Ryanair has more than quadrupled its capacity offering from Central and Eastern Europe over the past ten years with an average annual rise of 38.9 per cent between 2006 and 2015, according to schedule data from OAG. This has been to combat the emergence of Wizz Air, which over the same period has established itself as the largest carrier in these emerging markets.
Ryanair will initially position a single Boeing 737-800 at Milan Malpensa from December 1, 2015, its 15th base in Italy. The new resource will enable the carrier to introduce a twice daily link to London Stansted and daily operation to Comiso as well as a four times weekly service to Bucharest and three times weekly offering to Seville during the winter 2015/2016 schedule.
The airline will offer eight weekly Chambery flights and a once a week Turin service, while a brand new route for the carrier from London Gatwick to Grenoble will see it offer a weekly flight for independent ski tour operator, Skiworld from mid December 2015 to mid April 2016 on one of its three Airbus A320-200 aircraft.
According to Andrew Harrison, London Stansted Airport’s managing director, the new route will give the UK and businesses in the eastern region in particular, new direct access to Chinese markets and its launch represents the culmination of several years of working with the airline and their partners to deliver the new service.
The route switch follows agreements earlier this year for SAS to dispose of two of its slot pairs at the heavily constrained Heathrow Airport for a combined positive earnings impact of $82 million. The first slot pair was sold to an unidentified carrier for $60 million, while the second was sold to Star Alliance partner, Turkish Airlines for $22 million.
The further five year agreement which actually took effect from November 1, 2014, will see the airline grow the number of seats on offer across Manchester Airports group's portfolio of London Stansted, Manchester and East Midlands by 15 per cent - including a 21 per cent increase at Manchester - compared to figures in 2013.
TUI UK’s summer 2016 growth continues the UK’s largest holiday company’s strategy to ensure customers across the UK can fly from their local airport and stay at the best hotels in some of the most exciting destinations.
Stansted is among the fastest growing airports in the UK over the past year with ten consecutive months of double digit growth. Annual passenger numbers for the last year (12 months to March 2015) are up 16.3 per cent compared with the previous 12 month period to 20,923,257.
At Belfast in Northern Ireland, the airline’s winter schedule sees it increasing the number of seats for sale on routes to Gatwick, Luton and Stansted in London by more than 125,000, bringing the total number of seats to over 500,000 up to the end of February, 2016.
Thomas Cook Airlines will further expand its UK long-haul programme in summer 2016 building on the airline’s growing long-haul summer programme this year, which sees its first flights to New York and Miami from May 2015. Next year’s programme will see further growth at Manchester and more frequencies from Glasgow, London (both Gatwick and Stansted airports), Belfast and Cardiff.
The new link will be the only scheduled international link from Lorient to the Mediterranean and will see the Irish carrier generate an estimated 18,000 passengers per year to Lorient, a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.
The news came after the low-cost carrier’s chief executive, Tony Fernandes, revealed the intent to resume the popular route via the social networking site, Twitter.
UK low-fare regional carrier Flybe is to reopen its base at Aberdeen, begin base operations from Bournemouth and launch a new limited programme of domestic flights from London Stansted in summer 2015 as it continues to work to enhance connectivity within and from the UK.
The sale of the slot pair for the carrier’s daily Larnaca service - flights CY346 and CY347 - will result in Cyprus Airways switching its London operations to Stansted Airport from September 14, 2014.
UK leisure carrier Thomas Cook Airlines is to launch new long-haul links to the United States from London Stansted, Manchester and Glasgow as part of its expanded summer 2015 programme. The long-haul growth will be supported by a major investment in upgrading its Airbus A330 fleet to offer a much higher level of comfort to Transatlantic passengers.
Just days after announcing a new seven-year agreement at its largest base, London’s Gatwick Airport, UK low-fare carrier easyJet has now confirmed it has agreed a ten-year deal at its London Luton Airport headquarters.
Winter 2014/2015 network growth at London Stansted and Dublin clearly illustrates how Ryanair is adapting its business model and alongside new routes is building frequencies across its network to better serve the business market while also attracting stronger leisure flows.
