are essentially Buzz crew, but still their aircraft can fly around the Ryanair network and be as any other Ryanair aircraft by any other crew. For crews including pilots, theres a couple of tiny differences they are all converted on depending on the registration - just for any slight local differences to the country of registration. But thats legalities more than anything to do with the flying. The ipads will hold such information and can just swap to the relevant reg where required. So yes, that Malta Air aircraft you saw at Leeds, will most likely have Leeds based crew on it. The registrations are purely political and more to to do with taxation in each country. There are/were certain savings to be had with with crews set up locally in those countries e.g. Malta and Poland. However, that does not mean the aircraft can not be operated from elsewhere with other trained up Ryanair crew. Im not sure why the other poster said that the aircraft will have a specific pool of crew. Once again, other than what i have outlined above, that is not the case. I can see you're very intrigued on the subject, so hopefully that has answered it as best as it can.

Story from BBC news in Scotland this morning. More concerning is the fact that the luggage travelled without pax.

An Austrian airport has apologised to a Scottish family who were left "abandoned" by Ryanair after their flight to Edinburgh left without boarding disabled passengers.Katie Brown, 25, who uses a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy, along with her father Graeme and his wife Vikki, told how they were left "stranded" in Vienna on Friday without luggage or vital medication.

The family told BBC Scotland News they were left to book accommodation and an alternative flight home, leaving them thousands of euros out of pocket.

A Vienna Airport spokeswoman said "irregularities" occurred due to a failure of the airport's wheelchair service but added that the airport would fully reimburse the family for their additional costs.

The family were offered seats on the next available Ryanair flight home.

However, they were told this would not be until five days later, on New Year's Day, meaning they would miss Katie's 26th birthday celebrations on Hogmanay.

Instead, they paid for a Jet2 flight home on Sunday.

The family were initially told their Ryanair flight home had been delayed by a technical issue

The airport spokeswoman said: "Due to a failure of Vienna Airport's wheelchair service, the passengers were brought to the aircraft late, and their luggage was not offloaded. We deeply regret this incident.

"The passengers were promptly escorted by Vienna Airport staff from the departure gate to a service counter, where an alternative flight was offered at the airport's expense. However, this offer was declined by the passengers.

"Vienna Airport will fully cover the additional costs incurred due to the passengers flight rebooking and the luggage that was not offloaded."

The family, who had enjoyed a "lovely" Christmas break in the Austrian capital, said their flight home was initially delayed by two hours due to a technical fault.

They said they were escorted by airport assistance staff to a gate along with an 84-year-old solo passenger, who was also in a wheelchair.

After the staff failed to show up to board them, they were told the flight had been cancelled.

They later learned it had taken off without them and the solo passenger.

'Major security breach'

Graeme Brown told BBC Scotland News his family were given "quite an interrogation" by passport control staff when they checked in for their replacement Jet2 flight home.

He said the security system showed the family had been stamped as leaving Austria on Friday.

Mr Brown also said Jet2 staff later described the non-removal of their luggage from the Ryanair flight as "a major security breach".

According to flightstats.com the initial flight left Vienna almost two hours and 40 minutes behind schedule, and landed almost two-and-a-half hours late.

Ryanair policy states that passengers could be entitled to compensation if their flight is delayed by three or more hours.

The family said the airline denied any liability for the incident, instead blaming the airport's special assistance staff.

A spokesperson for Ryanair said: "Special assistance at Vienna Airport is provided by Vienna Airport's special assistance provider – not Ryanair.

"Unfortunately these passengers were brought to the gate late by the special assistance provider at Vienna Airport and as flight boarding was already closed these passengers missed their flight."

This is absolutely the fault of the airports assistance provider as well as the ground handling agents failing to communicate. This could have happened on any airline and unfortunately has on a number of occassions. It just happened on this occasion to be a Ryanair flight. The thing is, with the passengers most likely "boarded" into the system by the handling agents, no discrepancy on the missing passengers to bags loaded would have shown up. As its rare these days for any airline to do a seat count, the "boarding complete" message would have been passed to the dispatcher and to the crew. There are that many people that book assistance that dont actually end up requiring it, or where they only believe to require it at one end of the journey and so the crew will not have been phased as to why no assistance team came to the aircraft with customers. The assistance passengers will have been in a different location to the actual boarding gate once they had been processed. As someone who has travelled through VIE many times, i can say this is most certainly the case. Those responsibile will be very embarrassed and will need some tightening up of their procedures. However, typical media trying to make out it was entirely the airlines fault without allowing anyone to think for just a minute.

And typical of forums like Pprune to try and absolve the airline. However, just because you've outsourced the activity, you can't outsource the responsibility. The passengers contract is with the airline to transport them from A to B, and the airline failed.

Again, technically incorrect. Theres failures, but tbe outsourced companies work for a wide range of airlines and thus could have happened to anyone of them. The only way this can be resolved is with a change of procedure at this airport. I'm certain Ryanair will be scrutinising the procedure there from now on. Its highly unlikely that airlines will go back to head counting, unless requested for a particular reason. Believe it or not, it was seen as a failed procedure in itself, with constant inaccuracies. Humans will be humans afterall.

What a load of garbage. EVERY airline has the responsibility to make sure that the onboard passenger count matches what is on the load sheet. No exceptions.

Well then you have zero understanding how the operation works. The airline puts the trust in the hands of their handling agents. Yes they have the responsibility of representing their airlines and following strict procedures to ensure everything should match up. However, clearly on this occasion it didnt. Its not the first time and it certainly wont be the last time. If you think any other airlines procedures are so exclusively different here and how for example it wouldn't have happened on for example an easyJet flight on the same route, please do tell?

Which bit is incorrect? It's the airlines responsibility, no matter the reason for the the process failing. And why not do a head count, doesn't take long to walk from one end of the cabin to the other.

Almost no airlines do headcounts, unless there are actual known discrepancies where this may help. Did you not read? There was no known discrepancy with this flight until the passengers themselves realised it had actually departed without them. If you are not privy to airline and airport boarding procedures, other than having your boarding pass scanned by a gate agent, this would explain your bias. Whether right or wrong, almost all airlines jave the same procedure in place with their ground handlers. The only solution here is emsuring those assistance passengers never had their boarding cards scanned or confirmed until they actual boarded onto the aircraft. If they hadn't, this would have shown up on the boarding system as missing pax with bags attached to their names. A whole myriad of failures happened by the ground agents here - with the main one being communication. Vienna need to investigate that their assistance passenger procedure is robust enough. Moving passengers to another area away from.the boarding gate is always going to be risky.

I know how long it does to do a headcount, done loads. You've not answered my point. Why not do it? Just saying nobody does, isn't really an answer.

At the end of the day the buck stops with the airline. Anything else is just excuses.

Ok, lets put it this way so its more easy for you to be able to understand... why do a headcount when all the figures would have showed to be correct? I.e everyone they expected to be onboard, were onboard. Not every flight operates 100% full you know.

Cheeky little bugger, aren't you? :ok:

You do it as a cross check to make sure you are leaving with the right number of passengers. That's one of your basic responsibilities.

Likely at this time of year the flight would have been almost or completely full. Cazza, you don't quite get the fact that, at worst, its a Lockerbie scenario. Bags HAVE to be offloaded.

basic reason to not do one is error ratio of doing so.

an airline not Irish used to have an SOP of head counts and often a second was required as the first showed wrong, majority being crew miscount

All the EZS and EZY flights I've taken in 2024 have had headcounts before taxying. Just sayin' ...

Reported on BBC

Will be interesting if they achieve a conviction, although the amount sought seems fairly low.

I feel the outcome is somewhat academic to the overall aim. As you say the value being claimed is relatively now. I think they want the publicity of the attempt to sue with the idea being to punish one, to correct one hundred. Hoping this will rectify or temper other people's possible future misbehaviour.

it’s not the SOP to do headcounts

Ryanair calls for limit of two alcoholic drinks at airports in Europe

I doubt that they 'fail to understand ...' why airports need to make more money from passengers and who they learnt that from.

5 new routes from BRATISLAVA

Bari
Gdansk
Milan-MXP (instead of BGY)
Skiathos
Zadar

Anyone know why FR have suddenly chopped a whole host of flights from different UK bases to Morocco, Albania and Northern Ireland? My flights BHX-TIA-BHX have been cancelled in April, BHX has also lost AGA, RAK and LDY

The email states "commercial reasons" but seems very odd that so many flights from so many airports are chopped overnight (BHX-TIA was still on sale at 9pm last night)

Have FR cocked up and been told they have to operate G registered aircraft on these routes? Seems coincidental that EDI and MAN aren't affected (G registered aircraft bases)

If so I'm not particularly impressed that smacks of piss poor planning to me by FR