Ryanair new bases

[Buster the Bear]

LONDON (AFX) - Ryanair Holdings PLC, the Irish budget airline, is to set up its first base in Eastern Europe, as it looks to open up a new front in the low-cost travel market as competition intensifies in the UK and Germany, The Business reported, citing the company.

Ryanair said it has six bases "lined up" around Europe: two in the UK, two in France, one in Germany - and one in eastern Europe. It refused to reveal the identities of the prospective hubs, said the newspaper.

But Ryanair, headed by chief executive Michael O'Leary, is likely to hold off a big push into eastern Europe for the next couple of years, the Business said.

The market-leading airline believes the low-cost market is still underdeveloped in some of the more lucrative western European countries, citing the example of low-cost operator Southwest, which has enjoyed several decades of growth in the US.

A Ryanair spokesman told the Business: "Initially there will be a big rush to places like Warsaw but that doesn't mean there will be sustainable traffic in both directions."

While barriers to entry into the eastern European market are low, it may be harder to reduce costs. People also tend to have less disposable income than in western European countries, Ryanair said.

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[johnwalton]

Conversely, there is an article in this weeks Flight quoting O'Leary as saying they are going to slow there expansion over the next year from 20% to 16% due to the non-replacement of 737-200s which were apparantly damaged during maintenance.

[bacardi walla]

...... also very likely to close Buzz at the end of this summer season :uhoh:

[EGNR]

they are going to slow there expansion over the next year from 20% to 16%

...acutally the article in question mentioned that the expansion in terms of total number of seat year-on-year would reduce from something like 20% to around 16%...obviously this doesn't necessarily mean that they will take delivery of less aircraft, just that in comparison to the total number of seats available within the fleet at the start of the year, year-on-year the percentage increase in seat will fall away a bit...

[LGS6753]

All the EU 'accession' countries have very low GDP per head (some as low as $5000). Many of those countries have small populations. The two largest, Poland and Hungary, have already attracted new loco operators (Air Polonia, Wizz Air and Sky Europe - yes, I know they are from Slovakia). Markets there are likely to be saturated for a while, but I'm sure Ryanair will pounce just when things are getting difficult for the new entrants. That won't be for a few months yet............

[BFS/BHD]

Do you think one of the two new bases in the UK will be BFS.

[simonwa]

Or NCL???? Been on the cards for a while...

[rock737]

Hi

I heard EMA will be next UK base but if it does not become a base in the winter it will still get lots of routes because if they choose not to base they will have routes from all other bases, e.g glasgow Pik, Rome, Skavsta, Milan Bergamo, Frankfurt, Brussels and Shannon although they already have a route from a non base Murcia. SO EMA is definately getting expansion whichever way you look at it, personally i think they will choose the basing option as there is scope for further and different destinations to their bases which are probably more associated to good routes ex EMA. If they do have routes to all bases EMA will be still like a bse because tonnes of ryan aircraft will pass through. As for the other base i reckon Newcastle/teeside is an option or something like Bristol/Southampton/Exeter/Cardiff as they have nothing there. I cant see belfast becoming a base personally. Also Manchester or Leeds are possibilities as they are sufficiently far enough away from EMA. e.g jet2 has had no impact on Easy or bmibaby at EMA and bmibaby are at Manchester. Unless they are going to baby bases to get rid of them.

Another thing i think will happen is Jet2s next base will be EMA especially if bmibaby collapse because they could put up strong competition.

Just my thoughts

Ashley

[WHBM]

Surely the ultimate Eastern Europe challenge to set up a base would be in Moscow ! But if you could bring it off ...... !!

[sparkymarky]

Wasn't there a story a while ago about someone connected to Ryanair buying an airport 'near' Prague?

[FlyingIrishman]

The airport is a former military airport about 45 miles from Prague and was purchased by Tara Aerospace, a company owned by Ryanair founder Tony Ryan, but there's no real connection there.