Would Ryanair Fly From Heathrow?

[Seat62K]

I've recently been reading Simon Calder's book No Frills. In it Michael O'Leary is quoted as saying that, in relation to Heathrow, "We wouldn't fly from there if they paid us" (2006 edition, page 226).
Given the recent rush of operators keen to move flights to Heathrow - and as a bit of fun - I wonder what PPRuNe readers think. If BAA offered to pay Ryanair to use Heathrow (not that it would, of course) do you think O'Leary would actually stick to his original claim, and, if he did, would he be right to do so?!

[birdscarer]

MOL has no scruples - the end! If BAA did offer to pay him then he would be there like a shot! (Not that it would ever happen!) ;)

[Raven30]

Some time ago, Ryanair cut their twice daily flights to Newquay to just the one flight, blowing off a lot of hot air to the media about the new airport development tax that the airport had recently introduced and citing it as the reason for the reduction in their service. No-one really knew why they were so agitated since it didn't hit them in the pocket, and passenger numbers were not affected. Ryanair are now back to operating twice daily rotations (albeit not every day of the week)from Stansted as well as routes to Girona and Alicante. Seems their moral standpoint(whatever it was) has been ditched in favour of profits.

I think that the phrase "Theres no such thing as bad publicity" is appropriate to Ryanair.

[NickBarnes]

No, i wouldn't have thought so. Altough recently they have started flying from some main big international airports, Madrid's one that sticks out.

[pee]

They are also in talks with CPH (Kastrup) at the moment. But it would be the only airport around Copenhagen to be flown to. Around LON they fly to two (three) middle-size airports already. Why bother with Heathrow? They might consider flying to Kent International, targeting however just Kent and possibly suburbs of SE-London. Other Londoners would still prefer STN or LTN, I think.

[LGS6753]

Of course they would fly there, given the chance. It's the best place in the world for 25-minute turn-rounds:}

[Buster the Bear]

easyJet, the so called 'UK premier low cost airline' loves Gatwick where turnarounds are not quite the 20 minutes once demanded by Stelios (in 1995) following on from the birth of his airline!

[Charlie Roy]

They are also in talks with CPH (Kastrup) at the moment.

2 years ago Ryanair and Copenhagen came very close to signing a deal, but it fell through in the end. So nice to know they're back at the negotiating table :ok:

Recently Ryanair explored flying to Amsterdam (namely SNN - AMS), so if we do see them one day in Heathrow I will not be surprised.

[MUFC_fan]

Aren't the Dutch government putting a new eco charge onto their aviation taxes soon? A reson for FR to avoid AMS and EIN abit?

Think AGP, RIX and MAN to be the next three bases.

[acbus1]

Bishop would have a heart attack if Ryanair were given lots of slots and started operations from Heathrow. 'Oooh! That nasty wuff man, O'Weawy'.



We hear lots of brave talk from bmi about competition....



....until some real competition actually comes along.



Oh, and, before the resident idiots start whining, BA shorthaul at slot protected Heathrow certainly doesn't qualify as proper competition.

[lplsprog]

Of course they would, as long as it suits them. I remember MOL saying he woudn't fly from MAN again after a row he had with them and there he is back again with expansion in the future.:hmm:

[EI-BUD]

MOL shouts about how he wouldnt go LHR, but he also said that he would never pay the high fees that are now in place at Dublin. Despite what ever deal he got there and despite how many increases have come in and despite how congested the place has become he is still only too excited to challenge Aer Lingus on most routes.

My take is that if he only the slightest opportunity to get into LHR and totally hurt BA he would do it, he knows as well as every body else that the cosy little nest BA has there is what keeps them in business. I would never say never. As far as I can see the rules book has been thrown out the window in terms of usual airline thinking and especially so to Loco's.

Eg MOL said he would only grow by growth in house, no acquisitions then they bought buzz.

EZY have chosen to make Gatwick their biggest base despite how congested it is.

Air Berlin have acquired airlines and have a mixed fleet.

MOL made it up with Birmingham and look whats happening at Manchester, MOL has added routes from that airport, who impounded a 73S in the mid 90s for late payment of fees!

We should all be prepared to be amazed, as I think that the strong Locos will go on an Acquisitions rampage and lets see who buys what.

Who has the deepest pockets?? I think that MOL will eventually tap into the higher end of the market and he has already said that there is merit in that side of the market. Time will tell i expect!

[take-off]

For arguements sake, say FR get into heathrow, what routes do you think they would fly, apart from the obvious dublin, girona..... certainly make a success out of T5, seeing as FR prefer you to take handluggage that would cut down the problems their having ....:E:E:E

[big.al]

MOL is a businessman.

He'd probably pi*s on a spark plug if he thought it would save fuel costs. So of course he'd use Heathrow if paid to do so. Provided he talked BAA into paying massive compensation for missing the 25 minutes turnaround slots on top of the fee they'd pay him for using their runways...

FR would only ever use EGLL for long-haul, a kind of budget "RyanLongAir" but we all know that'll never happen...

(Edited to add: I'm not knocking Ryanair - I use them regularly. They get you from A to B, safely, very cheap. Does exactly what it says on the tin, so to speak. B may be nowehere near your destination, but that's your problem. You chose to fly there with them, so if you want to be in the centre of the destination city, fly with someone else and pay four times the price);).

[Flitefone]

Ryanair is unlikely to ever use Heathrow, at least until a third runways is built. London is highly slot restrained at every airport not just LHR, only so many movements are possible on the handfull of runways available. Not to mention that the 25 minute turnaround is essential to Ryanair business model - and is impossible at LHR Ryanair or not. Average taxi time before departure at LHR has to be close to 25 minutes alone!

MOL bought Buzz for slots (and some staff) at Stantsed... and to ensure that no one else got them, slots will also have been a major factor in the decision to open a Luton base - foot in the door to stop easy hoovering up all that spare runway capacity.. (not much I know but still London slots at that)

Equally MOL will not shrink at Stansted without a back up plan for London which is nigh on impossible today. He needs London slots - London generates about 30 percent of the airlines revenue at my guess - and he wants the BAA monopoly broken up so that he can negotiate better deals with each airport rather than a the cosy cartel that the BAA appears to be. All the talk of cuts is more about negotiating tactics than anything.

The down side for Ryanair is that even then, new runways are badly needed, so any threat of pull back from London is highly unlikely despite the bluster, it's just that only the most profitable routes will stay....anything marginal will go.

That will mean Ryanair going more and more after the business of its up market competitors..Watch out BA/LH/AF/IB The smart guys at BAA finance will realise all this and will negotiate hard I'm sure...

Even with all that I still think you'll see a lot more of Ryanair at LGW before LHR...

Fun to watch though!