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BUDGET AIRLINE RYANAIR has announced a slew of new and expanded European routes, including a direct flight to Brussels-Zaventum from Dublin.
Michael O’Leary said today that the new routes would primarily target business passengers, and could save the Irish government €3 million in the remaining calender year compared to what it would pay for flights with Aer Lingus.
Political and business travellers coming between Brussels and Dublin will be a main target for Ryanair.
“We’ve all heard the legendary stories of MEPs who picked up their expenses early in the morning and ran back to Ireland to spend it…we fully expect to see our hard-working MEPs on Ryanair going back to Roscommon or wherever it is.”
It marks the latest attempt by the airline to aggressively pursue new segments of market share which it had traditionally ignored, including business passengers and flights to high cost, central airports.
Business tack
O’Leary promised that he would take the wraps off various “goodies” to help woo business travellers to Ryanair in the coming weeks.
For the past number of years they (business travellers) would have been ripped off by Aer Lingus fares.
Ryanair flights would remain under €200 for a same day return flight to Brussels, O’Leary said.
He said that shifting dynamics in European aviation had opened up the major European airports for Ryanair.
“For many years we didn’t care about the main airports…and they didn’t want us there anyway.
“Now they’re genuinely concerned that the incumbent flag carrier will go bust or restructure.”
Asked about Aer Lingus, where Ryanair holds a 30% share, O’Leary described the former state airline as a “small, peripheral former flag carrier…it will not be of any major significance in European aviation”.
He said that he had offered his stake in Aer Lingus to various outfits, including Etihad, but none had expressed interest. O’Leary said, however, that he would not sell off his holding in a piecemeal way, equating such a move to “financial terrorism”, and saying that it would drive the Aer Lingus stock price through the floor.
Strategy
Merrion Capital head of research David Holohan said that the move was in keeping with Ryanair’s recent strategy, and was in part designed to make up for lost ground as other budget carriers have successfully persuaded business travellers to choose their services.
“Ryanair had slipped behind its competitors, Easyjet for example”, Holohan argued.
He said that the budget outfit may struggle to make an impact on the route at first because of deeply ingrained customer habits, but “there’s no reason why they wouldn’t be able to get enough passengers to positively affect profitability”.
It’ll take time because people will associate Ryanair with cheap fares rather than the business bonuses they’d be used to with other airlines.
New routes
In addition to the new Brussels route, the carrier will operate routes to Basel, Bucharest, Cologne, Glasgow, Lisbon, Marrakesh, Nice and Prague.
There are a total of sixty new routes, with increased frequencies on 21 other routes. The airline is predicting that it will carry an extra 850,000 from Dublin every year on the extra flights.
O’Leary also confirmed that he is travelling to Cyprus later today for a new round of talks with the Cypriot government about taking over troubled national carrier Cypriot Air.
Holohan said that such a move “would make sense strategically if the price is right”.
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Ryanair could save irish stoners 4 million a year by opening up a Amsterdam route, Eindhoven is nice but too far
Irish stoners could give up getting stoned in the first place thereby saving a small fortune.Just a thought.
It’s only a fortune thanks to prohibition. Tax there for the government as well instead of distracting our fine police force
Kevin do you think if the government ever legalises dope that they won’t tax it to the hilt?Btw our fine police force has become nothing more than a uniformed branch of revenue.
but you can grow weed in your back garden so taxing it to the hilt would be counter productive
Government changes every five years so not all governments will tax to high heaven. That said even if they do we can make sure we can grow in our own home aswell. Like home brewing for example
Also refrain from calling it dope. It shows a lack of understanding of what cannabis really is.
Kevin it’s slang as is “ciggies” or “fag” for cigarettes.
If you went around the streets asking for dope the one thing you would not get is weed.
No its not Norman. Furthers my point about how uneducated some people are about cannabis.
@Kevin – imagine my shame… ignorant in the ways of the junkie.
Junkie would be another uneducated term. No human being is junk and neither is a human being addicted to heroin, or the Irish substitute methadone
Whatever Micks smoking can I have some ?
Well done Ryanair, going from strength to strength.
Love him or loath him, Michael O’Leary is great at getting free marketing.
Bureaucrats and Ryanair together, the horror
For the avoidance of doubt, Brussel-Zaventem is the main international airport in Brussels.
It will, of course, depend on the flight times but if they’re undercutting AL on the costs of tickets they could be on to a winner.
Makes sense for consumers. Charleroi has always been a complete pain.
Not sure the government will save much though. They own 25% of Aer Lingus, so some of the airfare they pay them comes back as Aer Lingus profits.
Ryanair may charge the Government less to travel, but they keep their cash!
Tough times for Ryanair. Michael is missing a button (solid gold presumably) from his blazer in the photo above where he is beseeching the Almighty.
It’s a bit much expecting our political elite to have to fly with the plebs.
It depends whose pocket is funding the trip.A certain politician only travelled with Ryanair when she was personally funding her own travel.
Ryanair have no commercial information on what Aer Lingus charge so this 3 million is an estimate and nothing factual about it.
Maybe they looked at the Aerlingus fares in the public domain and extrapolated from there.
but most stats are estimates until they are in the past.
They also would be able to see how much TD’s have spent on air travel due to the freedom of information act
Open up the transatlantic route to Louisiana Michael, and i promise you my undying gratitude and support
Business travel is shit. If you travel with air lingus you get partner miles to spend on other airlines.
If you are traveling a lot for business its basically your bonus. So no chance in hell a business travellers will choose Ryanair to save their employers a few Bob.
Only if they are forced.
How will they justify flying to Zavantem and Charleroi? They’re quite close together.
They fly to Stansted and Luton, and Liverpool and Manchester, which are similar distances apart.
Very true. I hope it works out for them. Any flight I’m ever on from Brussels to Dublin is always bunged.
Ryanairs success is actually what every business should aim for
Michael you have over 300 hundred aircraft all on Irish register ,that adds to the Irish ego taxes which runs into hundreds of millions of euro.the Irish tax payer pays these fines
O Michael I would say other airlines based in Ireland pay more tax to the Irish state then your airline ,if that was adjusted accordingly it would also safe the state a lot more then 6:9 million
State own 25% (?) of AL.
Pension proposal is to pay 190m plus lets say 40m to the pilots fund deficit of 160m
230m … almost 60 m euro not to mention loss of dividends. AL can’t afford to cut fares. Investors won’t agree. More doubt.
Bad news for AL
Ryanair sack you? Is that you Nicole?
Ryanair sack you? Is that you Nicole?
How about the 10 million in EU grants that Ryanair received flying just to French airports are you thinking Irish taxes does go to the EU .Hay Michael will you save the tax payer on that one .
Roscommon is in Connacht that’s where it is
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