Ryanair in 2016

[sean1982]

I've read here ryanair's CEO will soon visit Belgium for his yearly PR press talk and the round up of their already known summer program as well as some other news for next winter hopefully

Not quite what was expected and far from stalling too

[airbuske]

Press conference in Brussels :

BRU: 4 new routes : HAM MAD M LA MXP
CRL :4 new routes : TLS SOF Timisoara VRN

What about the frequencies ?

[UAE777]

I've read here ryanair's CEO will soon visit Belgium for his yearly PR press talk and the round up of their already known summer program as well as some other news for next winter hopefully

Not quite what was expected and far from stalling too

Just 1 plane extra at BRU and nothing at CRL? Great.

BTW- It means other stuff gets axed and/or reduced in frequency quietly, you know?
VRN is just a transfer of airport for instance...

FWIW - When I was at FR they said to us they were planning on going to 12 planes in BRU in less than 2 years... by the time they start flying these routes, we're more than 3 years later and not even half way there!

Edited my moderator... play the ball, not the person... and stay polite...

[Stij]

Topic cleaned up!

Play the ball, not the person!
Stay polite!

Thank-you!

Stij

[sean1982]

HAM: daily
MLA: daily
MAD: 2x daily
MXP: 2x daily

[sn26567]

Full press release with all the details (new destinations, increased frequencies, etc.) : https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/ryanair ... ew-routes/

I'll come back later on the on the interesting Q&A at the press conference.

[sn26567]

Questions to Michael O'Leary and his answers during the press conference:

Terror alert in Belgium, and especially in Brussels: in response Ryanair lowered its fares and as a result the load factors remained high.

Hedging of oil: this was done because Ryanair doesn't want uncertainty about oil prices. Therefore the oil prices for Ryanair might have been higher than the market prices ($92 per barrel 18 months ago, later $62 per barrel and now $42). But the lower oil prices have been passed on to the customers in lower fares.

Airlines for Europe (A4E): Before coming to the press conference, MOL was at the European Parliament to defend the goals of A4E: lower airport taxes (airline fares have decreased by 20% in 5 years, whereas airport taxes increased by 50%), fight against ATC strikes, single European sky (A4E wants action this year on both issues, the European Commission should take the lead but doesn't propose anything), roll-back of national taxes on airline tickets (Italy, Norway, ...).




A4E is inviting all airlines to join and it is expected that the other associations will dissolve in short time (early summer): easyJet leaves ELFAA, Lufthansa leaves AEA... Invitations have been sent last week!

Amsterdam Schiphol: Ryanair has 16 weekly slots. It is difficult to get more, because the authorities are favouring KLM, which always gets a first choice for available slots.

Business passengers: MOL estimates the number of business passengers at 25-27%, but only 2% select the business package with reserved seats in the front, checked baggage, flexibility, etc. Ryanair wants to increase this number to 10% with a new advertising campaign.

Wizz Air competition: I relayed Inquirer's question about Wizz Air vowing to have lower costs than Ryanair by the end of the year and the risk that it means for the lower end of the customer base of Ryanair. MOL said that he likes the CEO of Wizz Air, who often tells good jokes. MOL considers this claim as a good joke. Currently the average fare of Ryanair (€47) is 28% lower than the one of Wizz Air (€60), and the costs of Ryanair continue to decrease (fuel, airport taxes, new efficient planes), which means that the gap with Wizz Air will increase, not decrease!

Switzerland: Ryanair flies only to Basel, because Swiss airport taxes are very high (~€40) and Ryanair preferes to concentrate on countries and airports where taxes are lower.

North Africa: no plans to fly to Egypt or Tunisia. Load factor to Morocco is decreasing: people prefer European destinations in the Mediterranean. Ryanair however does fly to Eilat in Israel.

[koninckske]

Ok they launch new routes, just don't like the way they inflate their news.

CRL:
Biarritz: not a new route, but now year round
Bucarest: from 7 to 9 weekly
Verona: not a new route, moved from BRU
Toulouse: new daily route
Sofia: new route 4 weekly (Wizzair 4 weekly existing route)
Timisoara: new route 3 weekly (Wizzair 2 weekly existing route)

BRU:
Hamburg: new route 2 daily
Milan MXP: new route 2 daily (did they tell what will happen with the freq between CRL and Bergamo?)
Madrid: new route 2 daily (guess will be moved from CRL TO BRU just like they did with DUB)
Malta: new route daily
Bratislava: not a new route, moved from CRL
Frequency increases to AGP (+2 weekly), ALC(+1 weekly), FCO(2 to 3 daily) and VLC (+2 weekly)

So for me the news is BRU to HAM and MLA, CRL to TLS, SOF and Timisoara. 5 out of 12 things they said were new, the rest are just network updates. Just to show how much hot air they are selling. And for those who like to know, yes I flew with them before, but now I will avoid them as much as possible. Same with EZY.Both of them give me stress travelling. My top airline is KLM with SN second.

[sn26567]

Oh yes, I forgot: MOL (and the press release) claimed again that Ryanair is the no.1 Belgian airline, despite the fact that 2015 figures showed that Brussels Airlines had 100,000 more passengers than Ryanair in Belgium.

Nobody contradicted him...

[Stij]

...
BRU:
Milan MXP: new route 2 daily (did they tell what will happen with the freq between CRL and Bergamo?)
Madrid: new route 2 daily (guess will be moved from CRL TO BRU just like they did with DUB)
...

Checked the booking engine in December 2016:

CRL-MAD, 1 flight loaded, but sold out... so probably MAD just moved to BRU.
CRL-BGY, 3 flights bookable... so MXP is 100% extra capacity... against Easyjet I guess...

Cheers,

Stij

[Stij]

If I make a quick calculation for CRL, there are just 4 extra weekly flights... or +0.5 daily flight
BRU has 67 extra weekly flights... or +9,5 daily flights

So, in total for the Belgian market, we are at + 10 daily flights or the equivalent of 3 extra aircraft flying into Belgium on a daily basis...

My bets:

The race between SN and FR will be tight again with my money on SN.
CRL, keep the plans for the extra terminal in the fridge, the expansion is in BRU.
FR is aiming at Easyjet in BRU...

Cheers,

Stij

[sn26567]

If I make a quick calculation for CRL, there are just 4 extra weekly flights... or +0.5 daily flight
BRU has 67 extra weekly flights... or +9,5 daily flights

This justifies one extra plane in BRU (from 4 to 5: the additional routes will be served from foreign bases) and an unchanged number in CRL (11 planes).

CRL, keep the plans for the extra terminal in the fridge, the expansion is in BRU.

That's not what MOL said: he welcomed the expansion of the terminal in CRL and said he would fill the additional capacity!

[sean1982]

And the 6 monthly down playing game has begun
Koninckske, dub wasnt just moved to BRU. FR stil serves CRL. Also the fact that you dont like them as not a fact and has nothing to do with this topic

[koninckske]

DUB from 2 or 3 daily to 4 weekly is what I call moved and btw they did the same with BCN at CRL. At first after the move to BRU they continued to operate a few weekly services and then closed it.

[Stij]

BRU has 67 extra weekly flights... or +9,5 daily flights

I found that today (winterseason) there are 18 flights operated by FR from BRU, that will become +-27 flights next year or a growth of +-50%...

I calculate a bit rough now, but when the currently have 1.800.000 pas, that number should increase to 2.700.000, maybe not in 2016 as the large expansion is only foreseen at the end of the year, but in 2017.

I'm really curious how BRU will handle this with A West in the pipeline... Busses to remote stands?

Cheers,

Stij

[sean1982]

DUB from 2 or 3 daily to 4 weekly is what I call moved and btw they did the same with BCN at CRL. At first after the move to BRU they continued to operate a few weekly services and then closed it.

how you call it is quite irrelevant. It's not moved at all, DUB was started about a year ago and the CRL service is still operating.

[Stij]

Sean,

Maybe not all, but at least the major part of capacity was moved:

5 weekly from CRL, 18 from BRU...

BCN was moved completely...

Cheers,

Stij

[koninckske]

Sean,

I always hated it when people showed little respect in discussions just like you do now. That is why for many years I did not want to enter any comment on this website. From now I will never post again on luchtzak.be because people like you destroy an enjoyable atmosphere here. This is a place to share news, ideas,...

My remark was just a small sidenote in my comment. You reacted to it and opened a discussion, not me.

Goodbye Luchtzak.be

[sn26567]

koninckske,

I think that you are over-reacting. The purpose of a forum is indeed to have discussions on various topics. One must accept that statements and opinions can be challenged. Your ideas are not necessarily shared by everyone, and the same for sean's ideas, and therefore a forum is the ideal place to confront your mutual ideas.

May I ask you to reconsider your decision?

[sean1982]

Sean,

I always hated it when people showed little respect in discussions just like you do now. That is why for many years I did not want to enter any comment on this website. From now I will never post again on luchtzak.be because people like you destroy an enjoyable atmosphere here. This is a place to share news, ideas,...

My remark was just a small sidenote in my comment. You reacted to it and opened a discussion, not me.

Goodbye Luchtzak.be

I don't show respect because I don't agree with you? If DUB would have been closed at CRL than the route would indeed have been moved. That is not the case, so the route hasn't been moved. That's it. I'm sorry if you don't agree with that, but I also have the right to my opinion