Ryanair - 8

[airhumberside]

Is there a list of these 14 routes publically available, and likewise the 4-6 in doubt?

[Jamie2k9]

Brno, Doncastar, Fez, Gdansk, London Gatwick, Magdeburg, Marrakesh, Palma, Pisa, Poznan, Santander, Seville, Valladolid, Zaragona due to be dropped. Don't have the 4 - 6 that have to be decided. As I said it could change.

[johnnychips]

Ryanair is so bizarre. It has a monster row with Girona, pulls loads of routes, opens at El Prat, and then Pee reports it's opening a new route from Turku to Girona rather than BCN. Perhaps Finnair or someone already operates HEL-BCN, so Ryanair are playing clever - but then Pee says Turku isn't exactly near Helsinki. Or perhaps Finns have a particular liking for holidays/second homes on the Costas Brava and Maresme.

I just read the Donny route to Alicante's been axed. Oh dear. Hope they don't pull Faro and Tenerife as well.

[Jamie2k9]

Humberside duie to operate 2 weekly.

I just read the Donny route to Alicante's been axed. Oh dear. Hope they don't pull Faro and Tenerife as well.

Faro due to go as well and Tenerife to drop to 1 weekly next summer.

[johnnychips]

Thanks Jamie. Well at least they've still got a toe in.

[j636]

Would say that DSA - FAO dropped and ALC and reduced TFS is because of them expanding at MAN and LBA.

[FR-]

Its not just MAN & LBA, its also EMA. Many of our pax at EMA come from the doncaster area. All these airports are close and its a case of looking after the bases first. The ALC-HUY is stopping due to the number of seats sold to travel agents.

fr-

[johnnychips]

I wouldn't disagree with that. Just unfortunate that the two routes that seemed to be doing well, Alicante and Girona, were the airports that Ryanair got into arguments with.

Ryanair understandably pulled Girona after Easyjet opened BCN. When EZY pulled that, Ryanair were in the middle of their argument with Girona and Leeds-BCN had been announced by them. In the good old days I can remember FR putting an extra flight on to Girona in October half-term as the first had sold out so quickly.

I suppose the weekly TFS flight must be doing OK for FR to go to the bother of retaining handling agents etc for one flight a week.

[aeulad]

Are the Humberside flights definitely being dropped?

What does the number of seats sold to travel agents have to do with it?

Regards

Mike

[johnnychips]

#2301 says two a week from HUY are retained.

I think FR- means the flights are 'keeping going' rather than 'ceasing' in the way he uses the word 'stopping'.

[airhumberside]

Thank you for the list Jamie2k9
Ryanair is so bizarre. It has a monster row with Girona, pulls loads of routes, opens at El Prat, and then Pee reports it's opening a new route from Turku to Girona rather than BCN. Perhaps Finnair or someone already operates HEL-BCN, so Ryanair are playing clever - but then Pee says Turku isn't exactly near Helsinki. Or perhaps Finns have a particular liking for holidays/second homes on the Costas Brava and Maresme.
It's overall capacity that is what matters. One new route can be cancelled out by others being withdrawn

[johnnychips]

Nice to be debating on a forum with you again AH!

It's overall capacity that is what matters. One new route can be cancelled out by others being withdrawn

Would you care to expand on this? I think I know where you're coming from, but not exactly sure.

[pug]

FR, I wasn't aware the HUY seats were being sold to travel agents? I was under the impression the only 'packages' being sold were tailor made holidays via Humbersides in house travel agent.

Good news if they are stopping all the same, perhaps a couple more if they are in fact scaling back at DSA? The relationship with MAG seems to be at an all time high. Not to.mention if there genuinely is such local travel agent support.

[aeulad]

ahhhhhhhhhhh hehe

my bad!

EXCELLENT news!

Regards

Mike

[sam dilly]

any news yet about Stansted - Biarritz ?

[TimmyW]

Another nail in the coffin for DSA.

[vic88]

Any news of the summer program for Marseille MP2?
W rotations like this winter, night stops or re-opening of the base?

[airhumberside]

Nice to be debating on a forum with you again AH!

It's overall capacity that is what matters. One new route can be cancelled out by others being withdrawn

Would you care to expand on this? I think I know where you're coming from, but not exactly sure
Say if overall capacity was reduced from 100,000 seats per year to 80,000. Even if a new route was added, the overall impact on passenger figures is negative

[FR-]

Any crews got an idea on how the reserved seating is getting on. I heard its not doing so well on BGY based a/c.

fr-

[peba]

Have heard of people being charged for the seat even if they didnt sell them pre-flight and now they are the only seats free....!!My advice would be never buy priority in any airport where they use a bus to get you to the A/C.Some times they use the first bus purely for priority boarding but most of the time its first come first serve after the bus.
Why bother with reserve seating if the flight is only an hour or so,€540 odd million profit for 6 months and they still want more money from you.Buy your food in the airport,buy a good headset for music etc,and sit down and be quite!!!

[FR-]

I know what you mean about bussing pax, i had this problem last year in IBZ, and it upset alot of pax. Whenever I had pax telling me about this last year I always wrote it down on the inflight report, wrote a report myself to ground ops, also told the pax to write in. After travelling to IBZ as pax myself this year this problem had been sorted, the queue system was alittle odd, but all the priority got onto the bus and off first before the others.

This year I have noticed in both IBZ and PMI were a bus is used priority will exit first via the front doors, then once at the steps the rest will be let off. Still the odd problem every now any again, but please do tell the number one on the flight to report it, and write in. If we don't know about problems we cant do anything about them.

I know crew can charge for these legroom seats if no one else has already booked them. But I dont see why the crew would charge for them if their was no other seats.

I wouldnt buy the reserved seating myself on a one hour flight, but ive heard a few business pax buying on the DUB-LGW to allow them to get off quick and beat the rush.

fr-

[davidjohnson6]

If 189 passengers buy a ticket for a particular flight, and none of them pays for the extra legroom, and they all turn up at the gate 30 mins in advance, what happens at boarding ?
Would passengers be denied boarding because they weren't willing to pay extra at the gate ?

[FR-]

All pax would be allowed on. Not sure if you fill the 'normal' seats first to check everyone does turn up. I can not find the memo to check. I can count on hand how many times ive had 189 actually turn up.

fr-

[peba]

trick is,ask the boarding crew at the gate if the flight is full,then if it is,just wait til the end and board then,could well be a few reserved seats available and they would have no choice but to give it to you.On the other hand,if the flight is full and all reserved seats have been booked then this trick wont work.However you will always get a seat,just a case of trying to beat them at their own game!!!

[PPRuNeUser0176]

Any crews got an idea on how the reserved seating is getting on. I heard its not doing so well on BGY based a/c.

fr-


Nothing to do with FR but its doing very well from Dublin and FR are looking about having it on all flights from Dublin by next summer.

[vic88]

It may not be true, but according to the on-line check-in the following routes should take place soon from Marseille MP2.

"New" routes that have already existed in the past
-Beauvais
-Frankfurt Hahn
-Tenerife South

Summer routes :
-Agadir
-Cagliari
-Dublin
-Düsseldorf Weeze
-Malaga
-Nador
-Palermo
-Stockholm Skavsta
-Valencia

[wowzz]

I see that it is still impossible to book flights to ALC after March 2012, I presume due to the dispute over the use of air-bridges. Given that every other carrier is selling flights to ALC for summer 2012, how long will MOL/AENA hold out before coming to an agreement?

[TSR2]

how long will MOL/AENA hold out before coming to an agreement

MOL will hang out as long as it takes. He has said many times that Ryanair does not need Alicante but Alicante needs Ryanair. There can only be one outcome but as for how long, lets see what the elections bring in the coming weeks. Local business leaders are getting restless.

[davidjohnson6]

Can Ryanair afford to wait much beyond about late December ? Decisions about where aircraft will be deployed during the summer season eventually need to be made, and presumably once the Xmas season is over, people in northern Europe start to think about booking their summer holiday

[racedo]

MOL will hang out as long as it takes. He has said many times that Ryanair does not need Alicante but Alicante needs Ryanair. There can only be one outcome but as for how long, lets see what the elections bring in the coming weeks. Local business leaders are getting restless.

Does MOL allow one airport dictate which means every body else does the same, or do as has happened again and again and show who needs who.

Airports have a choice as do airlines.

[racedo]

Can Ryanair afford to wait much beyond about late December ? Decisions about where aircraft will be deployed during the summer season eventually need to be made, and presumably once the Xmas season is over, people in northern Europe start to think about booking their summer holiday

Agree but do you think they are thinking of next summer or a longer time frame ?

Next summer will happen irrespective of ALC.

[OltonPete]

Just to give a mention that passengers are not always abandoned -

PMO-STN last night diverted to BHX as the aircraft was only CAT 1 (not the crew) and STN weather was poor. Rather than facing a bus journey back the pax were transferred to the recently arrived KTW-BHX and flown back to STN on
a CAT 3 aircraft. All dealt with within about 90 minutes.

Pete

[davidjohnson6]

Pete - sounds like 1 too many aircraft in Birmingham and thus a need to send 1aircraft down to Stansted regardless. Chartering a coach or three would have possibly cost more thn putting the passengers on the repositioned aircraft. Agree that the passengers weren't abandoned, but suspect that this was partly driven by cost and convenience to the airline based on existing obligations

[racedo]

DJ

Possibly or just as likely Easy option A was selected as being the best one rather than waiting hours for a couple of buses and all the hassle that goes with it.

As 1 aircraft too many anyway in BHX, belonging to STN, then shuffling them around is perfectly reasonable.

One of the aircraft would still need to fly to STN anyway so pretty much little cost.

[OltonPete]

davidjohnson6

BHX has eleven ryanair aircraft based for a schedule of three
so plenty to choose from ;)

Most move every third day on rotation although I think one
had four to five days off this week.

racedo

Anybody who has diverted into BHX will know coaches are a
rarity at the best of times. If they had a spare crew in PIK
it would have been quicker to taxi them down than wait for
coaches at BHX :E

Pete

[djfwells]

I think that the Rynair / Alicante El Altet situation will be resolved shortly after the Spanish General Election has brought a change of Government ! > Ryanair Introduce New Routes (http://tinyurl.com/d8wf9a9)

[BigFrank]

Sunday 20th November. PP win an overwhelming majority.

Monday 21st November Mariano Rajoy picks his team for next four years.

Tuesday 22nd November Mariano submits his massive cuts in public expenditure to Frau Merkel for her approval

Wednesday 23rd November Mariano rings MOL to offer an extra 45M euro to keep the blue and white Boeing planes with the gold harp flying to Girona, Reus, Alicante, Murcia (all 5 airports there) Ceuta, Melilla and La Isla de Perjil.


Well 3/4 is better than Mystic Meg has managed recently.

[eu01]

From the source above (djfwells): Receiving just 20 cents per passenger in subsidies, it is obviously of greater importance to the airline to keep operating costs as low as possibleTrue.Ryanair´s claim that the estimated 2 Million Euro per year unexpected surcharge was nothing more than a tax imposed to finance a new airport terminal building that was neither requested or required was perhaps justified.
...
So maybe a stance against the bullying tactics of AENA is justified, and perhaps only Ryanair can demonstrate to them exactly how the tourist industry dictates the success of many regional economies.
Could agree.

[racedo]

Asking tourist businesses whether they would prefer to be taxed

such that it will attract more visitors into an area
or
taxed so they could pay a distant Govt taxes which gets paid to a foreign bank.

Funny think that answer will be easy.

[TSR2]

The 2 million Euro charge for using airbridges at Alicante represents a paltry 50 cent increase in the price of a fare, so there must be more to this dispute than meets the eye.

It is obvious that MOL wants everyone to know who actually has the real power at Alicante but it may also be to intentionally send a strong message to any other airport thinking of introducing or increasing charges for use of airbridges where walk-on is not an alternative.

If what MOL says that Alicante have imposed the use of airbridges without discussion or agreement and in breach of an agreed contract, then I fully support his stance on this matter, even though walk-on does little to enhance the passenger travel experience when there is an alternative. I fully realise that the Ryanair business model does not give a jot for airport or passenger experiences and this is not a criticism, just a fact.

[PPRuNeUser0176]

Dublin to Eindhoven Diverted today and all passengers were told was you were in Maastricht, buses will be along shortly to take passengers to Eindhoven.

Passengers had to check FR flight info to find out it was because of fog,

[lplsprog]

LPL passengers face grilling when boarding if their hand baggage is close to the limit. Servisair are paying bonuses to the staff to find passangers who are breaching the weight and size limits.:hmm:

[FR-]

Well don't tell the EMA servisair girls and boys, I thought Ryanair sold them to the ground agents for £25, so servisair makes £15. Im glad about it, I dont see why some passengers should have bags that are bigger than everyone else. Follow the rules and you wont have to pay.

fr

[ssflyer]

On my last 3 BHX flights, virtually every piece of hand luggage was cage checked before boarding.

[lfc84]

i take it that if they are going to be so vigilant that all of the scales, cages and boxes have been verified as being accurate and fit for purpose?

if they arent 100% accurate, then maybe people should pay a pound or two less ;D

[RAT 5]

"I dont see why some passengers should have bags that are bigger than everyone else. Follow the rules and you wont have to pay."

Fair point, BUT, why does RYR and a couple of others reduce their dimensions by 5cm compared to standard ICAO hand bag size, and on the same type a/c as other carriers who use the ICAO size? Someone will answer, 'because they can'. True, but that is not a satisfactory answer. They are in the customer service industry and irritating your source of income with petty adjustments to standard rules just to trip up innocent pax for a fine. You buy a standard ICAO bag and then get screwed. It has even happened that a pax travelled 1 way with a sensible ICAO compliant LoCo carrier, and t'other way with one of the childish ones. Air rage started at the gate. I even saw ez in MAD do a check at the gate. The wheels of the bag did indeed go into the cage, but had to be manoeuvred, rather than a straight drop in/pull out. Nope, that was going to be an extra 25euros for the hold. Guy kicked and smashed the wheels off in front of some rather disturbed pax. Not a good image.
You also get some more sensible non-UK carriers who allow the cabin bag and sensible laptop/lady's handbag/dutyfree/ as an extra. The 1 bag rule is an unnecessary inconvenience and sensible discretion should be enough. It is the case that a B738 189 seats can not accommodate much more than 150 of RYR's own samsonite bag. What then when the flight is full? Delay code down to themselves.

[FR-]

The bags will fit under the seat in front. We do allow wheels not to fit into the 'cage'. The problem with the one bag only, inc latop hang bags, some pax were taking the p!ss. Some airports have allow pax to have one bag plus duty free, ive not been to a spanish that dont allow duty free aswell, same as EMA/LPL but BHX does not. I was under the impression that bags that do not fit into the cabin will be put into the hold free of charge and the dispatcher should have some tags at the ready, it only take a few seconds to open the hold and place them in.

fr-

[pee]

The agreement in both Girona and Reus has been reached today. Ryanair will add new planes and routes to these airports from April 2011. The target: 2-3 million pax annually from Girona, 500.000 pax on the Reus routes.

The agreement has been reached with the Catalonian Genaralitat. The last important condition to be met: AENA may not increase "their already high rates in Girona and Reus", otherwise the draft agreements will be cancelled and the aircraft will be repositioned to other airports with lower costs.

Does BigFrank have any comments on that?

[pee]

Just got some more details. The marketing support for Ryanair will amount to 5.8 million EUR per year in Girona, 3.2 million in Reus. In addition, Ryanair will receive some land (as far as I understand close to the Girona airport) where they can start the construction of a hotel and will be encouraged to erect a hangar at the airport.

It's a deal, only AENA could break it by raising fees.

[racedo]

In addition, Ryanair will receive some land (as far as I understand close to the Girona airport) where they can start the construction of a hotel and will be encouraged to erect a hangar at the airport.

Hotel is interesting as will it be used to house staff or is it designed as a new venture.

[heidelberg]

I choose Aer Lingus when possible because I am allowed my standard cabin bag PLUS my computer bag. Mrs H can also carry her handbag as a seperate item too.
If the overheads are full there is plenty of room under the seat in front of you.
Even when AL are more expensive than RYR I will choose AL because of the above = equals less hassle and stress.

[Binder]

It used to be the case (and probably still is) that the handling agent (not RYR staff) gained commission for any extra bag charges.

I know of one agent who claimed he gained £400 commission over two days on bag charges at the gate.

Christmas to pay for so be warned.....

Binder

[peppo_8787]

Today two new destinations have sprouted on the site of FR for PMO .. The routes to DUB and MAD. What's new?

[WallyWumpus]

Binder,

I would have thought that travelling with a bag that matches the appropriate dimensions and weight would have been standard advice anyway?

[edi_local]

I don't think the commission for the handling agents exist anymore, or if it does then it must be limited to certain airports or agencies. The people I know who work on the FR product do not get a penny, but get plenty of hassle if they let anyone off with a big bag or more than one item. :ugh:

[eu01]

Ryanair has just introduced something new, I'd call it "sales spoiling screen". Well indeed, while it's a protection against unauthorized access of the website by using the automated programmes of any kind, it may prevent some users from making their genuinely own bookings. Not everyone is patient enough to enter fairly long codes during every search. This may reflect in weaker sales, I'm afraid. Of course the unwanted screen scraping phenomenon that FR fights with also makes nuisance, but will this next one hurdle during the booking process really bring more benefits than harm in the economic terms?

[potash]

eu01 we have been putting that bl--dy code in for ages when flying from FUE in canary's to uk i just hide my ip address to uk one and that does the trick.

[davidjohnson6]

Technical term is CAPTCHA. Currently set so that after looking at flights on 8 different dates you have to enter a new code. Makes it a real pain if you are looking on the basis of 'Where shall we go on any 1 of 3 or 4 different weekends during the summer ?' - this of course affects mainly those living near major bases rather than outlying spokes. Those looking for a specific route on a specific date are however largely unaffected.

[racedo]

I forecast Capcrap being removed very quickly as it is annoying and likely to block people booking. A week of booking slowdown and it could be removed.

There are easier ways to stop screen scrapers involving credit card patterns and name recognition.

[CCFAIRPORT]

Resume : Brussels-Charleroi to Alghero-Fertilia
NEW : Alghero-Fertilia to London-Luton

[Coquelet]

It seems that Captcha has been removed from the RYR website.

[airnoc]

What the story with Kerry airport as all ryanair flight are ending march 2012 according to wikipidea?

[Jamie2k9]

What the story with Kerry airport as all ryanair flight are ending march 2012 according to wikipidea?

Nothing comfired yet but there is a problem between FR and KIR airport not sure the exact issue but thats the word going around.

[CCFAIRPORT]

2 NEW ROUTES FROM VERONA (Begins 27 March 2012)

Dublin Intl
Edinburgh

[pee]

Some earlier comments on that forum concerning the possible consequences of Ryanair's attempt to hinder the activities of so-called screen scrapers seem to be very accurate. Today, Travel Weekly (http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2011/11/21/38831/comment-what-now-for-ryanair-after-failed-attempt-to-cut-out-agents.html) writes:If Ryanair didn’t know how much it has the trade to thank for selling its seats it does now after last week's aborted attempt to block third parties booking on its website.(...)

If industry rumours are correct and commentators on our original story are right, Ryanair lost 80% of business in the short period that the verification measure was live.

No wonder it disappeared so quickly.

Of course Ryanair’s distaste for travel agent business and attempts to block screen scraping are nothing new and it has fought and lost a number of court cases around Europe.

But with the airline clearly so reliant on agents, and conversely some big UK agents hugely reliant on Ryanair by up to 60% it is claimed, this particular battle looks set to run.

What the airline was banking on last week is that its customers, on realising that they were not able to book via their chosen travel intermediary, would immediately turn to the Ryanair website itself.

But that naively assumes that most people who buy dynamically packaged holidays are naturally drawn to Ryanair and are confident enough and savvy enough to go online and put together their own holiday from scratch.

The fact is most of this custom turns to agents because they want someone else to do the work for them and offer them a holiday for the lowest price possible.

It’s not like these holidaymakers are fantastically loyal Ryanair customers who have been forced to use an agent because they have tied up all the seat availability and best deals. No one would mistake Ryanair for an airline that particularly goes out of its way to inspire loyalty through its fantastic customer service.

The millions of people who are booking Ryanair flights through third parties are just as happy to fly with easyJet, or Monarch or Jet2 as long as the deal is right. Did someone at Ryanair really think it would be able to redirect this business to its own website by adding another annoying step in the booking process?

The estimated 30% of Ryanair’s business that comes through the trade costs the airline nothing in direct payments, so why is it so determined to cut off this flow of bookings?

In the past it’s all been about price for Ryanair. Chief executive Michael O’Leary has been hugely critical of agents who he believes drive up price but add little value. However in his most recent assessment of Ryanair’s trading O’Leary was happy to talk about increased average fares.

Why? Because an airline that has based its performance to date on growing volume by opening up new routes has to, at some point, start to make those routes more profitable to keep the City happy.

The largest airline in Europe has to start making more money to achieve growth. And who, if not agents, are capable of pushing up average selling prices? There’s only so far Ryanair can go in driving up the basket value by increasing charges for ancillaries or dreaming up ever more outrageous costs.

What Ryanair appears to have underestimated is that agents who are specialists in putting together packaged holidays do add value.

They have strong consumer brands and offer the consumer one place to come to to book their holiday and, increasingly, peace of mind that everything is taken care of and their money is safe.(...)

So following last week’s aborted experiment what price Ryanair moving to significantly improve its holiday offering, as easyJet has done?

Or could we see a softening of its stance on agents now it knows the degree to which it shares its customers with other travel companies? Given O'Leary's past utterances on travel agents I wouldn’t hold your breath.
I'm not an actual travel agent, but I do organise group travels quite often and I know how FR has made ​​it difficult to, among else, carry out group bookings. Why? I think it's just one of very many issues this carrier underestimates. And like in the above case, many things could be revised.

[pee]

Some new routes for LEJ (Leipzig - Halle) to be announced tomorrow.
At least these:
BLQ - LEJ (2, 4, 6)
AGP - LEJ (1, 5)
PSA - LEJ (2, 4, 6)

[Centrefire]

Coquelet

Captcha is up and running again (1.25pm today)

[pee]

Captcha is up and running again
Mmm... let's think a bit. What the pax reaction could be?

A novice: Grrr, let's just move to another airline.
A versed customer:
- short-sightedly: Good! They'll sell less tickets, the prices must fall.
- later: Too bad! Cutting the routes again?

[Bengt]

I think it mainly will hurt FR. It is not easy to read at all, and very easy to make a mistake.
As I have understood it one of most important points regarding commercial internet sites is to make it easy to buy the goods with as little input as possible. This is exactly the opposite...

[boyzinblue]

I reckon the planned expansion at Leipzig-Halle is bad news for Magdeburg-Cochstedt? FR said 6 weeks ago they would be back in March, but as yet no flights from Cochstedt are bookable. FR are probably playing the 2 airports against each other.

[pee]

As I have understood it one of most important points regarding commercial internet sites is to make it easy to buy the goods with as little input as possible. This is exactly the opposite...
We both agree and I'm sure many else will have the same opinion and could vote with their feet... err, not exactly... hands and mice.

I really am perplexed by kind of unfriendly attitude towards customers - in this one and in many other small nuisances.

[CCFAIRPORT]

Some new routes for LEJ (Leipzig - Halle) to be announced tomorrow.
At least these: BLQ - LEJ (2, 4, 6)
AGP - LEJ (1, 5)
PSA - LEJ (2, 4, 6)



Normally the new routes from Leipzig are Faro and Malaga

[j636]

Security code lasted for a day

Comment: What now for Ryanair after failed attempt to cut out agents? - www.travelweekly.co.uk (http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2011/11/21/38831/comment-what-now-for-ryanair-after-failed-attempt-to-cut-out-agents.html)

And back from Today if the above is correct info then it will be gone tomorrow.

[racedo]

Of course Ryanair’s distaste for travel agent business and attempts to block screen scraping are nothing new and it has fought and lost a number of court cases around Europe.

Think Journalist is ensuring facts don't get in the way of the story like Screenscrapers being banned by various courts.

[Jamie2k9]

Some new routes for LEJ (Leipzig - Halle) to be announced tomorrow.
At least these: BLQ - LEJ (2, 4, 6)
AGP - LEJ (1, 5)
PSA - LEJ (2, 4, 6)


You may also other routes..that are/have being served from Berlin.

Rijeka should see new routes next summer to Frankfurt, Oslo, Brussels. Suposed to be 2 out of the 3.

[ssflyer]

Still no sign of BHX/GRO from April although the locals are saying it will be Wed/Fri/Sun.
Jamie-I am assuming the slow loading is due to backlog/GRO recent contract?
(can't be shortage of aircraft, if we get any more parked up at BHX they will be on the A45!)

[boyzinblue]

Leipzig-Halle get Faro and Malaga. There is no way FR will do Malaga from Cochstedt. I believe Girona, Gran Canaria and Alicante are also doubtful from Cochstedt.

[Guest 112233]

Its planned to move the A45 : Some extra useage of the "Parked Up" A/C in the form of new routes would be handy - Please see OP's comments( errierrly accurate) re Pax nos re OCT on the BHX thread.

CAT III

[Mr A Tis]

According to RYR web-site, reserved seating is being introduced onto all flights from Jan 10th 2012. €10 each way.

[daz211]

Im suprised Ryanair has not gone down the Canadian affairs line, They from what I can make out allow you to pay to pick any seat you wish and if you dont pay to pick your seat then you get whats left ...

Ryanair could lower the advertised fare by a few £ or Euro and put a price on every seat, lets say £10 exit/leg room, £5 window, £3 isle and £2 middle, This would mean putting a seat plan on the web/booking page but I think it would be a good optional charge earner.

Also this would work well with passengers traveling in groups or with children, I think many are put off flying with Ryanair to holiday destinations as there is no real way of guaranteeing sitting together

Boarding would be in three parts
1. Infants/special assistance.
2. Seated passengers.
3. All others.

[wowzz]

Fair point daz, but I think that to go down your route, which basically implies that every seat is pre-allocated, would entail a much longer boarding process than the 'new' Ryanair policy of only allocating seats on a selected number of seats.
Also, if I tried to book with Ryanair and then found that Mrs W and I could not sit together because only single seats were available, I might be tempted to switch to EZY, who state that they will try and seat pax together, regardless of any payment made.

[Andrew R]

Any news/speculation on new routes from Bournemouth? That place is screaming for routes!

[daz211]

I agree, good point, so maybe sell the front half of the A/C and have the back self seating and if your not at the gate on-time you dont get on :ok:

[wowzz]

Crickey Daz - we almost agree on something!

[airnoc]

What the story with Kerry airport as all ryanair flight are ending march 2012 according to wikipidea?

Looks the row with ryanair is settle at kerry as wikipidea have removed all flight ending end of march

[barrymah]

The 10 whatevers each way is the most likely. They could have increased the priority boarding to accommodate those who want a seat, but this way they get more money without being seen to increase a price....

Presumably the same boarding thing will apply, except it will be the seat reservers first... In most airports with RyR in my experience the staff release the 'mob' pretty quickly after the rich and famous If they continue that there'll be some fun with the ones who haven't found their seats.....

Personally I will continue my regular policy - nothing extra for MO'L he's doing fine.

[peba]

I believe they held back on this project in order to keep the profits up after expansion has stopped.No point in having huge profits all the way through expansion but as soon as it ends,then flat.This way they can fool the share holders into thinking they can sustain huge profits even after expansion,Maybe I am wrong but an interesting thought perhaps.

[gossipboy]

What's going on in Venice Treviso? Most routes previously on sale now are not (Ex IBZ or NRN) and others are pre-loaded on timetable section (NYO) but not on sale yet. Malaga, Barcelona, Girona on home page but not on sale.
Others are pre-loaded only (EDI)...
Goods news incoming? :confused:

[pee]

Ryanair announced today that it will base a 15th aircraft at CRL for a Summer season and will add 4 new routes starting in April'2012. These new routes are to

Chania,
Corfu,
Rodez ,
Memmingen

[eu01]

"Ryanair’s million seat gamble" it's a title of an interesting comment just published by TravelMole (http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1150412.php). Here is an abridged version:
Steve Endacott, chief executive of On Holiday Group, warns Michael O'Leary that he might have gone one step too far in his ongoing battle with the trade.

"After years of ignorance, Ryanair has finally realised how many agents were booking their flight and packaging them into holidays, due to the heavy use of credit card surcharge avoidance techniques via virtual booking cards.

/./Although their move is highly logical, as they were losing millions in yield from agents avoiding credit card fees, the sudden price hike will clearly reduce visibility and sales of their flights. When you're earning £50 a flight on luggage, empty seats are even more expensive!

The second move has been to block agents compiling databases of Rynair’s flight prices by introducing a “human” question interface e.g. enter these letters, before a search can be launched. This is less logical in my opinion. It is obviously annoying to its “real” direct customers and more importantly it cuts off a distribution channel I really do not think Rynair understand the size of ie. dynamically packaging agents.

I would estimate that 30% of dynamic packaging was based on Ryanair flights and hence the sale of over 1 million seats on leisure routes has been put at risk. Low-cost carrier load factors and yields are under threat currently, because of the decline of their core “high frequency short flight duration” city route network, due to the current economic climate.

/./In order to drive market leading flight pricing, Ryanair is dependent on ancillary income and believes that agents who package its flights are denting their accommodation, transfer and insurance sales by offering the customers cheaper options than those available on the Ryanair website.

In some ways Mr O’Leary may be right, but in the age of the internet I think it is he who is missing the key point. It's really easy for customers to shop around online and, given their mistrust of the Ryanair pricing, they are likely to shop around anyway, which is probably the main reason his sales of ancillaries are relatively low ie. his site is far to expensive.

Therefore, in his attempt to cut out agents, O’Leary is taking a 1m seat gamble, that the lost sales channel presented by dynamically packing travel agents will be made up by increased direct sales.

However, will it? Unlike easyJet, I am not convinced Rynair has the brand values for customers to trust it with their holiday requirements. At the moment customers are buying their holidays from trusted travel agency brands and accepting later in the booking path that their “bus service to resort” ie low-cost flight, is with Ryanair.

Are customers really going to visit the Ryanair website and build their own holiday? The answer is obviously that some will, however, I think Ryanair will quickly see a large drop on sales on leisure routes and may have to come back to the table.

EasyJet when faced with the same strategic issues, decided that if it could not beat dynamic packaging agents, that it should join them by launching easyJet Holidays, whilst at the same time providing a controlled XML supply of seats to DP agents where they charged a £6 per flight fee for the privilege.

I know Ryanair likes to be a leader and I greatly respect it for it, but in this case Mr O’Leary you might gain more by becoming a follower and working with the travel trade."
Generally I think it's not very wise to relay on just one sales channel, but apparently that's what MOL wants. The decision to self-cripple the most important Ryanair's vending place, their own website, by introducing Capcha, could become an important co-factor if sales fall. Later of course the source of possibly worsening indicators could be confounded and the blame laid on virtually anything else.

[PPRuNeUser0176]

Dublin - Girona will resume in March 4 weekly.

[Transportraition]

No posts for almost four days ! Everyone must away taking advantage of Ryanair's low fares ! Just packing my bag to do the same. Cheers !

[Sal73x]

Anyone knows how long we need to wait for the summer12 timetable?
Thanks

[eu01]

Have you noticed a new destination in Ryanair's network? Dole, France, a formerly military, war-time Luftwaffe airport. Dole is a commune in the Jura department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France, close to a Swiss border, population 25.000, small indeed. The fist route to Dole will lead... no, not from STN, from Porto. A weird choice.

[airhumberside]

Not that weird. FR fly from Porto to various small regional airports in France, including St Etienne, where it is the only FR destination

[daz211]

Well the time has come, I thought this would never happen but im off to another Airline I am sick of the whole Ryanair website, Ryanair used to be so easy and straight forward and if I have had enough what are new or less loyal passengers going to think of the mess and lack of visable flight dates, times and prices the last straw was the new security words I entred two but give up on my booking after I got the word wrong, why would anyone want to book a Ryanair flight that taks as long to book as it does to fly to your destination, It makes me so mad, I love the easy 20min drive to STN but would now rather travel to LGW or LTN to take my flight rather than waste most of my evening trying to book a flight on the stupid site, even when your through the security word you find "low fares available" and yes i know I can look on outher countries sites but WHY SHOULD I !!! so with out going over it all again BYE BYE RYANAIR, I guess I am one of many that just cant be :mad: anymore:ugh:.

Just to add I gave up on booking my next flight from STN to ACE and have booked LGW to ACE with easyjet and it was £20 cheaper.

[eu01]

Not that weird. FR fly from Porto to various small regional airports in France, including St Etienne, where it is the only FR destination
True. However, St. Etienne has 178,000 inhabitants and also Lyon is not far from its airport while Dole is much smaller.
How many people from Dole will fly to Porto every year? I wish Dole very well, but to my mind a very small town should start with a connection to much bigger place for such a route to survive.

@daz211
Ryanair is treating the booking system as a valuable treasury and their potential customers more and more like thieves that try to stole their precious tickets from that safe. A pity for them.

A friend of mine used to make regular searches on the FR website, something like half an hour every two weeks, it was a pleasure for him. Once a month or so he did find something and made purchases for himself or others. Yesterday he sent me a message: it's not a pleasure any more, I have to find something else. Daz, you're not alone, apparently.

[jferreira20]

eu01.

A lot of people will use the route. There is an enormous portuguese community in France and Switzerland.

[racedo]

A lot of people will use the route. There is an enormous portuguese community in France and Switzerland.

My thoughts exactly as Portugese population in France is estimated at just under 1 million and remember reading there were more Portugese born Mayors in France than any other European country, France excluded of course.

[daz211]

What im worried about is, If it has got to much for me, how many others are going to look elsewhere :ouch:. Many on here will tell you how I was one of the top supporters of Ryanair on this site and many others but there is only so much I can take :*.

Why would any web site be made so unuser friendly, so much so you cant see what day flights go where, you cant see how much flights cost and the site even tells you flights are available when there arnt any :ugh:.

infact it is easier to book a car on the Ryanair website than it is to book a flight, If Ryanair cant see how the website is turning long standing loyal customers away and stopping new customers from booking (not all) then I can only think they have got to big to fast and they need to slow down and take stock :ouch:.

For me it is to late, unless thing change and quick but ill be happy paying and driving that little bit more.

[LGS6753]

daz - Just in time to make SEN your local?

[eu01]

If Ryanair cant see how the website is turning long standing loyal customers away and stopping new customers from booking (not all) then I can only think they have got to big to fast and they need to slow down and take stock http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/shiner.gif.

For me it is to late, unless thing change and quickI think it could change, but only if the causation analysis (cause - effect) is made in a right way.
Portugese population in France is estimated at just under 1 millionWell, by analogy e.g. Shannon - Wroclaw works, so okay, let's wait and see what happens to Dole - Porto :rolleyes:.

[vic88]

Dole is quite a small city, but it is close to 2 larger cities : Dijon and Besançon. Both cities are far away from international airports and I'm sure that this route will be very apreciated by the local inhabitants.
And OPO has many connections to France, including some small cities. (LIL, BVA, XCR, TUF, LRH, EBU, BOD, RDZ, CCF and now DLE)

[OliWW]

Looks like FR will go down from 7 aircraft to 6 aircraft at EMA for S12, is there any truth in this??

[davidjohnson6]

Noticed that FR have now changed the booking section of the website. The security code / CAPTCHA used to kick in aftef you'd seen prices for 8 or 10 dates on a single route. Now it kicks in when you've seen prices on just 4 dates ! Guess somebody in Dublin is feeling really confident about customers being keen to book with FR

[Skipness One Echo]

I so can't be bothered as my eyesight isn't really great, it ususally takes 2-3 attempts to get through. Can someone expand on how the screenscrapers operate? Surely FR can tell it was booked via one and decline as per Ts and Cs?

[davidjohnson6]

Skip - once Ryanair take money from a credit / debit card, consideration (i.e. payment on a card) has been exchanged for something of value (namely a promise of transport on a flight), a legal contract has been formed. I'm ignoring cases where fraud has occurred or statute law has been broken in some way. If Ryanair want to refuse passage to a particular person because they suspect a screenscraper is involved but still operate the flight for everyone else, they probably need to decline to accept the credit / debit card before payment is made.

[jabird]

I was given a CAPTCHA the first time I searched for a flight on arriving at the site (but it should know I am a returning visitor).

This, together with having to agree to Ts & Cs BEFORE even searching, rather than at the time of booking, is one step too far.

I lost my respect for Stelios when he came out with his Fastjet idea and sounded like a spoilt brat throwing his rattle out of the pram.

With this latest move, MOL is chucking out any good will that many loyal customers will have shown over the years.

Re: Dole - to what extent is this Geneva North / Basel West - neither being Ryanair friendly airports, and also an alternative to Lyon from the north / east.

[pee]

All that Ryanair-made fuss about screen-scrapers encouraged me to try bravofly. Actually, it's faster. Best of all, it doesn't ask me to guess peculiar words and write them all the time. Good!
Actually, I didn't buy any tickets yet, but will consider for sure.

Something went wrong, Mr. Scrooge?

[EI-DAC]

On the italian side, no flight on sale yet for next S12 from Turin airport (TRN) and Ancona (AOI).

[lexoncd]

suddenly found I have a few days of leave to use up next week so I thought I would see what was available at a decent price. Considering Brussels for xmas markets or possibly Limoges and a bit of plonk and possibly nicer autumn weather.

So initially I looked at options from manchester...entered the captcha? letters...what a pain...then seeing nothing of real interest looked at Liverpool..then prompted for Captcha again...and again so then i thought Birmingham to Limoges.. again Captcha...well I've had enough of that so looked elsewhere and booked...

If it helps MOL I got fed up of using a credit card online where you have an additional security check of remembering an additional password that for all my travel/online I use one without....I guarantee it will be dropped shortly when conversion rates drop significantly from the casual browser who is tempted by looking at a range of offers...

[Jamie2k9]

Girona flights on sale for next summer.

[francisco_lb]

Hi Jamie,

Do u have any news about PMI? Many things are listening about it but nothing yet.

Regards
FLB

[boyzinblue]

Magdeburg Cochstedt now only showing Girona for Summer 2012. Malaga, Alicante und Las Palmas have been dropped.

[pee]

Ryanair has dropped its plans to create its base in Riga in the near future. In contrary, the number of flights to RIX will be reduced (by 30%) and few routes will be terminated. As announced, Ryanair will cancel its flights to Brussels CRL, Bremen and Tampere.

Ryanair calculates that the airport will lose approximately 300,000 passengers.

The decision comes after the introduction of new security fees at Riga International Airport.

[Cyrano]

eu01.

A lot of people will use the route. There is an enormous portuguese community in France and Switzerland.

I think much of the traffic will indeed be VFR. And while all passengers may be equal :hmm: as far as Ryanair is concerned, a largely-VFR traffic is surely less interesting for local Dole-region tourism bodies/local authorities, who are apparently funding this new route to the tune of EUR15 per passenger according to this French press report (http://www.leprogres.fr/actualite/2011/11/28/ryanair-atterit-a-l-aerport-de-dole-jura).

After all, it's one thing for the local authorities to be able to justify a subsidy for Ryanair on the basis that it's bringing lots of inbound tourists who will stay in hotels, go to restaurants, buy second homes and generally boost the local economy - but surely this route will be mostly bringing members of the Portuguese community in France back to Portugal on holiday (i.e. economic loss to the Dole region), and Portuguese people to visit their friends and relatives in France (not particularly lucrative for the region). Or am I missing something?

[GnRdL]

Ryanair has dropped its plans to create its base in Riga in the near future. In contrary, the number of flights to RIX will be reduced (by 30%) and few routes will be terminated. As announced, Ryanair will cancel its flights to Brussels CRL, Bremen and Tampere.

Ryanair calculates that the airport will lose approximately 300,000 passengers.

The decision comes after the introduction of new security fees at Riga International Airport.
Ryanair has lost its way... due to an aditional cost of 50ct / passenger. :yuk:

Regarding the captcha, I argue that Ryanair fares are less competitive and in several cases more expensive. My example, flying with Jetairfly the same day and at the same airport, 10 euros cheaper and 20kg bag included. :cool:

[Jorik]

The Dutch government will take a decision in December/January about the extension of the runway at Groningen Airport Eelde in Northern Netherlands from 1800m to 2500m. Works could start end of summer 2012. Talks between GAE and Ryanair are ongoing as a 2500m runway would allow Ryanair to operate to every destination they serve. It's very likely that Ryanair will return to Groningen when the extension is completed.

There are also talks with Wizz Air, Arkefly and Cityjet to start operating from Groningen and with Transavia and Corendon to increase the number of flights there.

[Bengt]

Two things have disturbed me and at least one of them has cost Ryanair some revenue.
The issue with Girona that caused them to postpone the loading of the summer schedule (summer in March, never mind...) made me book my planned flights (for easter, May and July) with Spanair instead. I am probably not the only one, but my family alone spent around € 1700 for those flights (three return flights, three people). These were not € 10 flights, probably more like € 40 + fees per flight and person....
Secondly the reCaptcha is really p---ing me off. I often browse thorugh different flights, both for looking for a specific flight but also looking for inspiration. I have not suffered from any delays when looking at schedules earlier but I really hate to try to read the strange words and this takes time....
Other businesses tries to make the order process as easy for the user as possible...
I honestly think this will hurt Ryanair's bottom line within quite a short horizon, I also doubt that the risk of letting screen scrapers publish Ryanair's prices would be so high. At the end people will book Ryanair anyway, even if it is through a third party.

[WJ888]

@ pee: According to Ryanair to reduce the number of flights from Riga by 30% :: The Baltic Course | Baltic States news & analytics (http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/transport/?doc=49497) not Brussels/Charleroi, but Bristol will be cancelled.

[Noxegon]

Though I hesitate to add a me too style post, I bought a trip from Dublin to London today; after two failed attempts at the captcha on Ryanair.com I decided not to investigate that route any further and bought a BMI flight into Heathrow instead. I think this captcha may actually hurt FR more than they realise.

[j636]

With UK APD going up in April and passengers who have booked will have to pay the extra before boarding the flights, are Ryanair going to absorb the increase to passengers who have all ready booked? Will they cut from the UK next summer, as said above looks like EMA losing an aircraft and how much is it going up by?

[pee]

With UK APD going up in April
With UK APD going up, I'd rather try to please customers by doing EVERYTHING possible for them to convince them to continue flying with the airline, certainly not by disturbing the bookings.
According to The Baltic Course not Brussels/Charleroi, but Bristol will be cancelled.
According to (all) Latvian sources Bristol, according to (all) Finnish sources (Elina Hakkarainen/ press agencies) CRL. We'll see.

[Facelookbovvered]

I think? the formula is inflation +5% so i guess around 10% a £1 or so on short-haul.

I read somewhere that the amount is to be confirmed in December, which we are now in!:confused:

[virginblue]

Though I hesitate to add a me too style post, I bought a trip from Dublin to London today; after two failed attempts at the captcha on Ryanair.com I decided not to investigate that route any further and bought a BMI flight into Heathrow instead. I think this captcha may actually hurt FR more than they realise.

Indeed. I was looking for some inspiration for a short trip around a certain date and the captcha made it so troublesome that I simply left the site and browsed Lufthansa and bought my tickets there. I might be bothered to try again if I have a set destination on a set date, but otherwise I will avoid the booking engine.

Even if it was a straightforward captcha, it would be very annoying, but the way it is set up, it must be really killing business - so difficult to read and so much to fill in.

[pee]

Even if it was a straightforward captcha, it would be very annoying, but the way it is set up, it must be really killing business - so difficult to read and so much to fill in.
It must be killing business indeed, the opinions are similar across Europe. However, I'm sure that the Air Passenger Duty or something alike will be accused for that, not captcha nor FR selfishness.

[CCFAIRPORT]

ONE NEW ROUTE (From March 2012)

Bydgoszcz to Glasgow Prestwick

Port Lotniczy im. Ignacego Jana Paderewskiego w Bydgoszczy (http://bzg.aero/1,aktualnosci,99.html)

[gd44]

4 New Routes

Barcelona, Bydgoszcz, Chania and Corfu from PIK for Summer 2012.

[FR-]

And will EMA be getting any new routes?

[Cazza_fly]

And will EMA be getting any new routes?


As posted on the EMA thread Barcelona, Corfu, Crete (Chania), Rhodes, Almeria and Zadar are all set to be new routes although Prague also shows on the OLCI listing too...?

[Jorik]

Looks like Ryanair are starting up routes to Prague again... According to the Ryanair online check-in routes to Birmingham, East Midlands, Frankfurt-Hahn and Stockholm-Skavsta.

It's not that it's simply outdated, because when they left Prague they onloy operated Dublin-Prague...

Do we have a return to Prague here?

[MARKEYD]

Bournemouth Malta now on the drop down online check in menu so hopefully something new soon !!

Lets also hope that Ryanair consider Crete from Bournemouth as this route was incredibly popular and always near full but only dropped by Olympic Holidays because of the failure of Euro Cypria

[Jamie2k9]

Prague flights are not returning, they were never taken out of the system when they were dropped.

Bournemouth - Malta not due back it was added by accident when Wroclaw was added again.

Suprised about PIK but with the selection of routes it to go after Jet 2 at GLA who are also starting Barcelona, Crete.

[vytgri]

Jamie, any comments about possible new routes from KUN for S2012? Berlin is visible again after some period, but no schedule loaded...

[Jamie2k9]

Glasgow PIK - BCN will be daily replacing Girona. BZG will be 2 weekly (thur, sun) and CFU (thur) and CHQ (tue) will be one weekly.

[positive]

What's the story with Dublin and their summer routes is S12 the same as S11?

[sawtooth]

No word on KIR either, still nothing bookable past March.

[CCFAIRPORT]

2 NEW ROUTES FROM MILAN BERGAMO


Kefalonia (New ryanair's destination)
Corfu

3 NEW ROUTES FROM FRANKFURT HAHN


Lamezia Terme
Nador
Tallinn

5 NEW ROUTES FROM PISA


Cork
Malmö
Kefalonia
Kos
Chania Creta

[peppo_8787]

We hope also open new routes from Palermo.

[befree]

MOL sold 4 million shares in his airline. It is likely the airline will be reporting falling pax over the next few months,.

[FR-]

Befree, MOL sell sales some of his cheap shares every year, and a few weeks later buys more.

fr-

[racedo]

MOL sold 4 million shares in his airline. It is likely the airline will be reporting falling pax over the next few months,.

Ryanair owned by its shareholders of which Michael O'Leary is one and it has never been his airline which seems a difficult subject for you to comprehend.

Directors have pretty limited times to deal in shares simply because they have accesss to information that acting on it and dealing in shares would be classified as illegal during many times of the year. Its why they required to record and make statements to Stock Exchange of any dealings.

If you bothered to check as its all online you found find normally MO'L seems to trade in shares in June/July but he didn't this year and left it later.

The Passenger number not increasing is what they have publicly and openly stated in announcements because they parking aircraft as profitable opportunites for use are not available.

So what was your point exactly ?

[PPRuNeUser0176]

2 new aircraft arrived for Ryanair today. (EI-ESY/Z)

[FR8364]

Have dropped the routes from Seville to Liverpool, East Midlands and Bristol once and for all? They had a very good load factor in Summer 11. Is very strange this dropped. Have only dropped these routes from these UK's Airports or also others routes have dropped from LPL, BRS and EMA? Thank you
SVQ

[wowzz]

Still no flights loaded for ALC after the end of March, as far as I can see.
Is MOL really planning to lose all his summer traffic to one of the major Spanish destinations and 'park up' the aircraft, because of the air-bridge dispute?

[racedo]

Have dropped the routes from Seville to Liverpool, East Midlands and Bristol once and for all? They had a very good load factor in Summer 11. Is very strange this dropped. Have only dropped these routes from these UK's Airports or also others routes have dropped from LPL, BRS and EMA?

Its quite possible that the full summer schedule is not loaded yet as normally takes a couple of weeks and even then flights will change as the tighten up the schedule.

[ericlday]

Friends came out today from Luton and the hand luggage was weighed at the gate. So beware that you will be checked on leaving.

[Jamie2k9]

ALC should be out soon, they have removed a number of routes from the booking system last week so looks like they are not going to wait any longer to get the problems sorted and will just cut instead.


Have dropped the routes from Seville to Liverpool, East Midlands and Bristol once and for all? They had a very good load factor in Summer 11. Is very strange this dropped. Have only dropped these routes from these UK's Airports or also others routes have dropped from LPL, BRS and EMA?


The booking system got its major seasonal update last week and all the above flights have being dropped, loads may of being great but could almost gaurentee that yeilds were very low.

Riga cuts/reductions:
Bristol - canceled from 9 Jan
Bremen - canceled from 10 Jan
Tampre - seasonal will not return
London Stansted - reduces from 14 weekly to 10 weekly

[jabird]

Have dropped the routes from Seville to Liverpool, East Midlands and Bristol once and for all?

The usual full plane, route dumped question. But Jamie, why would yields have been so low - SVQ is a great city in its own right for us city-break / history / architecture types, but it is also sunny (maybe too hot), and within easy reach of numerous parts of Andalucia where people have villas, including coast.

Might I suggest it has more to do with the cost base - someone mentioned airbridges - SVQ, perhaps like BIO is one of AENA's more 'upmarket' airports - might not suit MOL's bargaining, might be easier to use XRY, although afaik, this has never seen UK routes beyond STN?

On the same note, what was wrong with GRX - again, another great city, or is it too much of a one-fort wonder? Easy day trip from AGGP / LEI & costas?


(PS - Pee, wouldn't personally touch Bravofly with a bargepole. Brother booked flights with them for his father in law LOS-TIP-LGW. They kepy denying that the flights had been cancelled due to small matter of disturbances in the TIP area. Anyway, we don't have threads to book travel sites, so I'll leave it at that!)

[WallyWumpus]

As someone who operates into and out-of SVQ on a daily basis, I can assure you it is anything but "upmarket" :ooh:

No airbridges used by RYR either.

[j636]

November traffic falls 8%

Ryanair Passenger Numbers Drop 8% as Carrier Grounds Planes - Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-05/ryanair-passenger-numbers-drop-8-as-carrier-grounds-planes.html)

[LGS6753]

Where are the "80" parked-up Ryanair 737s?

[GnRdL]

Where are the "80" parked-up Ryanair 737s?
Principally in Stansted and Birmingham. Other places: Dublin and Charleroi.

[clareview]

Not sure that it is the same 80 all the time - there is a rotation so the numbers sitting on the ground at any one place may change from day to day, as may the location

[GayFriendly]

Principally in Stansted and Birmingham


FR seem to prefer to park planes at BHX rather than fly them from there.....which means that BHX must have very competitive long term parking fees as opposed to landing fees. What a pity then that the eight or so parked up at any one time aren't used to beef up the stagnant FR route offerings at BHX

[delta154]

MOL holding press conference tomorrow at BLL(Billund airport) New base??

seem to be a lot of routes in the booking engine that aren't broken down into 'countries' like other airports.

[befree]

How many planes will be parked up next winter when the economy will be just as bad, the oil price may be even higher.

I also suspect the length of the winter parking may grow from a few months up to 6-8 months. With MOL taking out more screenscarpers the PAX numbers fall.
We also have lots of risks like

end of Euro
a war in iran

[FR-]

befree, here we go again . . . . . when will the mods take action?

fr-

[racedo]

FR-

Come on, the amusement factor is worth it in a Chicken Little way.

[heidelberg]

I am surprised Ryanair has reduced its Dublin/Malaga flights to 4 days a week for the forseeable future.
And, Aer Lingus are continuing to fly 7 days a week to from DUB/AGP.
Wonder what is the reasoning behind Ryanair's move?

[befree]

This morning Easyjet released its growth & load factor for November. It is growing pax at 3.5% and has 88.3% of seats sold. This is in contrast to FR who have -7.5% growth and only 80% of seats sold. FR is being badly hit by the downturn as it targets pax who had least money in the first place and are most cost senstive.

[jabird]

heidelberg,

I suggest that as with many routes where FR compete, frequency really isn't prime concern. Just being there will pull enough pax their way, and lower frequency means they can get higher yields - especially as the 738s have more seats to fill than rivals' Airbuses.

Ironic if BLL does turn into a base as we are discussing the BHX car park, as BLL is one of many axed routes from BHX.

[mart901]

I think reducing capacity is as much about raising margin as anything, I'm sure people are getting more savvy in these times in the way of not paying for ancilary things. The newspapers and internet have ran many stories on how to avoid such charges. Recently Ive priced up many flights to Ireland and Ryanair is no longer the cheapest or most frequent, on a wide span of dates, although I know price can change like the wind.

[jabird]

Yes, not just the flight or the avoidable charges, but also I assumed people then just went on autopilot to the car hire hotels etc. No way any savvy traveller would book a rental car with Ryanair these days, much cheaper to shop around, rather than rely on just one provider. At least baby use Car Trawler so you can compare deals, but even this not the cheapest by a long shot.

[INKJET]

Easyjet are starting from a lower point in terms of pax numbers and I think all FR are doing is taking advantage of their lower cost base to park aircraft to improve yield. Don't forget that a larger % of FR flight staff are "self employed" and only earn when FR earn ie when flying so flying an aircraft below the break even point in pax and yield term can make it cheaper to park it.

Jet2 bmibaby all have a % of their respective Fleets parked in the very slow months Jet2 don't have the Sharm market either this year. Boh baby & Jet2 have crews on seasonal contracts and this will likely grow over the years to come, there is no way that the likes of Monarch can enter this market however good the product, the low co's that park aircraft and their crews in the winter, without paying crews to twiddle their thumbs for 5 months have a huge cost advantage over any airline that employs crews on full time contract, again very shrewd as a business plan, less so if you work for them for part of the year.

[Seljuk22]

FR announced Billund as their 48th Base from March 2012 with 2 based a/c
Ryanair opens Billund base | Irish Examiner (http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/business/ryanair-opens-billund-base-531158.html)

Passengers (bookings) November 2011:
FR: 4.68 million
EZY: 3.82 million
gap: 0.86 million

[mn06]

Is there a reason behind S12 Murcia flights being made unavailable? They still appear somewhat on the timetables page...

[j636]

UPDATE Ryanair CEO: Greece Euro Exit Would Fuel Tourism Boom - WSJ.com (http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20111206-704166.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter)

Looks like he realised he can't get his hands on Aer Lingus...

[j636]

Was the travel tax in ROI scrapped in the Budget yesterday/today or any deals from the DAA metioned in it??

[Jamie2k9]

I am surprised Ryanair has reduced its Dublin/Malaga flights to 4 days a week for the forseeable future.
And, Aer Lingus are continuing to fly 7 days a week to from DUB/AGP.
Wonder what is the reasoning behind Ryanair's move?

It was only 3 weekly for November, would not be suprised if it goes back to 3 in Jan/Feb. Remenber Aer Lingus is still the top carrier between Dublin - Malaga...


Is there a reason behind S12 Murcia flights being made unavailable? They still appear somewhat on the timetables page...


Taken off sale as FR are waiting for confomation if Murcia will be open next summer or not.

Was the travel tax in ROI scrapped in the Budget yesterday/today or any deals from the DAA metioned in it??

No, same deal as before if Ryanair and Aer Lingus add routes the tax will be scrapped, otherwise its here to stay.

[jabird]

Ryanair launching a base in a town so close to the airport you can walk to it?

Is MOL feeling ok?

I think if he could buy up the Lego company and find a way to incorporate a re-assembly fee into their sets, he'd be onto even more of a winner!

Or is BLL replacing MMX as CPH west?:ugh:

[FR-]

Ryanair launching a base in a town so close to the airport you can walk to it?

You never been Pisa?

FR-

[jabird]

You never been Pisa?

Yes, fair point, but still a short train journey between airport and city. My first train from Florence was actually cancelled, so pushed for time I asked a taxi driver how much from that tower thingy to the airport and he said €50! I still got the bus, rather than walked, but the airport is indeed very close, and great views of the city from takeoff too.

Billund is more of Denmark's answer to EMA, especially as AAR is so far from city. As the airport was built for the Lego company, it takes the town's name, but Legoland itself must generate fair amount of inbound tourism, when open.

[GnRdL]

Taken off sale as FR are waiting for confomation if Murcia will be open next summer or not.
Murcia Corvera won't be ready for next summer.

There is not radio navigation aids and no budget for them. Cartography 0%, emergency plans, validation, and many more...

In addition, AENA have to renew contracts with companies that offer the calibration service of radio navigation aids.

[pee]

Ryanair launching a base in a town so close to the airport you can walk to it?
There are actually several FR airports situated very close to local towns. Pisa airport very close to PISA (and only connected to Florence by bus and train), Bergamo airport very close to BERGAMO (and connected by bus to Milan), Bremen airport very close to BREMEN where you can use the tram to the centre in less than 10 minutes and so on.
The problem isn't in many cases the location of these airports. Unfortunately, Ryanair serving (in significant part) LOCAL communities there provides them with the limited number of point-to-point connections only. What is still good for Bergamo and Bremen, the towns big enough to have dozens of routes, is probably not enough for even smaller places, like Brindisi or Cork. Without many chances to build some reasonable connections (even self-made if not official) that doesn't serve these communities well enough, it's not versatile at all.
.

[jabird]

Pee,

On the trip in question, I flew BHX-BLQ then returned PSA-BHX, unfortunately neither exist anymore.

Base was Florence - now FLR is also very close to city, but runway not FR friendly.

Airports you can genuinely walk to where you want to go are rare - and ones served by FR rarer still. However, there are indeed plenty of places where Ryanair use main or only airport, or as you say where airport is close to named city.

There are also a few cases where the Ryanairport is closer to the city than the 'main' airport - eg CIA, GSE, and BHD when they used it.

[racedo]

You never been Pisa?

Or Gatwick where walk into Horley takes 10 minutes or 20 minutes into Crawley

[PPRuNeUser0176]

With 2 more aircraft delivered today are FR just going to park them up?

[smith]

You can quite literally walk to Prestwick town centre from the airport in about 3 or 4 minutes I'd say. However it is known as GLASGOW Prestwickand it would take you about 8 hours to walk there doing a steady 4mph, and again you would probably get arrested for waking on the motorway :-O

[Jamie2k9]

Bookings on flights from Zaragoza after 24 March have being suspened becasue of a row over Gov support. Should be resloved soon but if there is no money there will be no flights.

[Hollymead]

Pisa is close , but if any City is easier than Tram 6 to Bremen I would like to hear about it .

[Noxegon]

I've walked from PIK into town for some dinner...

[peppo_8787]

preloaded new flight Palermo-Madrid for next summer --3-5-7

[jabird]

Hollymead, by nature of the fact you have waited for, paid for, and then got on a tram, that makes it hard work! :ugh:

Within Europe, served by locos (but I doubt they will ever please MOL), a reasonably significant destination, if not much of a population, AND you get to walk across the runway - can't beat GIB :)

Airports that actually have 'serious' intercontinental flights that you could walk from (although a quick heli spin across to Ceuta would make GIB intercontinental, politics aside)? I've done GVA in about 40 mins, LCY is good for an exhibition at Excel, as long as you aren't taking the stands with you!

[ssflyer]

Following the considerable price hike for fares in 2012 and the introduction of captcha,here are a couple of suggestions for the new advertising slogan:-

"Ryanair-the not so low fares airline"
"Ryanair- book us if you can"

[jabird]

SSF,

"Ryanair- book us if you can"

Excellent, or do you mean:

Ryanair - CAPTCHA me if you can?

[rareair]

LTN is incredibly close to Luton, an easy walk from my friend's grandmothers house where I leave my car - of course it's marketed as a London Airport which it's nowhere near!

[mart901]

Belfast City airport is very close to the city, not an ideal walk to the centre but certainly as the crow flies its near!

[ssflyer]

jabird
"Ryanair - CAPTCHA me if you can?"
love it.

[CCFAIRPORT]

5 NEW ROUTES FROM BILLUND


Carcassonne
Corfu
Krakow
Venice Treviso
Zadar
6 NEW ROUTES FROM MARSEILLE



Bordeaux
Ibiza
Oujda
Paris Beauvais
Paris Vatry
Zadar

[barrymah]

Apropos closeness/convenience; Eindhoven is one of the best, imo, low cost bus every 20 mins gets you to the station in 20 mins. The station has connections all over. Easy-peasy connections to A'dam and Maastricht/Aachen for ex.

Cannot be said for all FR destinations, I know.

B

[CCFAIRPORT]

1 NEW ROUTE FROM EAST MIDLANDS


La Rochelle

Another new route has been announced by the airdb.com website from Billund to Tallinn but not confirmed by RYANAIR

[2J&D]

Any one heard anything about FR expanding their Croatia routes from BRS? Would love to see a PUY or ZAD flight!

[PPRuNeUser0176]

Ryanair to raise peak baggage fees - RT News (http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1208/ryanair-business.html)

[j636]

A few days ago was in STN and got talking to one on the ground handlers and was told the FR profits on route from LPA,TFS,ACE and FUE have taken a hit and there has being a general reduction on flights for all 4 airports next summer. As a matter of interest what are the busiest International flights from the 4 airports in the summer months of July and August, I know it varies other months of the year. He also said he expects further cuts from STN next year.

In time will this not happon to the Greek, Cyprus routes as they will do well now as they are new to FR.

[jabird]

A few days ago was in STN and got talking to one on the ground handlers and was told the FR profits on route from LPA,TFS,ACE and FUE have taken a hit

I would expect a baggage handler to be an excellent source of info on load factors, but I'm not sure how much he would really know on yields.

As it happens though, he may well be right, it is a simple question of distance. Most passengers might not be accountants, but they can do a simple cost benefit equation - if they can reach a sunny destination on the Spanish costas for £50, but the Canaries are £100, they won't go.

Now the sun may be better in the Canaries in the winter, but I think people still have certain expectations of the kind of cheap fares they think locos, and particularly Ryanair should deliver.

Ditto for Cyprus, slightly less so for Greece.

[PPRuNeUser0176]

Would say they have with the cost of fuel, one thing is for sure there fares from Dublin last summer make Aer Lingus look like the low cost carrier.

As for the UK compitation could also be a factor.

[Jamie2k9]

Murcia flights back on sale. As for Canaries routes

As a matter of interest what are the busiest International flights from the 4 airports in the summer months of July and August, I

Not certain but Dublin and London STN would have the most flights with the bussiest at that time of year being Glasgow PIK and London STN from TFS daily and Dublin from ACE daily.

[befree]

Ryanair to raise peak baggage fees - RT News

Goodwill is lost every time Ryanair sting pax with £60 charge for boarding card or a fortune for another bag.

We see PAX spending more on basic fare to avoid ryanair. In November most other airlines have been adding Pax at Ryanair's expense. BA, Easyjet etc can run normal program of flights.

[positive]

I think Aer Lingus will be very happy about this in Dublin.... having used both Ryanair and aer Lingus a huge amount (approx 20 times) each year for the last 6 years I'm booking Aer Lingus a lot more now than a couple of years ago.Its not only the price has narrowed a lot but the inflight comfort too.Ryanair are still a great airline from Dublin with a super route network but Aer Lingus are catching up fast....

[pug]

HUY-ALC days and times removed from the timetable though still available in the drop down menu. A victim of the dispute or could they be changing days/frequency?

[pee]

HUY-ALC days and times removed from the timetable though still available in the drop down menu.
Oh dear! The route from Liverpool to Tampere ended long time ago, in March' 2007, but still is available in the (secondary) drop down menu (SkySales). So what? Just a nuisance, as you keep getting the information:
Going Out From Liverpool - Tampere
Sorry, there are no available flights departing on the 15 May - 21 May
This may be because:
The flight you have chosen is full
The route selected has not yet commenced operation
...
It's Ryanair style, so to say.

Goodwill is lost every time Ryanair sting pax with £60 charge for boarding card or a fortune for another bag.
We see PAX spending more on basic fare to avoid ryanair. In November most other airlines have been adding Pax at Ryanair's expense. BA, Easyjet etc can run normal program of flights.
I think Ryanair has lost momentum a while ago. I used to be very optimistic about them. Not a poor person myself, I like the idea people travelling very inexpensively across Europe. Great idea put into effect by them and it worked very well. But let me tell... an exaggeration is not a good thing either. Screwing costs into the ground - fine! That's all? Something has been forgotten here. It cannot be the only measure of success, it's not enough. Some basic kindness towards the customers and partners is just a precondition, some comfort as well. These numerous PR-stunts, these continuous prevarications and conceitedness, this ill-mannered publicity, hidden costs, now the Captcha-nonsense, everything matters! These baggage fees... okay, I don't care. Recently I flown with Air France to Portugal, could have taken 46 kg baggage for free and took just a hand baggage, don't need more, but for most pax it's important to bring some presents, that will influence their choices too.

Quo vadis Ryanair, where are you going? Still do not realize anything? People keep flying as long as you are cheap. You wanted pax to make their choices only based on prices. As we've noticed, the prices keep rising. What do you offer instead... further cuts?

[racedo]

Goodwill is lost every time Ryanair sting pax with £60 charge for boarding card or a fortune for another bag.

We see PAX spending more on basic fare to avoid ryanair. In November most other airlines have been adding Pax at Ryanair's expense. BA, Easyjet etc can run normal program of flights.

Right and could you provide some detail regarding this "WE" ..................just some research done by a number of legitimate agencies rather than the old record which you play every month.

Or is this just another of your wet dreams put into print.

[mart901]

It's hardly a selling point is it?

[PPRuNeUser0176]

Was announced today that Ryanair would reduce Riga flights by 20% and not the planned 30%.

[Jamie2k9]

KUN to lose Paris BVA to VNO and Gothenburg dropped from end of March.

[eu01]

KUN to lose Paris BVA to VNO That's interesting. VNO to BVA is already in Wizzair's schedule. While Wizz has its base in VNO, FR has neither in VNO nor in BVA and in spite of that they bother to switch to VNO. KUN/BVA and VNO/BVA would have been complementary, now it turns to become a head to head competition. Big boys want to wage war again? I think Wizz is not the easiest target and may prove to be a winner too (as happened e.g. on NYO to GDN route).

[Wozik]

So KUN is becoming a base for W flights for RYR? They're building a station there, have an hangar, so kinda just quitting KUN does not seem viable.

But it's hard to understand RYR strategy for the KUN base now...

[eu01]

A good comment on RYR strategy gives The Independent today: Ryanair's new fees: £1 for your ticket, £5 for your sandwich – £100 for your bag (http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/ryanairs-new-fees-1-for-your-ticket-5-for-your-sandwich--100-for-your-bag-6275045.html).
By the way: these £1 ticket prices are not achievable any more, it seems. Good! What a high quality service will be introduced in return for all these price rises? Is it New Free Online Puzzle Game reCAPTCHA Security Check? Cool, pax will be extremely satisfied, I'm sure. :cool:

[daz211]

Can Ryanair see the % of traffic to its website ?
Can Ryanair see how many leave the site without booking ?
Can Ryanair see how many leave without booking after one attempt or two or three attempts and before and after "CAPTCHA".

I know of three groups of friends, 14 in total that have booked with Easyjet after leaving the Ryanair website, sick of "CAPTCHA".

I myself have lost all love for Ryanair and have booked ACE with Easyjet from LGW even though it adds an hour to the drive and even though the flight times are not as good with Easyjet.

You cant tell me that Ryanair has not seen a massive fall in booking since CAPTCHA was added to the site, everyone I talk to seems to be looking at EZY, BA, MON ect so I wonder how many people out there are doing the same, It must be hurting Ryanair's pockets or it will soon, it has to be.

[davidjohnson6]

daz - I find myself taking a view similiar to yours, namely having once been a big fan of FR but now thoroughly put off with the introduction of CAPTCHA. I notice however, that the FR website seems to have been slightly changed recently, so that one gets to see 10 one-way prices rather than just 4, before one has to re-enter a CAPTCHA code - presumably because someone realised bookings were down.

Assuming FR have some degree of control over the management of their website and haven't completely outsourced it (job ads for website developers on the FR website indicate they retain a significant degree of control), it would seem *very* likely that they have a large amount of information as to how people interact with the FR website. In particular, the cookies that are sent from bookryanair.com to your PC should be providing plenty of information to Dublin. Any website developer with even the smallest degree of competence should be able to do some sort of analysis on customer behaviour and track what happens when new features are introduced.

The thing that puzzles me, is that looking round the web, FR seem to have trialled this in one or 2 countries earlier this year - Spain seems to be mentioned regularly - but I don't know if this is true or not. If CAPTCHA *was* trialled for one or two countries, presumably someone in Dublin would have had a good look through the numbers to see what effect it had on bookings before rolling it out to the rest of Europe. Either this trial was only very small scale, or the analysis was done poorly, or adding CAPTCHA actually has little effect on bookings but just dissuades visitors who have no intention of buying anyway - anyone, particularly those living in Spain, able to comment on this ?

[eu01]

Either this trial was only very small scale, or the analysis was done poorly ...or the analysis wasn't done at all! FR publicly declares they do not need any damn researches, they just do what they believe will work. Moreover, most of any kind of authoritarian organizations (in economy as well as in politics) usually tend to blindly believe that they are just right, keep relying on previous success and waking up to reality much later, sometimes too late.

[fa2fi]

Seriously think people are putting too much emphasis on the captcha. It's no more annoying than navigating through the booking and avoiding the optional extras. I find it amazing people will go to another website of another airline and start the whole booking progress again. Is it not just as easy to tap in a few letters. It even tells you the letters out loud if you have problems. Craigslist uses captcha and it doesn't do them any harm. Is it really that hard?

[eu01]

@fa2fi

Navigating, avoiding the annoyances, trying, re-starting, becoming annoyed again... Sure, the ones like you, possibly like me and many else too will not get annoyed enough to discontinue, but for some it could be one step (one annoyance) too far. If it drives away just 10 per cent of potential customers, does it matter? In the economic terms such a 10% drop in sales it's much, believe me. But... we are living in the free world and indeed, if the airline wants to do business this way, there is nothing we can do about it. I'm just wondering what was the point of publishing these MOL's confidences in 2010... forgotten?
O'Leary also said the Dublin-based airline will need a new chief executive as growth slows, admitting that his controversial management style would be out of place in a more mature business.

The airline is facing pressure on costs as it moves into major airports closer to city centres in a quest for more passengers and will also be under pressure to improve levels of service. "We have to move away over the next number of years from being obsessed with having the lowest fares in the market," O'Leary said.

He added that Ryanair will have to become a more sophisticated operation as the business reaches maturity: "Growth rates start to slow down significantly and it becomes more about the brand game, telling all the lies that you need to tell to get the fares up."

In a departure from his usual business philosophy, O'Leary said Ryanair would need to trumpet attributes other than cheap fares – such as its young aircraft fleet and "terrific" in-flight serviceThe fares are going up - what about this brand issue, customer orientation and friendliness and the quality of service, including the ease of use of the website?

[fireflybob]

Ryanair chairman sells off €14.5m worth of shares (http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/ryanair-chairman-sells-off-euro145m-worth-of-shares-2960351.html)

[potash]

If CAPTCHA *was* trialled for one or two countries, presumably someone in Dublin would have had a good look through the numbers to see what effect it had on bookings before rolling it out to the rest of Europe. Either this trial was only very small scale, or the analysis was done poorly, or adding CAPTCHA actually has little effect on bookings but just dissuades visitors who have no intention of buying anyway - anyone, particularly those living in Spain, able to comment on this ?

Yes out hear in Fuerteventura we have been putting the annoying letters in for quite a while now, at first i thought i had a bug in my computer, i found relief from this annoying add on by changing my ip address to a uk one but alas no more i am stuck with it now.:ugh:

[Flowerdream]

Any new routes for Maastricht known yet?

[Jorik]

Nope, no new routes for Maastricht so far. The rumour that Ryanair would leave MAA is also not true. The routes to Girona, Malaga, Tenerife, Pisa, Trapani, Faro and Porto will be restarted in the Summer12 schedule (from March 25). Alicante cancelled, but who knows what will come from negociations between FR and ALC.

[Syntax]

O'Leary also said the Dublin-based airline will need a new chief executive

A quote repeated biannually for almost his duration at the helm. He'll be there forever, it's not for financial reasons. His ego is interwoven to the whitehouse.

[j636]

The airline is facing pressure on costs as it moves into major airports closer to city centres in a quest for more passengers

If the airline can see this why does this not apply to Dublin, Stansted and Berlin which are all major airports yet FR cut services from them. :confused:

[racedo]

A quote repeated biannually for almost his duration at the helm. He'll be there forever, it's not for financial reasons. His ego is interwoven to the whitehouse.

Nope he will not be, he long realised how far he can take Ryanair.

[jabird]

If the airline can see this why does this not apply to Dublin, Stansted and Berlin which are all major airports yet FR cut services from them.

a) Dublin - never ending spat re: new terminal, costs etc. That alone will stop MOL from retiring.

b) Generally the least major of the (formerly known as) BAA 3.

c) New airport, MOL would probably rather still use the old SXF terminal.

Re: CAPTCHAS. My understanding is that Ryanair keep website management in house, but I recall not too long ago when every other airline was playing the SEO game and adding pages about where they went to keep google happy, Ryanair were very slow to follow. Theoretically, a retrograde move could be put right within seconds, but there is probably some kind of analysis / evaluation period.

I suspect that many people on this site fall in to the category of liking to sniff around / look at destinations, but actually make bookings less often. I for one have persevered on many a site because I have wanted a particular product and by the time I go through the 10th CAPTCHA / re-enter details, I just decide it is more effort to start again with another provider, if indeed there is another provider.

Ryanair.com is basically the website any Web developer will love to hate - the colours are nasty, and there are loads of obstacles preventing you getting where you want. Yet, it has historically at least, put more bums on seats than any other.

I hope that the CAPTCHAs will prove more trouble than they are worth, but I won't be surprised if they are still around for a while yet.

[barrymah]

quote - "and by the time I go through the 10th CAPTCHA / re-enter details,"

Has anyone analysed why? Is it definitely at Ryr? Maybe you have a poor liaison?? An error in the input may have been introduced en route, have you ever checked your routing??

[pee]

Dear barrymah, just imagine kind of a virtual screw. Obviously, it's in the website/ booking system server settings somewhere. First, it was "screwed" just a little bit. Every 10th attempt to search or book had triggered Captcha. Unfortunately for FR, some "hostile screen-scrapers" still fared very well in spite of Capcha. Let's tighten the screw - said one of the well-advised. It was done. Captcha started to show up every 3rd attempt. What? BravoFly and others still offering FR bookings while at the same time the bookings via carrier's own booking system falling (perhaps dramatically, who knows)? Too bad! Let's loose the screw again! That's why Captcha comes every 10th attempt (or so) again.

Kind of fairy tale, you see :p

[daz211]

Captcha alone was not the only reason I and a large group of friends give up on our recent Ryanair booking to ACE from STN.

How can any company wanting you to buy direct from there website think that customers will be happy trying to book or buy blind :ugh:. Not only do you have to get past Captcha then you get greated with LOW FARES AVAILABLE fan bloody tastic then you have to click on a date where Ryanair say they have a flight only to find they dont have a flight :mad:. I dont know what the law is on this matter but as far as I can see Ryanair are advertising a flight for sale that does not even fly on the date they say that they have low fares available on this day date route :=.

Its like going to Sainsburys website to do some shopping you want some chicken you entre chicken in the search box and you get WE HAVE CHICKEN AVAILABLE no price no size would you add it to your basket ? even if you did try and add it to your basket you would then get a message telling you they dont have chicken so you continue shopping then a message saying you need to entre a code to continue shopping so you entre a code and try to by beans yet again we have beans available ...... well you get the picture its pointless why oh why would any company treat customers this way :rolleyes:.

It would not happen at Sainsburys or anywhere else so why at Ryanair :confused:.

[jdcg]

That's completely right. Their website has got progressively more unwieldy to use and more and more frustrating. I've got one more flight booked with FR and then that's it for me. Can't be doing with their evil payment card options anymore. Sad really. I never had any great objections to them but it's just become more and more a degrading process to buy into their product, such as it is.

[mart901]

And then if you do book the degredation continues through departure gates, on board generally untill you are broke and never really stops till you get off the plane! Many people lump them in the same boat as EZY, but having flown out of Luton with both recently I found EZY way ahead from website to on board, far friendlier and more helpfull crew who seem to really enjoy their jobs and leave you looking forwards to the next flight......that surely must mean a lot to people, I'm sure customers still expect decent service from FR no matter how low the fare I wonder if the public we're surveyed how many just never use them again?

[ara01jbb]

Compare the CAPTCHA and general Ryanair.com experience with the new iOS and Android apps that EasyJet launched last week. Still not sure if I'd always buy flights without the luxury of computer screen to see a range of dates at once, but once logged in, the app is incredibly fast and easy to use. If you're registered, all it needs is the CVV number of your saved card. I booked a flight to BFS in about 45 seconds over the weekend. Looking forward to intergrated electronic boarding passes that are promised in the next major update :ok:

[daz211]

Sorry Jdcg you are not authorised to reply or comment on my post
Please enter the following code to gain access for the right to reply

cANtB eArsED 12363545,

:E:ok::}:yuk::{

[WHBM]

you get greated with LOW FARES AVAILABLE fan bloody tastic then you have to click on a date where Ryanair say they have a flight only to find they dont have a flight.
This is the way a number of carriers have gone, who no longer have what is recognisable as a Timetable available but have their services shown only as an offshoot of the booking process.

It's a complete Janet & John simplistic approach to showing what they provide. It's like going into a restaurant, asking for the menu, and being told "No, we don't have one any more, tell us how hungry are you, when did you last eat, what is the maximum you are prepared to spend, then I will tell you what you can have, or say that nothing is available to meet all these criteria so start again".

[pee]

Compare the CAPTCHA and general Ryanair.com experience with the new iOS and Android apps that EasyJet launched last week.
Or compare Ryanair and EasyJet experiences more generally, in their entirety. Trying to judge more objectively, look at the load factors, among else. Low-cost pax do tend to chose EZY over RYR nowadays, I bet their choice is based just on this overall experience. Not on prices, Ryanair is still somewhat cheaper. Not on the cabin crew behaviour, in my view the staff is OK in both cases. Not on punctuality, where FR is indeed slightly better. Is it due to EZY flying from bigger airports? Wouldn't be so sure. In fact, the significant part of all passengers chooses Ryanair because they live close to or fly to the destination near the local airport where no other low cost carriers operate. Others make their choices based on price. Here the situation changes too, Ryanair doesn't seem to be able to offer their extremely low fares any more. Trying to win more pax increasingly relies on some bigger airports, but... there others are already present. Will the Ryanair brand be strong enough to lure these passengers without a VERY clear price advantage? I mean they still could "astonish the world" by improving their brand as "New customer friendly Ryanair", but so far they are doing the opposite.

Waiting for new winds to change something, I'll still use Ryanair from time to time, but mostly because here in Finland we don't really have many alternative carriers, the above-mentioned EZY doesn't fly here. However, the p2p model will also limit my options. Should I every year fly just to STN, HHN, BRE and BGY? - it becomes boring a bit, as well as playing with Captcha. Ryanair business model needs some significant changes, it is now obvious more than ever.

[FKB-Freak]

Any new routes from FKB?

Greetings from Baden-Baden FKB-Freak :)

[WHBM]

I mean they still could "astonish the world" by improving their brand as "New customer friendly Ryanair", but so far they are doing the opposite.
I think this is unlikely as well, because the Ryanair management, recruited and filtered by M O'L, do believe all the Low Fares (ie sometimes low initial headline price) stuff, even when their customers increasingly have different experiences. So I don't think they would be capable of identifying issues which have driven their product approach past it's sell by date. Even if O'Leary goes, all those he recruited in his image will still be there deciding how to build websites or pricing policy.

Sorry guys, it's Freddie Laker all over again, who ordered all those DC-10s and A300s expensively financed in Japan, and scheduled more services from London to LAX in the depths of the winter than long-established BA did. Remind me, how many 737NGs are Ryanair parking this winter, with leasing costs continuing but no revenue ? Probably blame BA again for it all, as well......

[eu01]

Let's try to resurrect some enthusiasm now :confused::ouch:

Tomorrow "an important press conference" in Palma/ Majorca. MOL will personally announce the upcoming major developments in Son Sant Joan Airport for summer 2012. Possibly a new base.

Captch'ing some new pax, apparently.

[GnRdL]

Yes eu01. O'Leary will be first in ALC and then in PMI.

[PPRuNeUser0176]

If in ALC tomorrow not good news...HUY - ALC got the chop today.

Only 41 airports in booking system that show as operating. Wast 57-60 last summer.

[j636]

Whats going on at Murcia. All flights taken off sale, then back on sale and off sale again.

[racedo]

Remind me, how many 737NGs are Ryanair parking this winter, with leasing costs continuing but no revenue ?

You do realise that US Govt is happily funding Boeing deals at pretty close to 0% interest, add in that the orders were placed when $-€ was strong where as now when paying its the opposite.

Question is if losing money on routes in midst of recession and enough cash to easily tide you over do you
1.) run services which lose money which eats up even more cash
2.) don't run services and minimise losses but not paying staff etc

[GnRdL]

If in ALC tomorrow not good news...HUY - ALC got the chop today.
I'm sure that they don't bring good news for ALC. The same thing happened 50 days ago. They came in ALC to say the same things and then they went to announce a new base in FKB.

[j636]

PMI has got to be a base. First dates were June 2010, December 2010. The only problem slots. Air Berlin are not happy that Ryanair will be payed to fly from there.
PMI have said many times they want year round flights and not just seasonal.
Can a year round base be sustained??

[PPRuNe Pop]

Two or three banned for foul language. Is that the best you can do? It is NOT allowed on PPRuNe and the red card will be played again and again if need be.

PPP

[ayroplain]

I really don't know what you guys are on about.

I've just booked four return flights for Feb 2012. I selected the first route and dates, got the CAPTCHA screen, typed in both words with a space in between, immediately got a choice of flights as per usual, selected them and booked. I then booked the other three with no further CAPTCHA requests. The input of one CAPTCHA took all of 5 seconds extra. If that is beyond your capabilities maybe you shouldn't be considering travel at all.

Each return flight cost less than £30.

[vytgri]

Relax guys. A Week ago received notice from AZUON, which says - "IMPORTANT HINT: only one word, the one in wavy italic font, needs to be typed!" I've tried this - and it worked. Dealing with CAPTCHA is not so hard after all ;)

[GnRdL]

Ryanair reduces their flights in Alicante by 50%. 18 routes cancelled.
List of routes cancelled: Bratislava, Brno, Cochstedt, Doncaster, Fez, Gdansk, Humberside, London-Gatwick, Madrid, Marrakech, Palma de Mallorca, Pisa, Poznan, Santander, Sevilla, Treviso, Valladolid and Zaragoza.

Ryanair will remplace Alicante with new routes in Palma de Mallorca, despite they use airbridges in Palma.

[WallyWumpus]

GnRdl,

What the bold for some places?

[GnRdL]

GnRdl,

What the bold for some places?
In case anyone had doubts. Such destinations still displayed in the booking system because they are on sale until late March.


Alicante (ALC) - London-Gatwick (LGW): until 23-March-2012
Alicante (ALC) - Madrid (MAD): until 24-March-2012
Alicante (ALC) - Seville (SVQ): until 23-March-2012

[vytgri]

New routes from PMI:

Aarhus
Marseille
Cork
Oslo
Gothenburg
Paris Bva
Haugesund
Poznan
Kaunas
Santander
Krakow
Santiago
Maastricht
Stockholm
Malaga
Tampere
Magdeburg

[PPRuNeUser0176]

4 aircraft based from March 2012.

[vytgri]

Is anyone aware of the current status of Ryanair negotiating with BER? I see tickets being sold after the closure of SXF, but no official announcements and no new airport code on Ryanair website so far.

[Jorik]

New routes from Maastricht for summer 12:

Maastricht - Palma de Mallorca (already posted here)
Maastricht - Bari

Source: http://www.maa.nl/en/news.asp