O' Leary transferring slots from Shannon to Farranfore and Knock.

Run_to_da_hills

I see O Leary is starting to shift slots from Shannon to Farranfore and Knock, will he fill planes from these remote locations?.

http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/rte-en-161209-3

highlydebased

He's not "shifting slots" anywhere, as neither Faro, or Alicante, where the new flights are to are not slot controlled. Its all a big PR move and a stab at Shannon at the end of the day, as Knock and Kerry are probably giving them facilities for nothing.

I'd say they'll probably fill the flights easy enough, there's already charter flights from Knock to Faro with an A321 in summer

Dacian

He is still tapping into the market from the West of Ireland but this way he gets to snub Shannon and take passengers away from that airport.

Its intimidation. But he can do what he wants as a commercial business.

sonyair

I hope shannon can get replacement airline(s) for the routes just to show that they can get on without him, my hopes are on prague as a new route for 2010 :rolleyes:

homerjay2005

madness from Shannon to be honest, Ryanair are the most successful airline in Europe and they have every airport bent over a barrall. no matter what they think of ryanair, they should be doing everything possible to work with them.

this is also great new for Kerry and Knock.

Neworder79

Quote "will he fill planes from these remote locations?"

Knock has had a busy summer charter program for several years, they had 15 charter destinations in 07, down a bit this year as several tour operators have gone bust. Should be plenty slack for Ryanair to pick up on. Surprised Malaga wasn't added, it had been a popular charter from Knock.

Ryanair operated Alicante this May-Oct from Knock and the loads were in the high 80s. So Faro will do well, although there are already 3 travel agents operating the route with an A321. They should look at running a sun route through the winter again, Lanzarote is poplar around Christmas.

John_Mc

homerjay2005 wrote: »

madness from Shannon to be honest, Ryanair are the most successful airline in Europe and they have every airport bent over a barrall. no matter what they think of ryanair, they should be doing everything possible to work with them.

this is also great new for Kerry and Knock.

I disagree, and am delighted to see an airport stand up to Ryanairs aggressive bully boy tactics. If other airports followed suit then there might actually be some change in the way they operate.

Dacian

Ryanair got a deal with SNN that they would get low charges for the first 5 years after setting up a base, after that it would increase to the normal level. 5 years ended and Ryanair said they wanted to keep paying the low introductary charges. SNN said no, Ryanair huffed and puffed, SNN stood by their principals.
Maybe it was a bad decision for SNN, but letting your customer decide the price they pay cannot be good in any business.

Ald

I think this move is a new strategy by Ryanair and is incredibly clever. It's similar to the Manchester situation.

Move from high cost airports that are not willing to negociate and move to multiple regional airports surrounding it at lower cost and increase the catchment area.

Knock = Northwest Ireland and West Midlands

Kerry = Limerick, Kerry and west Cork

John_Mc

Ald wrote: »

I think this move is a new strategy by Ryanair and is incredibly clever. It's similar to the Manchester situation.

Move from high cost airports that are not willing to negociate and move to multiple regional airports surrounding it at lower cost and increase the catchment area.

Knock = Northwest Ireland and West Midlands

Kerry = Limerick, Kerry and west Cork

There's absolutely nothing clever about it. They're using their bulk to bully airports into accepting ridiculous terms.

Its not about increasing catchment areas or whatever, its about money.

I'd happily pay €30-€40 more to fly with another airline as I would with Ryanair. Despicable work practices that people really shouldn't accept.

Ald

I think it's too easy to say it's bully tactics and they're shoving their weight about. I'd be happy that Ireland have such a heavyweight on their side. Look at Flyglobespan, XL, Zoom... Easyjet are closing East Midlands base. We have an airline that makes it possible for us to commute to the rest of Europe very easily, cheaply and reliably. I'm thankful for that! I think the stronger their business the better product and prices we get. And the new situation will be better for the customer. Think of Sligo for instance. It's a long trip to Shannon or Dublin. Now they have Knock with extra routes. Good all round. Shannon as a semi state need to get their head out of their pensioned and well unionised areses and face reality.

John_Mc

Ald wrote: »

I think it's too easy to say it's bully tactics and they're shoving their weight about. I'd be happy that Ireland have such a heavyweight on their side. Look at Flyglobespan, XL, Zoom... Easyjet are closing East Midlands base. We have an airline that makes it possible for us to commute to the rest of Europe very easily, cheaply and reliably. I'm thankful for that! I think the stronger their business the better product and prices we get. And the new situation will be better for the customer. Think of Sligo for instance. It's a long trip to Shannon or Dublin. Now they have Knock with extra routes. Good all round. Shannon as a semi state need to get their head out of their pensioned and well unionised areses and face reality.

Although I completely agree that Ryanair have revolutionised air travel for everyone in Europe, I don't think we should consider Ryanair on our side.

Don't think for a second that if Aer Lingus werent operating out of Ireland as a competitor that the prices would still be cheap. They are only cheap because they're trying to drive EI under.

You're making it out to be a case of Shannon or Knock, and that's not the case at all. Ryanair have a surplus of pilots at the moment, and a surplus of aircraft so they could quite easily service both.

This isn't about Shannon being unionised, it's about them standing up to bully boy tactics and refusing to kindly bend over and present themselves to FR. Fair play I say!

Cosmo Kramer

Bottom line is that Knock will be offering Ryanair terms that Shannon can't - yet Knock has survived for years with relatively little state assistance while Shannon has had the government to fall back on in the past.

Ryanair will most likely have been offered a price by Knock that will make it hard for them to lose money on the route, at the same time Knock will increase it's passenger numbers and as a result generate more income from their ADF which people in the west and north west are happy to pay for the convenience of having an international airport in the region.

I could see this happening with some more routes and tbh if Shannon want to keep their passenger numbers up they will probably have to look at driving their costs down and perhaps following the Knock model of income generation.

I can see the good and the bad in Ryanair, but like it or not they are the biggest airline in the country now, and Shannon need to look at how they deal with them instead of shutting the door and turning the place into a ghost town after midday when the transatlantics have taken off.

bladeruner wrote: »

To those who think that Ryanair connects them with the world , I say this...
Once Ryanair opens a base in a small to medium airport, virtually everybody else leaves, thanks in no small part to the deals ryanair cuts with the airport.
Look all around europe for examples of this.Then you now only have one operator to chose from.
so its fine if you want to fly to somewhere 200 miles away from your hotel but if you wanted to go to your destination with out a 3 hour bus journey , its a bit of a drag.

To be fair there are plenty of examples of airports where this hasn't happened and a lot of Ryanair only airports are ones that had few or no scheduled services before Ryanair moved in.

homerjay2005

John_Mc wrote: »

I disagree, and am delighted to see an airport stand up to Ryanairs aggressive bully boy tactics. If other airports followed suit then there might actually be some change in the way they operate.

i get on at a and get off at b. i love ryanair. for the cheap flights and reliability, they are 2nd to none.

ive flown with them about 200 times in the past 3 years and have had no problems, your fully aware of their t and c before you fly with them.

i cant see a problem.

DublinWriter

Ald wrote: »

Kerry = Limerick, Kerry and west Cork

Kerry = Dublin South West, you mean.

KindOfIrish

John_Mc wrote: »

I disagree, and am delighted to see an airport stand up to Ryanairs aggressive bully boy tactics. If other airports followed suit then there might actually be some change in the way they operate.

Either you are rich or you don't travel. For me Ryanair, with their aggressive tactics to reduce costs, is the only possibility to travel as I work for min. wage. God save Ryanair!!!

Base

This isn't about Shannon being unionised, it's about them standing up to bully boy tactics and refusing to kindly bend over and present themselves to FR. Fair play I say!

If you were talking about a genuine commercial enterprise then you might have some argument here but you're talking about a state-owned company!

so its fine if you want to fly to somewhere 200 miles away from your hotel but if you wanted to go to your destination with out a 3 hour bus journey , its a bit of a drag.

Approximately 15% of airports currently used by Ryanair fall into this category.

Kerry = Dublin South West, you mean.

Thanks for that.