angiescarr

A clip from Portugal news:-

By way of an explanation, Turismo de Portugal (TP) said that while it did not reject Ryanair’s plan, it did refuse to pay the amount “that this company demanded to reinforce its operations in the Algarve.”


Ryanair is operating something like a protection racket If you don't pay us a load of money...we'll take our passengers to other countries who will! I guess that's why they're pulling out of some of our favourite airports. I hope Easyjet takes up the slack! I had a really pleasant trip with them from Geneva to Faro and I think they're opening up routes to Seville. Would be great if they did the routes from the North of England to Seville!

Bri and Katee

Exactly correct angie. They expect airports to pay them a 'retainer' to fly in to them. Otherwise they take their custom elsewhere.

They say they are adding to the airports customer base and therefore expect a part of this in return! Alicante does it that I know of and Murcia. With the new Alicante airport it also involved the air bridges, something ryanair did not want to use. They said they would remove flights from alicante if the airport stuck to it, they did and ryanair removed flights. The knock on effect was a drop in the customer base.

IamStu

"Ryanair is operating something like a protection racket If you don't pay us a load of money...we'll take our passengers to other countries"

This is what they did a few years ago at Granada airport when Granda refused to pay the ransom! It put an end to any direct flights from the UK, much to my annoyance as I have an apartment in Granada.
Spain as a whole didn´t lose business as I could fly to Malaga.
Looking at the bigger picture though, the multi national company I worked for in Granada, were forced to look at relocating to a more accessible area outside of Granada.

angiescarr

Just goes to show. Transport companies' power can have a knock-on effect on Business, employment, property values and many other incalculables. How have we managed to give over so much power to so few?

Dick Dasterdly

Business is business.

One of the ways they remain such a successful low cost airline is by driving hard bargains and getting the best deals wherever they can.

If anyone could save 20 or 30 euros a week on their shopping by travelling to another shop in another village I imagine they wouldn't think twice about it as long as it was cost effective.


""Just goes to show. Transport companies' power can have a knock-on effect on Business, employment, property values and many other incalculables. How have we managed to give over so much power to so few?""

By always looking for the best value, same as Ryanair do themselves.

There is always the option to pay though the nose to help subsidise useless inefficient airlines such as Iberia

agoreira

Watched a programme recently on Ryanair, amazing what they get away with.

IamStu

"If anyone could save 20 or 30 euros a week on their shopping by travelling to another shop in another village I imagine they wouldn't think twice about it as long as it was cost effective."

To be honest, given another option, I would never choose to fly with Ryanair. Even at the cost of a few extra quid.
The problem of course, quite often, they are the only option.

Chiclanagir

Well a couple of weeks ago I was looking at flights back to the West Country and Ryanair was more expensive than Flybe.

johnnyone

How many of us would own holiday homes if BA/Iberia still had the monopoly?

Domino

they entered into agreements with little known places in France, built up a great movement of people, the local councils paid them a fortune for bringing in so much business.
but the EU said this was unfair competition and councils couldn't keep up with the continuing blackmail from O'Leary so it stopped.
same also applies to Spain, which is why when the pulled out of Granada they moved to Ciudad Real - except that they really caught a cold on that one, in the middle of nowhere, no way for the passengers to get to the AVE station and too far to walk, no transport, no facilities unless you brought them in with you. the only other aircraft was the local crop duster.
lasted a year and Puff gone.

I hope the BA relationship with Granada lasts, Monarch were only forced out by lies from RYA that demanded more and more and gave less and less.

it has to be a commercial relationship, it has to work for all not just for one, otherwise it will fail.

Countryboy1

I will pay any price (within reason) never to fly Ryanair!
Cattle trucks and nothing more.

agoreira

Although not new, I have just been reading about Ryanair's policy of carrying the bare minimum legal amount of fuel which has resulted in them requesting emergency landings. It seems other airlines might adopt the same procedure as they reckon Ryanair have a "competetive advantage". They are worried that if aircraft are diverted for whatever reason, many of them could be on absolute legal minimum like Ryanair. Several Ryanair planes have asked for emergency landings in Valencia(3) and Lanzarote
http://www.hosteltur.com/115600_mala...ccidentes.html

Dick Dasterdly

As I understand it, the minimum legal fuel limit includes sufficient fuel to reach the intended destination plus enough to reach an alternative airport if diverted, plus a minimum of one hours extra fuel on top of that.
In addition it is common practice to also carry a discretionary amount over and above the minimum legal requirements.

I have not head any reports of Ryanair being charged with breaching these minimum requirements, though I could stand to be corrected.

I recall watching a documentary a while back filmed on board an EASYJET flight which was heading to the South of France from the UK.

It was given orders to divert but didn't have enough fuel to do so.

It landed at another airport well short of the intended destination to refuel but the airport refused to give it any fuel unless money was paid up front.

Such was the chaos that resulted that the pilot was frantically trying to buy fuel out of his own pocket with his personal credit card, but this was also refused.

I would have thought this would be in breach of safety regulations, but again I stand to be corrected.

Domino

funny how there appears to be a silence from the authorities about Ryanair planes requiring emergency landings due to shortage of fuel

how sure are we they were just ploys to get on to the ground using any means available to keep their arrival times ??

some days there are several aircraft who have to fly a holding pattern before landing at Malaga.

johnnyone

Everyone moans about the airlines. What about the airports? They are now introducing add-on prices in a similar way. eg drop-off and pick up charges, fast track security etc..
Parking is also exhorbitant and forever increasing.