the lo-co battle commences....

[no, no, no]

easy starting 5 new routes from Gatwick.

Cork, Knock and Shannon - all Ryanair territory - first venture in to the Republic of Ireland.......

Almeria and Valencia - funnily enough both routes were announced from STN by ryan this or last week......

Are easy going for the throat here??? At least they weren't stupid enough to have a go at Dublin!!!

But what will ryanairs reponse be - and there has to be one surely!!!!!

Surely it can't be STN-BFS that has been rumoured so much!!!!!!

and what will bmibaby do on their LGW-ORK route being stuck in the middle of this feud......

fun times ahead me thinks!!!!

[EIDW Spotter]

Will easyjet ever actually server EIDW, or will they leave that one to Ryanair?

[eoinok]

Have heard it being rumoured here before that BMI were thinking of taking LGW-ORK mainline and taking it off of WW.

Might be a good time to do that now!

[jabird]

eoinok,

Why would they do that? They have no other presence at LGW - maybe LHR - ORK, but the market is already looking busy.

[BDWW]

With the announcement of Easyjet's arrival into the regional areas of Ireland, it does seem that bmibaby had their chance to expand from LGW and missed it. Cork is doing very well and probably could have gone twice daily and Knock-LGW was apparently in the pipeline but for some reason or another they decided against it. It is a shame as i think baby really could have made a go of operating niche routes from LGW but with the demise of the LGW-PRG route at the end of October, is it really worth baby flying out of LGW at all??

I think it would be very unlikely that bmi mainline would take over the WW ORK-LGW service but to operate from LHR would make logical sense.

[codpiece face]

This is where it will start to get interesting , even with a slowdown these two carriers have many aircraft to be delivered and need to find routes for them. They always new at some stage they would need to go head to head.

Battle seems to be commencing in two major areas, against each others cash cows ( always been avoided during the last 8 or 9 years ) and against the new risk from eastern europe with the new lcc,s much lower cost base.

I think an FR & EZY battle will be a nightmare for the smaller carriers and will hurt them greatly, i can also see FR starting LTN-PIK/BFS/EDI services in retaliation.

Fun times ahead.

[eoinok]

jabird, I quite honestly dont know why either but I know i have seen it being mentioned here before.
Also in the same breath (same thread, different contributer), it was also mentioned that BMI were considering ORK-LHR against EI as they would pick up on the freight business that EI were dropping ???
Maybe it could be a case of take your pick of which rumour you would like to believe?

Being from Cork, I would like to believe that ever rumour of a new route opening up from Cork was true as it would give me more choice so maybe I am wishing for them to be true!

[neidin]

Easyjet will have there ass chewed by Ryanair. As BMIBaby are already on that LGW-ORK route it it unlikely they got any special deals. Unless BMi are pulling off the route.

Can't see any great yield on NOC, SNN or ORK compared to teh crazy high fares that Ryanair charge on Kerry. You can never get a low fare to Kerry with Ryanair.

Wait for Ryanair's response.

[Jetstar81]

I can't see any Airline making money on the Irish routes (except Dublin) with so much competition as the yields will be too low.
I think WW operating NOC is also a disaster unless they're getting significant incentives from the Irish Government, there's not enought market for BHX, EMA and MAN with RE also operating from LPL.

[Doug the Head]

If Ireland is "ryanair territory," what does that make London Stansted? "easyJet territory," just because EZY is a UK registered company?

Ryanair has been operating out of easyJet "territory" for years, so why should Ryanair get all upset if EZY starts a few routes to Ireland? :confused:

[brabazon]

"so why should Ryanair get all upset if EZY starts a few routes to Ireland? "

Erm, M O'L looks on the Irish Republic as his domain - it's like Southwest and Texas - it's where it all started and where a lot of money comes from. Don't you remember what happened to go when they started flying to Dublin, or MyTravel Lite? Let's see when and how he retaliates this time......