Ryanair threatens to pull out of Charleroi

LX-LGX · Post by **LX-LGX** » 23 Aug 2007, 00:17

LX-LGX wrote:Translated from an article in Het Laatste Nieuws online (today, 17h45):

Brussels Airlines will offer 150.000 seats for 49,99 euro, taxes included, for flights between ... 12th November 2007 and 25th February 2008. Offer wil be online on Thursday 23th August only, from 20h00 till 24h00. Destinations will not be advised before Thursday 20h00. But will be Europe only, says HLN.

adjustment: offer will be online from 18h00 till 24h00 (and not from 20h00 till 24h00).

Airbus330lover · Post by **Airbus330lover** » 23 Aug 2007, 00:20

My position:
Nothing to FR for one reason: no "chantage"

Charlie Roy · Post by **Charlie Roy** » 23 Aug 2007, 01:19

Comparison of the price of BRUVLC operated by Brussels airlines vs. CRLVLC operated by Ryanair.

It's be interesting to see aswell how Vueling would fare in this analysis...

Why people are suggesting Easyjet as a likely replacement to Ryanair at CRL is beyond me! They're nice an settled in BRU, and CRL is totally incongruous to their business plan.

And who was suggesting that everyone knew about the strike the Wednesday before it happened? NOT TRUE! There was no strike notice at all.
Rumours and murmurings of discontent do not amount to strike notice!!!

Ryanair are indeed being very unprofessional, even childish, and I do not agree with their tactics in the slightest. That said, I also vehemently detest such lightning strikes.

Whatever about Ryanair losing bookings right now, they've gained huge publicity these last few days, with TV news showing their routemap to millions of viewers, and newspapers listing their destinations and rock bottom prices in articles.
"There's no such thing as bad publicity" would definitely ring through in the case of Ryanair.

Be ready for the 10-euro-all-taxes-included promotion the day the flights go back on sale.

FLY4HOURS.BE · Post by **FLY4HOURS.BE** » 23 Aug 2007, 01:55

And who was suggesting that everyone knew about the strike the Wednesday before it happened? NOT TRUE! There was no strike notice at all.

I know what I m talking about, as GA flyer I got the info somehow, (don't remember the source though, might be a Ryanair FO) and cancelled my flight. It was confirmed on Wednesday evening. I guess I was abit lucky because I heard many FI's of the CRL FTO's got there for nothing on Friday morning, not knowing about the strike.
Even then, if even I knew it, FR-people should have known it even better, but they made a surprise-effect of it in order to be able to blame CRL for the strike.

pressman · Post by **pressman** » 23 Aug 2007, 08:19

Now your talking rubbish , there was no strike notice , that is one of the reasons that in court on friday morning the judge ruled the strike illegal .All ryanair crews turned up for work that day unaware of any strike .
As for your earlier reply to my post regarding having a "marketing background" believe me when I tell you i have a marketing and aviation backgroung for the last 15 years . But RYR do not adhere to the normal rules . There is a bigger picture here , the result of this will be one of two things , either they walk away or they make an announcement of massive expansion at CRL in the near future - with even better terms and conditions of course . The question now is of course , will the smokescreen work ?

Post by **sn26567** » 23 Aug 2007, 09:02

Air Key West wrote:Why is it Ryanair has recently been condemned twice at least by the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for misleading advertisements ?

In his inimitable style, O'Leary retaliated by calling them Absolutely Stupid Asses.

The comparison was between Ryanair and Eurostar on London Brussels. Ryanair claimed they were cheaper and faster than Eurostar. ASA said that Charleroi was not Brussels and that the time to get from Charleroi to Brussels had been omitted.

Back to the topic. CRL would probably loose some business, but with a new up-to-date terminal it could probably get new business wuite fast. Jetairfly has already offered its services if Ryanair retires. Brussels Airlines has smartly advertised low fares starting on 12 November. And I am sure many airlines are waiting in the shadow to see what will happen after today's discussions between CRL airport authorities (BSCA) and M O'Leary and jump in if these discussions fail. This is however unlikely to happen, and meanwhile Ryanair will have benefited from a lot of free advertisements...

Airbus330lover · Post by **Airbus330lover** » 23 Aug 2007, 09:05

pressman wrote:Now your talking rubbish , there was no strike notice

Yes it was but... strike officially starting at 3P.M and finally on strike on 6 AM

Airbus330lover · Post by **Airbus330lover** » 23 Aug 2007, 09:08

Finally... it's only LCP

Low Cost Propaganda...
If they leave CRL, it will be a short term problem.
Don't worry, other airlines will comme and surely with the new airport infrastructures.

Ducatibiker · Post by **Ducatibiker** » 23 Aug 2007, 09:37

I quite agree that this is nothing short of blackmail and publicity stunt. Careful though, as the world goes flat, this is only the beginning. Local law and regulations seem to be a second priority when it comes to profitability of global players. Is power shifting from local authorities, national governments to those global players who will always use the 'unemployment/job creation' weapon ?

Post by **sn26567** » 23 Aug 2007, 09:54

After the strike of security personnel at Brussels Airport, BAC offered the airlines free landing rights during several days as a compensation. This might be an idea for BSCA as well...

FLY4HOURS.BE · Post by **FLY4HOURS.BE** » 23 Aug 2007, 11:12

I would be glad to see how god a negociator CRL is.
Interesting times...
What if CRL tells MOL to f*ck-off & steals all his publicity

PS: How do you guys explain that I cancelled my GA flight that day?
I never cancel unless we have a visibility 0.

airazurxtror · Post by **airazurxtror** » 23 Aug 2007, 11:29

Marcel Buelens, boss of CRL, has cut short his holidays, came back to Belgium wednesday evening and was due to fly to Dublin this morning to try and solve the crisis ...
("Le Soir" this morning, page 17)

eu01 · Post by **eu01** » 23 Aug 2007, 11:39

airazurxtror wrote: boss of CRL ... was due to fly to Dublin this morning

By the way, did he get a free ticket or had he to pay the last minute (high) fare? :devil:

FLY4HOURS.BE · Post by **FLY4HOURS.BE** » 23 Aug 2007, 11:41

An update of the situation.

http://www.hln.be/hlns/cache/det/art_56 ... kanaalArt8

No big announcements expected, they say. They're just trying to talk it down.

TWA · Post by **TWA** » 23 Aug 2007, 11:52

yesterday on rtl-tvi:

Jetairfly offered to take over the routes in case FR withdraws, so I guess no jobs will be lost and the only loser in Charleroi will be FR.

FLY4HOURS.BE · Post by **FLY4HOURS.BE** » 23 Aug 2007, 12:05

Can't agree more!!That's why I think that it might be MOL's first mistake...

stefanel · Post by **stefanel** » 23 Aug 2007, 12:09

I've always supported Ryanair, but this time, I don't, this blackmail is outrageous, and totally out of context, this strike was in MID-JUNE.

In the meantime, MOL
-you opened new destinations from Charleroi, the last one Alicante was just a couple of days ago.
- you opened the bookings till July 2008
- you know Chareleroi is opening a new terminal and that you will base new planes to offer more destinations

Then all of the sudden, you block all bookings.

It's just SILLY.

LX-LGX · Post by **LX-LGX** » 23 Aug 2007, 12:46

sn26567 wrote:Here is the announcement on Ryanair's website.

In French:

Réservations suspendues à.p.d. 12 novembre à.p.d./vers Bruxelles Sud Charleroi

Ryanair a suspendu toutes ses réservations à.p.d./vers Bruxelles Sud-Charleroi a partir du 12 novembre prochain. Cette mesure est prise en attendant la résolution des problèmes qui ont cause la fermeture de l’aéroport pendant le week-end du 15 – 17 juin dernier, et ainsi l’annulation des vols pour plus que 22.500 passagers.

L’aéroport de Bruxelles Sud-Charleroi a assure Ryanair que des solutions sont en cours et des lors Ryanair espère pouvoir reprendre ses vols très rapidement. Cependant Ryanair est déterminé à assurer ses vols seulement si la compagnie reçoit l’assurance qu’une éventuelle grève ne pourra plus bloquer cet aéroport international. Un plan d’urgences doit être opérationnel.

Les vols de Ryanair au mois d’août, septembre et octobre à.p.d./vers Bruxelles Sud-Charleroi ne sont pas concernés par ces annulations. En attendant une solution, Ryanair ne fera pas plus de commentaire sur cette affaire.
In Dutch:

Boekingen van/naar Brussel Zuid Charleroi opgeschort vanaf 12 november a.s.

In afwachting van de verhelping van een aantal zaken, die in het weekend van 15-17 juni j.l. zorgden voor de annulering van de vluchten van meer dan 22.500 passagiers, heeft Ryanair de reserveringen van/naar Brussel Zuid-Charleroi vanaf 12 november opgeschort.

Brussel Zuid - Charleroi Airport heeft Ryanair de verzekering gegeven dat deze zaken binnenkort worden opgelost. Ryanair hoopt dan ook spoedig de vluchten weer te kunnen aanbieden maar is vast besloten om te voorkomen dat er wederom vluchten geannuleerd moeten worden. Hiervoor dient een noodplan operationeel te zijn om de opening- en correcte werking van deze internationale luchthaven te garanderen, zelfs indien enkele personen in de toekomst wederom mochten besluiten om een staking te beginnen.

De vluchten van Ryanair voor augustus, september en oktober worden door deze verkoopstop niet beinvloedt. In afwachting van een afdoende reactie van de luchthaven zal Ryanair geen verdere mededelingen in deze doen.

I did not find it in English or Gaelic...

English statement is now also online (but still no trace of the Gaelic one):

Bookings suspended from 12th November to/from Brussels Charleroi

Ryanair has suspended all bookings to/from Brussels Charleroi airport from 12th November next, pending the resolution of a number of issues which remain outstanding since a wildcat strike by security staff closed Charleroi airport over the weekend of the 15-17 June last, forcing the cancellation of over 22,500 of Ryanair’s passenger flights.

Charleroi Airport has assured Ryanair that these outstanding problems will be addressed shortly, and if they are then we would be hopeful that these flights can be put back on sale shortly. However Ryanair is determined to ensure that its flights and passengers at Charleroi will not be cancelled again and so there must be an effective contingency plan in place to keep this international airport open and operational even if some staff wish to engage in wildcat strikes in the future.

Ryanair’s flights to/from Charleroi in August, September and October will not be affected by this action. Ryanair will not be commenting further on this matter until we have received a response from Charleroi Airport.

I-LUXO · Post by **I-LUXO** » 23 Aug 2007, 14:39

If FR is going away from CRL, but considering not loosing the belgian/french border market, what could be the alternative?
BRU? (Before the rumored arrival of NE)
Or what else?

Acid-drop · Post by **Acid-drop** » 23 Aug 2007, 14:50

we already talked about almost everything possible.
Eindhoven is probably going to grow, maybe some flight to maastricht too.
Lille could be one day an interesting airport.
The most interesting of all (well ... not really, charleroi is the most interesting one) is Liège ... but same walloon government, so let's forget it.