Ryanair to close Brussels-London route

[Buster the Bear]

RYANAIR TO CLOSE BRUSSELS-LONDON ROUTE

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 low fares airline today (26th February 04) published its Summer schedule at Brussels Charleroi Airport and confirmed that it was terminating its Brussels-London route with effect from 29 April next. The current Charleroi-London route operates with up to 8 daily flights, carries over 360,000 passengers annually, with these customers saving over €36m per annum compared to the higher fare alternatives from Zaventem.

Ryanair confirmed that this 10% reduction in daily flights at Charleroi was the first element of its response to the European Commission’s recent decision to increase costs at Charleroi and require that Ryanair’s passengers should pay higher fares. Ryanair will appeal this decision to the European Court in Luxembourg, but while this appeal is underway, there will be reductions in flights and services at Brussels Charleroi, as aircraft capacity is reallocated to other lower cost airports.

Announcing these cutbacks today, Ryanair’s Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary said;

“These capacity reductions are bad news for customers at Brussels Charleroi, but good news for other lower cost airports. As the Brussels-London route had the lowest fares, this route cannot be sustained if costs are to be increased as a result of the Commission’s decision to increase ticket prices by €6 to €8 per ticket. These flights will now operate on lower cost routes between private airports such as London Stansted, Glasgow Prestwick, Stockholm Skavsta and London Luton.

“Ryanair will shortly be meeting with Brussels Charleroi Airport and the Walloon authorities to agree a way forward. If these talks result in a new agreement with a similar low cost base as before then Ryanair’s low fares will continue at Charleroi. However if costs are increased, or the Walloon Authorities do not share our vision for the lowest possible air fares for ordinary people then there will be further flight reductions and route closures, as aircraft are sent to other airports where the cost base is already significantly lower than Ryanair’s original costs at Charleroi Airport"

[sparkymarky]

Possibly good news for Prestwick.

Prestwick - Luton anyone?

Or perhaps a new sunshine destination or extra rotation on Gerona.

[WHBM]

A few comments.

Firstly the Ryanair press office cannot read their own timetable. The Charleroi - Stansted schedule is 3 flights each way weekdays, 2 flights each way weekends, not "up to 8 daily flights".

More significantly, are we to be subjected to this PR hysteria every time Ryanair make a schedule adjustment, that it is only because of the landing fees issue that an entire route, all flights, have to be withdrawn. Might the fact that Ryanair have not been getting profitable income from the route also have something to do with it ? Many operators, even Eurostar, have found the London to Brussels market to have little potential outside all the business/politicians traffic (the latter not one of Ryanair's strong areas).

Who else are they going to have a go at next ? The fuel companies maybe ? Pilots' salaries ? If they don't supply the fuel or fly the planes at half the price it costs everybody else then Ryanair will slag them off publicly as well for "not sharing our vision for the lowest possible air fares for ordinary people".

[LGS6753]

Singling out 4 of their hubs (STN,PIK, LTN & Skavsta) is perhaps indicative of where the next developments will be??

[Buster the Bear]

Luton a hub? Currently a noisy (Woke me up again at 07:10 this morning!!) based 737-200 5xDaily to Dublin and a Bergamo based 737-800 operating twice per day.

Skavsta, Bergamo, Stansted, Girona, Prestwick, Ciampino, Dublin, Hahn etc are real hubs I think!

Rumours of more routes from Ryanair continually circulate, but the curse that afflicts the airport means it lacks further Harp interest.

[mudcity]

Buster..heard yesterday that Monarch engineering has won a contract to look after 4 LTN based FR 738 THIS SUMMER....but then again as you said these rumours have been around before ???

[no, no, no]

I was wondering if easy may start sniffing around LTN or STN-BRU proper now.... FR acounted for 25% of the market London-Brussels (excl the train), and although they had a lowish load factor compared to the ryanair norm - it would be a feather in easy's hat to take over from ryanair.... even if the bottom line wouldn't be big, PR wise it would be huge for easy.....

be a shame though as I know the average Load on BRU is only about 60% anyway.... a chance for some others to fill their flights iso of having more capacity....

[WHBM]

.... although they had a lowish load factor compared to the ryanair norm

I wonder how this fact managed to get missed off the Ryanair press release about the reasons for the withdrawl of the route ..... !!

Incidentally the rubbish about the "8 flights" was solemnly lapped up by both BBC Ceefax and ITV Teletext, both of whom reported that FR had been operating 8 daily flights each way ! Does no one in journalism check their facts any more ?

[brabazon]

WHBM

Unfortunately a lot of our news is purely based on press releases without any understanding or investigation into the detail behind it. Ryanair could have scored an own goal by exaggerating the frequency of the flight as it implies that their load factor was poor.
So how about Virgin Express returning to London?

[The_Bean_Counter]

I have heard that Ryanair have threatened to close one route a month in Charleroi in a bid to step up political pressure in brussels and belgium generally.

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

From the Financial Times of 27th February:

Ryanair announced yesterday that it would pull out of its Charleroi-London route on April 29 following the ban imposed this month by the European Commission on subsidies granted to the Irish low-cost carrier at the Belgian airport.

The decision follows a warning from Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's chief executive, that the Commission's ruling would force it to scrap some flights. The move to end the service between Charleroi, its Belgium base south of Brussels, and London's Stansted airport, Ryanair's largest base in Europe, would be the first route withdrawal since the decision.

Mr O'Leary yesterday warned the Walloon government, which owns the airport, that unless it absorbed the cost of the increase in air fares as a result of the Commission decision - estimated to be between €6 (£4.18) and €8 per ticket - the airline would consider the future of its other 11 routes.

"As the Brussels-London route has the lowest fares, this route cannot be sustained if costs are to be increased as a result of the Commission's decision," Mr O'Leary said.

He added: "Ryanair will shortly be meeting with Brussels Charleroi airport and the Walloon authorities to agree a way forward. If these talks result in a new agreement, with a similar low-cost base, then Ryanair's low fares will continue at Charleroi."

Serge Kubla, economy minister of the Walloon region, suggested yesterday that a comprehensive deal could be reached that would also lead to the reinstatement of the London service.

"I have noted this decision but I am doing everything in my power to talk with Ryanair officials to find possible solutions and keep the Charleroi-London line," Mr Kubla told Reuters.

More than 360,000 passengers used the London service last year. Ryanair's lowest fare on the route is £32 return.

Charleroi became Ryanair's first base in continental Europe three years ago.

Since then, Europe's largest low-cost airline has grown rapidly and now has 11 bases around Europe.

http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=040227001400&query=Ryanair&vsc_appId=totalSearch&state=Form

[Buster the Bear]

Well no smoke without fire:

I understand from the rumour mill that two Luton based airlines were asked to tender for a line support contract to cover 4 new Luton based aircraft on behalf of a certain Irish airline. One airline engineering company was successful with its bid.

Whether the new business finally arrives at Luton remains to be seen?

The source of this info seems eminently reliable.

http://www.gifs.net/animate/bear3p.gif

[LGS6753]

Let's hope we see 4 FR 738s at Luton this summer.
Any thoughts about destinations? CRL perhaps (joke).

The other suggestion on this thread (from Dr no, no, no) about EZY taking over the BRU run would work for EZY if they use Zaventem. No chance of them operating to CRL.

[Chillwinston]

After reading other posts on this matter I just wonder if its Ryanair tactics prior to discussions with the Walloon authorities to gain some kind of leverage.

Other reports sugest that the Walloon authority are looking at privatising the airport to avoid the EU authorities claiming/proving uncompetitive incentives to the likes of FR.

[Bezi l]

ryanair pulling off the LON-BRU route good news for some other carriers... bet bmi are rubbing their hands in glee!!!

bl
xx