Ryanair Ostend - Barcelona Girona

[james170969]

Ryanair and Ostend airport have concluded a preliminary agreement about a daily flight between Ostend and Barcelona - Girona. Ryanair will make a decision mid May with flights starting in October at the earliest.www.luchtzak.be/article8361.html (http://www.luchtzak.be/article8361.html)
I wonder if they have plans for other routes from Ostend.

[Avman]

To Barcelona once a week maybe. Daily will never work. They couldn't make the STN service work.

[brabazon]

I think Ostend - Stansted is somewhat different to Ostend - Girona. No reason why this route shouldn't work since I guess the Belgians like the Costa Brava as much as the Brits.

[ATNotts]

Problem was with Stansted-Ostend that by the time you had checked in, done security, immigration and baggage reclaim in Ostend etc. it was probably quicker to use Eurotunnel and drive from Sangatte to Ostend / Brugge.

Girona is a bit of a different market.

[Avman]

Sorry, limited major catchment area (Ghent). Yes the Belgians like Spain but most of them live in the major cities (Brussels, Antwerp, Liege and Charleroi) and are already well served by their own or closer airports than OST. Antwerp residents not opting for Brussels will for instance use Ryanair from Eindhoven. Liege residents looking for LCC options will naturally use Charleroi, as do the Brussels pax who don't want to use BRU itself.

[james170969]

Don't forget that people living in parts of Holland and north east France might also want to use Ostend Airport.

[Avman]

James, do you have any idea how long it takes to drive from "parts of Holland" to Ostend? I think not. It's quicker for them to get to RTM or EIN than OST. I'll grant you the very NE of France, but again, not enough pop to warrant a thriving OST airport with DAILY deps to Girona. It's a dead duck I tell you. But hey, if I'm wrong great for OST and RYR.

[james170969]

Well it takes me just over an hour to reach Calais and around forty minutes to get to Holland. My point was that it's not just Belgians who would use this service and I did say parts of Holland not the whole country!!!

[Shed-on-a-Pole]

Oostende's catchment area includes not only Ghent, Brugge and Oostende but also the Knokke-Zeebrugge-Oostende-Koksidje-De Panne coastal strip which is heavily populated and prosperous. There are plenty of people here to support a Barcelona/Girona operation, and don't forget that Brugge is also very marketable to Catalan tourists. As previously mentioned, the Stansted route faced competition from fast ferries and Eurotunnel due to the short distance involved. Catalunya should be a much more practical proposition.