Ryanair threatens to pull out of Charleroi

[Buzz]

No stress, in many cases you can take a plane from BRU to a real airport for the same final price.

:drink:
are u drunk?

Not drunk, be sure, i only wanted to point that FR and certyains other LCC are not always cheaper. !
I see it when I reserve and pay....
And please destination by destination.

Not always, but most of the time they are much cheaper.
And guess what would happen if FR would leave CRL? SN wouldn't doubt a second to raise it's prices!

[eurojet]

Tough situation for the Wallon governement ... If they give in, any other demand of RYR can follow .. And CRL is a "one trick pony", with basically RYR as only customer, while BRU has succeeded in attracting LCC which by definition should have been CRL customers.The Walloon governement is in a pretty weak position here, espeically since RYR is closing in on the Belgian catchement area (Eindhoven, Maastricht, .... they could as well start from Lille, re-start Oostende). Anyhow, it is a good wake-up call for the Walloon governement to re-assess they way semi-public labour relations are organised (read also "TEC" ...). Coudn't come at a worse time neither image wise with the lethargy happening in "Val Duchesse" ....

[Air Key West]

Slightly off topic : for those who have not read the press today : the British Advertising Standards Authority condemned Ryanair to withdraw (in England) misleading advertsing saying Ryanair's flights from London (Stansted) to Brussels (Charleroi) were faster and cheaper than the Eurostar trains. The British Advertising Standards Authority came to the opposite conclusion. Who still wants an airline that constantly misleads or lies to its (potential) customers ?

To airazur... : you must be a journalist. You quoted me out of context. Typical for journalists.

[euroflyer]

Hi, do not expect Ryanair to give in that easily ... CRL is for them just one of many hubs they have by now and they are opening new bases all the time. I guess they are already working on parallel plans to shift their plans to other bases where they might make money as well, maybe even somewhere out of Belgium but still not too far away to take a big slice of the Belgian travel market.
And, from Ryanairs view CRL could be a "bad example" for other of the airports they serve, so they might want to be very tough on this ... Especially as they face quite a number of problems and allegations around public subsidies being spent on airports which are more or less only served by FR and with the new regulation about the "all included" fares coming in force.
At the end FR will not loose much with a result in either way, but CRL and the local taxpayers could loose quite a bit of money.

[beaucaire]

The sole focus of Charleroi on Ryanair is still a mystery to me..
They have been fooled by MOL to an extent that is sheer unbelievable.
yes-there are some other departures by other Low-cost's,but Charleroi should have invested much earlier into a longer runawy to accomodate cargo-flights as well as long-range flights from Asian carriers.
The Wallon Government needs a kick in their but's for not having appointed a person who really understands the up's and down's of international airline-business.
It seems to be a characteristic of Wallon politicians to act blue-eyed -and I'm a person who lived 15 years in Belgium- so I know slightly about the matter

[haflinger]

Charleroi should have invested much earlier into a longer runawy to accomodate cargo-flights as well as long-range flights from Asian carriers.
The Wallon Government needs a kick i their buts for not having appointed a person who really understands the up's and down's of international airline-business.

Don't make comments on subjects you don't know.

CRL-cargo: CRL is closed at night (too close to the city). Liège is there for it, and proves it each night with many different cargo operators.
CRL-longhaul: You will never operate long-haul from or to an isolated place (lots of ryanair places). You need a "hub" or a decent platform to feed the long haul (Brussels for example).

Charleroi will have a lenghten rwy in the coming mont/years. A CAT3 ils will also be installed.
Liège will also lenthten the rwy (even if it's long enough for most of the operations taking place there).

[beaucaire]

It is my understanding that delegations from Japan and/or China have expressed their interest in Charleroi.
(Even Ryanair had expressed their potential interest in Charleroi for future LongHaul flights, should the runway be lengthened..)
Cargo flights can and are operated also during daylight -see Hahn airport.
Ostend is a cargo-airport - close to a city.
Brussels is a cargo-airport-within a city.
The proximity of Liège is a geographical evidence-but that does not exclude competition.(See DUS and CGN )
Future Intercontinental flights by Afriqiyah (there will be a new airport built in Tripolis for connecting services..)would be the ideal target for Charleroi.
"- 20 000 000 passagers
- 100 positions d'appareils
- 80 passerelles "
New Asian Low-Carriers are on the verge of opening flights to Europe.
Not all of them will get slots in class 1 airports.

[Air Key West]

I hope CRL and the regional government don't give in to what is close to blackmail. If they do give in, what will MOL's next demand(s) be ? I don't see why an airline which is making huge profits should get an additional privilege over its competitors.

[Novastar]

I hear people saying:

that's sooooo good for the f**** employees who think everything is permitted.

Dont bite the hand that gives you food

So when you have a job, you just have to say thank you and you can't complain??? The boss is almighty and do whatever he wants??? Welcome in the middle-age!!!

come on what a load of bull... going on strike is one thing. Taking +20.000 pax hostage in the process is unacceptable.

[ElcoB]

.. going on strike is one thing. Taking +20.000 pax hostage in the process is unacceptable.

Ryanair is taking everybody hostage: pax + employees + the whole airport.
Unbelievable how greedy they are.

[Acid-drop]

There will never be competion between liege and charleroi just because of the head of both airport, the walloon governement, agreed to give cargo to liege and pax flight to charleroi. It very unlikely to change anytime soon. Both airport have now a very good and modern infrastructure, so that everything can happen, they'll be ready.

That's why ryanair is unlikely to leave charleroi : the place is too good, and the new terminal and other infrastructure too nice to watch away.
Lille or maastricht could receive some flight but there is a need for a big hub in belgium and the best place is for sure charleroi, in the center of everything.

[FLY4HOURS.BE]

WOW WOW WOW people!!

The one in CRL was completely out of the blue, and that pissed FR of.

There were warnings about the strike from the beginning of the week. It is not a sudden strike as we experienced in BRU with firefighters/security. If passengers havn t been informed in time, it is Ryanair's fault as they should have informed each passenger personally. I knew on Wednesday already that the strike was sure. Ryanair should have known it as well.

Ryanair is gonna lose in this story, because they will only get what they want if they're ready to pay for it, and that doesn t look good for them, as they also will have to sell All-In tickets soon.
CRL doesn't really need Ryanair, with their new terminal, many carriers will be interested anyway. Jet4you, Blue Air, which are recently added to the CRL portfolio prove that there is a general interest in the cheaper and faster operations of this airport.

[LX-LGX]

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.

[airazurxtror]

And guess what would happen if FR would leave CRL? SN wouldn't doubt a second to raise it's prices!

That, or else easyJet could step in and develop BRU as a real base. That wouldn't be a bad thing either !

[TUB001]

Sometimes I'm really impressed by the comments of some people here!

One say workers wouldn't have the right to go on strike... hey, who said that? There is a huuuuge different between totally freezing an airport and going on strike!!! The first option is *of course* more than unacceptable! I would have appreciated to see you at the place of those thousand stranded passengers...

Apparently another one will never understand why Ryanair had decided to stop their flights until the end of the week-end of the strike too... amazing, since this has been discussed numerous times before and this is still coming in this discussion.

I am really looking forward to the day where CRL will be free of these MET employees... you just have to see it to believe it. It's the same everywhere, at Charleroi, at Spa, at Saint-Hubert... these people never do anything, and that is simply the reason why they are way too well, compared to others! Proof is that they realize it, as as soon as a little problem (or fear) comes up... they show their "big head".

The ridiculous comments against Ryanair are also getting seriously heavy... Most of these comments come from people who have never flown with them, even worse. You have to be drunk or crazy (to quote someone else) to believe Ryanair is more expensive than another airline we know well, and that their service is absolutely terrible! WRONG! And please don't tell me flying an old Avro is more comfortable than a brand new B737-800...

Not that I agree with Ryanair on everything, but there are some limits...

[FLY4HOURS.BE]

The Brussels Airlines attack is a good move in favor of CRL.

Here is the link:

http://www.hln.be/hln/alg/pag/hln_index ... onItemId=2

[LX-LGX]

Eddy Van de Voorde, professor at the Department of Transport and Regional Economics from the UA / University Antwerp, was quite clear on Belgian radio tonight: Ryanair will not / cannot pull out... There is no other Belgian airport for them... It's just power play... At this moment, they are negotiating with other European airports, and power play in Belgium can help there... They've treatened before like this...

radio interview: http://tinyurl.com/2yz2cj

sorry, interview is in Dutch, and I don't have time to translate it.

[Air Key West]

Very interesting interview. Conclusion : CRL, don't give in !

[pressman]

Eddy Van de Voorde is talking through his ass , he hasn't a clue , MOL doesn't operate the same way as the text books that eddy reads , he is ruthless and he has no conscience , who ever said that ryr HAD to have a base in belgium , belgium is not the centre of the universe , Lille is an attractive airport only down the road from CRL , and the dark horse is in my book Zaventem , they are starting to cater for LCCs and maybe ryr want to get the jump on Easy - Zaventem is wild speculation though - my money would be on Lille or Eindhoven

[FLY4HOURS.BE]

So you would travel to Lille or Eindhoven from anywhere in Belgium to get your low-cost flight?
And vice-versa, would people travel to Lille or Eindhoven and then catch a bus/train/taxi to Brussel?

There's a better option than that which is Maastricht/Aachen, but if Ryanair leaves, I bet your ass that everyone travelling from/to Belgium is gonna focus on BRU unless Easyjet gets CRL.

Eddy is right and if you got some marketing background you would know that. MOL is far from being crazy, he's a very smart man and knows very well how the economy works, although his actions seem to be agressive and make him look like a farmer's son. I think you're writing through your ass