Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS WL EI-DLK (msn 33592) STN (Keith Burton), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair (Dublin) announced 17 new routes, including routes to currently un-served markets, to the Greek holiday destinations of Kos, Rhodes and Thessaloniki from April 2011.
Copyright Photo: Keith Burton. Please click on the photo for the aircraft details.
Ryanair’s routes from Rhodes:
Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS EI-CSA (msn 29916) (Scotland) STN (Antony J. Best), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair (Dublin) has announced it will pull five Boeing 737-800s from its Girona base (near Barcelona) on the Costa Brava as the new regional government choose not to honor the previous agreement signed between the airline and the previous Catalonia government.
Here is Ryanair’s statement:
“Ryanair, the world’s favorite airline, on February 15 confirmed the cancelation of its five year extension agreement at Barcelona Girona Airport, which was originally announced in December 2010, as the new Government of Catalonia has refused to honor its agreement with Ryanair.
In December 2010 Ryanair and the Government of Catalonia reached agreement on a five year extension of its base operation at Girona Airport under which Ryanair agreed to base 11 aircraft at Girona, operate 64 routes and deliver 4 million passengers per year, which would sustain up to 4,000 jobs in and around Girona Airport. However, the new Government has refused to honor the agreement despite being consulted on it by the outgoing Government.
Ryanair will, from the end of February, reduce its Girona operations by five aircraft, close 18 (of 64) routes and reduce frequencies on 17 other routes, with the loss of over 100 weekly flights, which will see Ryanair’s Girona traffic fall from 4 million to 2.3 million per year with the loss of up to 1,700 local jobs. Ryanair regrets the failure of the new Catalonia Government to honor its five year extension agreement with Spain’s largest airline, at a time when it should be trying to grow jobs and tourism in Catalonia. Ryanair will now switch these five aircraft to lower cost airports elsewhere in Europe.”
Will the Catalonia government now cave in with this new threat?
Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best. Please click on the photo for the aircraft details.
Ryanair Boeing 737-8A3 WL EI-EFD (msn 35011) (Comunitat Valenciana) PMI (Javier Rodriguez), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair’s (Dublin) latest threat to cut the number of flights is directed at Alicante. This time the ultra low cost carrier does not want to pay extra fees for the use of new aircraft loading bridges being imposed on the airline by the airport.
Here is the statement by Ryanair yesterday:
“Ryanair announced deep cuts of up to 80% at its Alicante base from October 2011, following AENA Alicante’s decision last week to force Ryanair to use airbridges, and pay over €2m p.a. extra for these unnecessary facilities. Ryanair has been operating at Alicante Airport for over five years without the use of airbridges and this decision by AENA Alicante is an abuse of its monopoly which increases Ryanair’s handling costs by over €2m p.a. Ryanair has submitted a formal complaint about this monopoly abuse by AENA Alicante to both the Spanish Government and the European Commission.
In response to this mandatory airbridge usage and €2m increase in costs, Ryanair today announces the following deep cuts at its Alicante base with the introduction of its winter 2011/12 schedule from October 2011 as follows:
· From 11 to 2 base aircraft (down 80%).
· From 62 to 31 routes (loss of 31 routes).
· From over 600 to less than 200 weekly flights.
· From over 4M to fewer than 1.5M passengers p.a.
· The loss of over 2,500 jobs at Alicante.
As a direct result of forcing this €2m p.a. airbridge use on Ryanair, AENA Alicante will now lose over €18m p.a. in passenger and turnaround fees from Ryanair and at least a further €12m in lost commercial revenues from the 2.5m fewer passengers which Ryanair will now deliver. Ryanair believes that AENA Alicante should reconsider this decision to break its long standing agreement (since 2007) that Ryanair passengers may walk on/walk off when boarding aircraft and reverse this decision to force Ryanair to use airbridges and pay €2m p.a. extra since this will now cost Alicante over €30m p.a. in lost revenues and see over 2,000 jobs lost at Alicante Airport.
Ryanair pointed out that the new terminal at Alicante has exactly the same boarding gate stairs as the old terminal, which would allow Ryanair’s flights to continue to apply its walk on/walk off boarding facilities. The use of airbridges, will significantly delay Ryanair turnarounds (because passengers can only use the front door), will lead to more handling delays and will increase Ryanair’s costs at Alicante by over €2m p.a.”
Will Alicante become the latest airport to back down given the threats by Ryanair? Stay tuned as they say.
Copyright Photo: Javier Rodriguez. Please click on the photo for more aircraft details.
Ryanair’s current routes from the Alicante base:
Ryanair (Dublin) reported 8% traffic growth and a 26% increase in net profits for its fiscal year ending on March 31, 2011. The company reported net profits of $530 million. However due to high fuel costs, the company stated it could ground upwards of 80 Boeing 737-800s (they currently operate 272 737-800s) this winter.
Read the full report from The Independent: CLICK HERE
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Copyright Photo: Keith Burton. Please click on the photo for additional information.
Ryanair added eight new bases in its fiscal year – El Prat, Gran Canaria, Kaunas, Lanzarote, Malta, Seville, Tenerife, Valencia (total now 44 bases).
Routes from the London (Stansted) base:
Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS WL EI-DCJ (msn 33564) STN (Keith Burton), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair (Dublin) is celebrating the fact, confirmed now by IATA, that it flew more international passengers (71.2 million) in 2010 than any other airline.
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Copyright Photo: Keith Burton. Please click on the photo for the full details.
Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS EI-DHS (msn 33580) LTN (Antony J. Best), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair (Dublin) on July 12 announced it will open its 45th base at Manchester in October 2011 initially with two based aircraft and 17 routes, growing to four aircraft and 26 routes by summer 2012.
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best. Please click on the photo for aircraft information.
Ryanair’s routes from MAN:
Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS EI-DHS (msn 33580) LTN (Antony J. Best), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair (Dublin) will drop Aberdeen and the Dublin-Aberdeen route on October 29.
Ryanair blamed “the BAA monopoly refused to extend its low cost deal on Ryanair’s one remaining Aberdeen route to/from Dublin.”
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best.
Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS EI-CSA (msn 29916) (Scotland) STN (Antony J. Best), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair (Dublin) has announced it will open its 46th base at Wroclaw Airport (Poland) in March 2012 with one based Boeing 737-800 and six new routes. The new routes will link Wroclaw with Beavais (near Paris), Bournemouth, Chania, Malmo, Malta and Venice.
Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best.
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Route Map from Wroclaw:
Ryanair Boeing 737-8A3 WL EI-EFD (msn 35011) (Comunitat Valenciana) PMI (Javier Rodriguez), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair’s (Dublin) CEO Michael O’Leary told the Financial Times according to this report by Herald.ie that he wants to increase passenger numbers to between 120 million and 130 million over the next 10 years.
The airline is in talks with Boeing, COMAC (China) and Irkut (Russia) about a possible order of 200 to 300 narrow-body airliners.
Ryanair carried 72.1 million passengers in 2010/11. This possible order could double the size of the fleet. Ryanair will operate a fleet of 292 Boeing 737-800s by 2012.
Read the full article: CLICK HERE
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Copyright Photo: Javier Rodriguez. Please click on the photo for information about this aircraft.
Ryanair (Dublin) has announced it will open its 47th base at Baden-Baden (Karlsruhe) Airport in March 2012 with two based Boeing 737-800 aircraft and 20 routes.
In addition to Ryanair’s existing 12 Baden-Baden routes Ryanair will open 7 new routes to Faro, Malaga, Palma, Riga, Thessaloniki, Vilnius and Zadar.
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best.
Routes from its newest base:
Ryanair Boeing 737-8A3 WL EI-EFD (msn 35011) (Comunitat Valenciana) PMI (Javier Rodriguez), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair (Dublin) announced today a 20% increase in half year profits to €544 million ($749.6 million). Revenues rose 24% to €2.7bn, traffic grew 12% and ave. fares increased 13%. Unit costs rose 13% due mainly to longer sectors and a 37% increase in fuel costs. Excluding fuel, sector length adjusted unit costs did not increase at all.
According to the airline, “Ancillary sales rose 15% to €487m, slightly faster than traffic growth. We extended our reserved seating trial from 40 to 80 routes, and if successful we will extend it to more routes in our network. We also launched the Ryanair “Cash Passport” Mastercard prepaid card in the UK and Italy, and we intend to roll it out across the network over the coming months, to provide passengers with a no cost prepaid card for use on Ryanair.com (to avoid our optional admin. fees) and many other retailers.
New routes and bases continue to perform well. Our 45th base in Manchester opened last week. Our 46th (Wroclaw – Poland) and 47th (Baden Baden – Germany) bases will start in March 2012. We also plan to open our 48th base at Warsaw (Modlin) as soon as our current negotiations with the airport have been concluded. The recession and higher oil prices continues to force competitors to consolidate, and cut capacity and routes, which creates further growth opportunities for Ryanair as European airports compete aggressively to win our route and traffic growth.
Unit costs increased 13% primarily due to longer sectors and a 37% rise in fuel costs. Excluding fuel, sector length adjusted unit costs were flat, as we continued to rigorously control costs despite a 2% pay increase, higher Eurocontrol fees, and substantially higher charges at Dublin Airport which were recently described as “insane” by Aer Lingus and “too excessive” by Etihad. We are 90% hedged for FY12 at $820 per tonne (approx. $82 pbl), up 12% on last year but significantly below current prices. We have recently extended our FY13 fuel cover and are 90% hedged for H1 at $990 per tonne ($99pbl) and 50% for H2 at $980 per tonne ($98pbl).”
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Copyright Photo: Javier Rodriguez. Please click on the photo for additional details.
Never dull, Ryanair has announced the winners of its “Girls of Ryanair” 2012 calendar. All proceeds go to charity.
European Routes from Dublin (compare with arch-rival Aer Lingus):
Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS EI-DHJ (msn 33819) BOH (Antony J. Best), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair (Dublin) announced it will extend its reserved seating service to all its routes, after successfully testing the concept on over 100 routes since May. The pre-booking service, which will be bookable on all routes from January 10, 2012, will costs €10 (each way) and includes priority boarding.
Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best.
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Ryanair (Dublin) will base two Boeing 737-800s at Billund, Denmark in March 2012 creating its 48th base.
Copyright Photo: Arnd Wolf.
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Image below: Ryanair created the ultra low fare model which Spirit Airlines and others are now following. None breaks the conventional airline rules like Ryanair. Any publicity is good publicity is Ryanair’s business plan. Breaking all rules, especially political correctness, Ryanair is not shy about showing scantily-clad FAs (the proceeds for the FA calendars goes to charity) to promote their low fares on their website.
Routes from Billund (click to make larger):
Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS EI-DAO (msn 33550) (Pride of Scotland) STN (Antony J. Best), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair (Dublin) has announced it will open its 49th EU base at Palma Airport in March 2012 with four based Boeing 737-800 aircraft operating 47 routes (17 new).
In addition to Ryanair’s existing 30 Palma de Mallorca routes, the airline will open 17 new routes from Palma to Aarhus, Cork, Gothenburg, Haugesund, Kaunas, Krakow, Maastricht, Malaga, Magdeburg, Marseille, Oslo, Paris Beauvais, Poznan, Santander, Santiago, Stockholm, and Tampere.
This will bring the total to 47 routes offered from Palma by Ryanair in the summer of 2012.
Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best.
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Routes from Palma (click on map to enlarge):
Ryanair (Dublin) announced today it will open its 50th base (and first in Cyprus) at Paphos (Cyprus’s third largest city) in April 2012 with two based Boeing 737-800 aircraft and 14 new routes. According to the airline, the new base “will initially deliver over 600,000 passengers p.a. and sustain over 600 jobs with over 80 weekly flights as Ryanair invests over $140 million at Paphos Airport.”
In other news, Ryanair also announced today it will open seven new routes from Malta to Bournemouth, Kaunas, London (Stansted), Malmö, Oslo (Rygge), Turin and Wroclaw in May 2012. Ryanair’s seven new routes will combine for a total of 28 routes from Malta.
Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth. Boeing 737-8AS EI-DLS (msn 33621) taxies past the camera at Nantes, France with the special promotional “Comunitat Valenciana” markings.
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Routes from Malta (Luqa) (click on map to enlarge):
Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS EI-DHJ (msn 33819) BOH (Antony J. Best), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair (Dublin) is planning to return to Budapest (dropped in 2010) on March 12 according to the Budapest Business Journal. Ryanair will operate from Budapest to Birmingham, Bologna, Bristol, Dublin and London (Stansted).
Read the full report: CLICK HERE
Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best.
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Visit our new website: CLICK HERE
Ryanair (Dublin) reported a net profit of $19.8 million in the fiscal third quarter.
The ultra low-cost carrier issued the following statement:
“Ryanair, the world’s favorite airline, on January 30 announced a Q3 profit of €15m compared to a Q3 loss of €10m last year. Revenues increased 13% to €844m as traffic fell 2% and average fares rose 17%. Unit costs rose 11% due to a 7% increase in sector lengths and an 18% increase in fuel costs. Excluding fuel, sector length adjusted unit costs declined by 1%.”
The flamboyant airline continued:
“Our new routes and bases have performed well this winter. We open 5 new bases in Baden Baden (Ger), Billund (Den), Palma (Spain), Paphos (Cyprus) and Wroclaw (Poland) in March/April 2012. We expect to launch at least 1 more base for summer 2012, shortly. The EU recession, higher oil prices, the unfolding failure of the package tour operator model, significant competitor fare increases and capacity cuts, has created enormous growth opportunities for Ryanair, as large and smaller airports across Europe compete aggressively to win Ryanair’s growth.
Unit costs rose 11% mainly due to an 18% increase in fuel costs. Excluding fuel, sector length adjusted unit costs fell 1%, as we aggressively controlled costs despite a 2% basic pay increase, higher Eurocontrol fees, and substantially higher Dublin Airport charges. In FY13 we are 90% hedged for H1 at $990 per ton (approx. $99 per barrel), and 70% hedged for H2 at approx. $100 pbl. We expect to hedge the balance of our H2 2013 needs over the coming months. However, at these prices our fuel bill for FY 2013 will rise by approx. €350m which poses a significant cost challenge for next year.
The BAA’s recent announcement that it will pay dividends of £240m this year to Ferrovial and its other shareholders is further evidence that it is generating monopoly profits under the CAA’s “inadequate” regulatory regime. Over the past five years while Stansted charges have doubled, traffic has declined 26% from over 24m in 2007 to just 18m in 2011. The BAA monopoly’s shareholders are being unfairly enriched at the expense of Stansted airport users who continue to suffer high charges and inadequate service. We again call on the UK government and the CAA to bring forward the sale of Stansted to enable competition between London airports to deliver lower airport charges and improved customer service where the BAA airport monopoly and CAA’s “inadequate” regulatory regime has repeatedly failed.
We also call on the UK government to scrap its APD tourist tax which is damaging UK tourism and jobs. A similar visitor tax in Holland was scrapped after just one year when it was proven that its detrimental impact on Dutch tourism was far greater than the revenue it generated. UK APD was doubled in 2007 to £10 and was increased again to £12 this year and has resulted in the UK having the highest aviation taxes in the world, to the detriment of the UK’s tourism industry, which was one of the UK’s most important revenue earners before its visitor numbers declined over the past four year.
In Ireland the Government owned DAA airport monopoly recently published its 2011 traffic figures which highlighted a 26% decline in traffic from 30m pax in 2007 to just 22m in 2011. While many UK and EU airports delivered growth in 2011 by reducing charges, the DAA monopoly (protected by the Dept of Transport) raised fees by 40% and delivered another year of underlying traffic declines. Sadly, the new Irish government has failed to deliver any change or reform in airport or tourism policy and failed to scrap the €3 tourist tax. Ireland needs competition between Dublin, Cork & Shannon airports in order to reduce the DAA’s high airport charges, and return our tourism industry to growth, which will create thousands of badly needed entry level jobs in the Irish economy. We will continue to campaign for this change and reform, since the Dept of Transport’s current policy of protecting the DAA monopoly and raising access costs clearly isn’t working.
Our Q3 Net Profit of €15m was slightly ahead of guidance due to a combination of benign weather which caused fewer flight cancellations and significant de-icing savings, and a better performance on yields reflecting our planned winter capacity cuts, longer sectors, and higher competitor fares/fuel surcharges. Should these positive Q3 trends continue into Q4, we now expect our full year profit will exceed previous guidance (of €440m) and rise to €480m.
EGM to approve ADR share buy back.
Our September 2011 AGM authorised the board to buy-back ordinary shares representing up to 5% of our issued shared capital. However, EU ownership rules require that at least 50% of the Company be owned by EU nationals.
In order to facilitate further share buy-backs, the board intends to hold an EGM in March 2012 to seek shareholder approval to include ADR’s as well as ordinary shares in future buy-back programs for up to 5% of our issued share capital. A detailed letter to shareholders explaining these matters will be issued in due course and the Board believes that shareholders will support this proposal which will be subject to Stock Exchange and regulatory approvals in due course.”
Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best.
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Ryanair (Dublin) moved quickly today to fill the void at Budapest due to the fatal shut down of MALEV Hungarian Airlines (Budapest) this morning. At a press conference in Budapest today, Ryanair announced its intention to launch a rescue plan for Budapest and the Hungarian tourism market following the grounding of MALEV. Ryanair confirmed that it will base four new Boeing 737-800 aircraft at Budapest commencing in just two weeks on Friday February 17 where it will open 31 new routes. Ryanair is also hiring Hungarian pilots and crews.
Copyright Photo: Rob Skinkis. Due to the downturn in demand during the winter season, Ryanair has already parked a number of Boeing 737-800s at Birmingham and thus is able to launch this new base in such a short time.
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
Current routes from BUD:
Click on the map to expand.
Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS WL EI-EVE (msn 35035) PAE (Nick Dean), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Ryanair (Dublin) has announced it will open eight new routes from Warsaw to Brussels, Budapest, Dublin, London, Milan, Oslo, Rome and Stockholm as soon as Warsaw’s new Modlin airport opens on July 16, 2012. These eight new Warsaw routes will deliver 700,000 passengers per year and will create up to 700 local jobs at Modlin Airport according to the airline.
Copyright Photo: Nick Dean.
Ryanair Photo Gallery: CLICK HERE
Ryanair (Dublin) has announced it it will cut its base at Edinburgh from 7 to 6 aircraft, with the loss of five routes.
According to the airline, this will mean “a loss of 300,000 passengers per year, leading to the loss of up to 300 jobs, following the breakdown of negotiations with the high cost BAA Edinburgh about a competitive cost base for further Ryanair growth at Edinburgh.
Ryanair also warned that BAA Edinburgh’s high cost base will lead to significant further cuts in Ryanair’s operation, if its 5 year agreement (which expires in Oct 2012) is not extended on more competitive terms.”
The routes being cut at Edinburgh Airport include routes to Berlin, Malmo, Murcia, Ibiza and Tallinn. The cuts become effective for the summer 2012 schedule (starting in April).
Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best.
Buy this Photo (now for sale in 5 currencies): CLICK HERE
Ryanair Slide Show: CLICK HERE
