Leeds Bradford: Ryanair Route News & Base Updates

[wawkrk]

The flight from Krakow tonight was completely full.I paid for priority boarding and a reseved seat in row 2 but two passengers had to be seated next to me free of charge.
Not the best of ideas to only have about 4 row's where you can reserve seats otherwise no seat allocation. Give me Jet2 any day.

 

[White Heather]

Does anyone know if Ryanair are likely to put any additional flights on to Krakow in view of the European Championships coming up? I noticed that England flew to Krakow today. I am not sure where they are playing but even if not in Krakow, I would have thought that the option of football and a weekend in Krakow would be quite attractive to more than a few soccer fans? Ryanair have put extra flights on Krakow before, for no obvious reason, presumably due to heavily booked loads?

That said, its good news that Ryanair are carrying such loads. There has been some talk of Jet2 going back on this route, and I don't know if its significant (probably not, which is why I haven't posted it on the Jet2 thread), but if you look at the Jet2 route map, and hover the cursor over Krakow, it shows routes to Newcastle and Leeds. Do it the other way round and hover over Leeds and it doesn't show Krakow, so probably an error. However, that was once said when Leeds showed up on the Ryanair website as a base airport, and we all know what came later!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

England are playing their three group matches in the Ukraine, the joint hosts - two games in Donetsk and one in Kiev. Should they proceed out of the group stage their quarter final game would also be in the Ukraine.

They settled on Krakow as a base because they didn't want to stay in the Ukraine so will fly from and back to Krakow for each match - at least 90 minute flights I believe.

Not ideal but many believe it's better than setting up a base in the Ukraine.

Far fewer England supporters are attending the Euro Championships this time than is normally the case because of a combination of low England expectations, profiteering by hoteliers and the like in the Ukraine, the potential treatment of fans by the authorities there and, of course, the recession isn't helping.

I'm not aware of Ryanair or any other low cost airline putting on extra flights for England supporters from any regional airport.

 

[lbaspotter]

Ryanair have started to release winter 2012/13 flights for sale.

So far the following route are on sale from Leeds/Bradford.
Dublin = 2x daily
Riga = 2x weekly, Wed & Sun
Gdansk = 2x weekly, Mon & Fri
Krakow = 3x weekly, Tue, Thu & Sat

Other winter routes not on sale yet: Alicante, Arrecife, Barcelona, Dusseldorf-Weeze, Faro, Fuerteventura, Kaunas, Malaga, Malta, Milan-Bergamo, Reus, Tenerife-South & Venice-Treviso
Summer only routes: Chania, Corfu, Dinard, Ibiza, Kos, Limoges,Montpellier, Murcia, Palma & Pisa-Florence

Tenerife, Reus & Milan didn't start operation until this summer but I would expect them to be year round routes for Ryanair.

 

[Aviador]

Picture by Aviador hosted here at Forums4airports

I've seen this a few time this summer, Ryanair using an airbridge at LBA. We know as a rule the airline doesn't like using them primarily because airports tend to charge an additional fee for using them. The handling agents will often say it takes longer to offload and board flights using them. Why is it then Ryanair seem to use an airbridge at LBA from time to time? and probably more often than anywhere else?

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

It does seem a bit stupid of FR to kick up that much of a stink at ALC and in spain in general when they said you have to use them to then use them without any fuss here at Leeds. Maybe to do with the fact when they are used, it's on a longer turnaround. So where crew changes happen and where in general it spends upwards of 45 minutes if not more on the ground here in leeds. It could also to be the fact some stands are out of action due to the widening of the apron to make way for the walkway.

 

[lbia]

Until the food village is closed the only 'holding area' gates are 5,7,9 & 10 so Ryanair are using the airbridge until the stand work and gate 4 is enlarged when their main stands will be 10,11 & 12. Only flights with a load factor of less than 140 (I believe) are put on the airbridge so not to slow down turnarounds.

Its funnier to watch them park it on stand 7 but not attach the steps. Passengers walk half way down the airbridge, down the steps, about 15 metres across the ramp then back up ryanairs aircraft steps. Some very happy passengers....!

 

[752]

What are holding gates? and how large are LBA enlarging stand 4?

 

[EX9]

In reference to what some have already posted, on longer turn arounds, first/last flights of the day will have the bridge attached as not to delay the turnaround. The holding area available (though the biggest mess up in design possible with the new gates 9/10) is used from gate 9 down the airbridge. As a percentage of passengers literally have to be ready to board before the aircraft lands.

Holding gates comprise of an secure area in which passengers boarding cards have been reconciled and they are then ready to be escorted to the aircraft, in reality its like penning people in so they cant go anywhere they are not supposed to.

If you look at the development pictures, you will see the proposed artist impression of gate 4.

This is currently the food village.
http://www.leedsbradfordairport.co.uk/a ... 0zones.JPG

 

[ryan]

It does seem a bit stupid of FR to kick up that much of a stink at ALC and in spain in general when they said you have to use them to then use them without any fuss here at Leeds. Maybe to do with the fact when they are used, it's on a longer turnaround. So where crew changes happen and where in general it spends upwards of 45 minutes if not more on the ground here in Leeds. It could also to be the fact some stands are out of action due to the widening of the apron to make way for the walkway.

The main reason for the Alicante situation was that the airport was FORCING Ryanair to use them (and charging them), rather than letting Ryanair choose to use them. Ryanair do indeed use jetties at a number of airports, Madrid being one of them, but I'd imagine that 99% of the time they haven't actually paid the 'fee' to use them, rather it could have been more convenient for the airport for a jetty to be attached than to provide a bus.

 

[lbaspotter]

Ryanair released a further 6 winter 2012/13 routes for sale.

Dusseldorf-Weeze - 3x weekly = Mon, Wed, Fri
Alicante - 3x weekly = Tue, Thu, Sat
Fuerteventura = 1x weekly, Fri
Arrecife - 2x weekly = Sat & Mon
Malaga - 2x weekly = Sat & Tue
Tenerife - 2x weekly = Sat & Wed

Winter routes still not on sale yet: Barcelona, Faro, Kaunas, Malta, & Venice-Treviso. New routes to Milan-Bergamo & Reus may also operate over the winter.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

I guessed that TFS would be winter ops, so thats 5 weekly flights out of LBA pretty good going for winter (well Jet2 have 3, then 4 xmas/ny time, then 2 in jan).

Would love to see some more year round routes added into the mix (eastern europe).

 

[lbaspotter]

I assume FUE has reduced - was it not twice weekly? If so, it should maximise passenger loads better as I think this route has underperformed.

Yeah can confirm that Ryanair did the Fuerteventura route only once weekly last winter as well. They do 2x weekly in the summer season though.

 

[tleeds]

Someone has entered into Wikipedia that; Kaunas and Venice will officially end on November 3rd as well as Malta which is said to end on November 1st.

I am fully aware Wikipedia isn't a reliable source, but was wondering if we have missed any announcements which may mean that these routes will end..?! With it being Ryanair who are endlessly opening and closing routes down across Europe every month, it makes me wonder a little more whether this is true. :aggressive:

I have just noticed that from the post by Lbaspotter (see above) a few weeks ago, these routes aren't on sale yet either and Faro and Barcelona are the other two that are left and are most likely to continue..

 

[lbaspotter]

The full winter 2012/13 ryanair scheduled has not been released yet. Lets just wait and see what happens. As it normally around this time of year we get to hear about there planned Winter scheduled going by the previous years announcements at LBA.

But as you rightly point out tomleeds, Wikipedia is an very unreliable source of information seen that anyone can go on there, and alter anything at anytime.

Saying that nothing really suprises me with ryanair now-a-days. They seem to come and go on many a route and have been known to alter there scheduled's time and time again. I lost count how many times both the winter 2011/12 & summer 2012 scheduled changed before they had been finalized.
You also may find the end dates listed for Malta, Kaunas & Venice routes are the last flights of the summer 2013 scheduled. As I previously mention the Winter flights may not have been loaded into the ryanair website yet

It also worth noting that it has no end date listed for the Kos route, which we all know to be ending in October. It also states that Corfu route is been dropped as well. But I understand Corfu is not effected by Ryanair pullout from some Greek airports.

 

[White Heather]

If Ryanair are dropping Malta, nobody has told LBA management as they stated it was a year round route at the last consultative meeting only 2 weeks ago. I can't see Ryanair dropping it and I recall that it was not on sale for winter until later last year too, and there was speculation then that it was dropped. Last time I looked it was still shown as a year round route on the Ryanair route map.

 

[Jordan-34092]

Well hopefully if Ryanair do drop it air Malta will decide to take it back on.

 

[lbaspotter]

Well hopefully if Ryanair do drop it air Malta will decide to take it back on.

Dought it as I think you will find the Malta service use to be a charter flight which was only operated by Air Malta's A319's for Thomas Cook Holidays. Air Malta never did it on a scheduled basis.

Before Thomad Cook picked up the route, Air Malta use to run the weekly charter with the Boeing 737's for Thomson Holidays as well for a long while. That's going as far back in to the early 1980's and possibly before the runway extension.

For about 2 years in the mid 2000's we did see a second weekly "flight only" charter flight been introduce to Malta operated by Britishjet who used Fly Hello's MD90's.

 

[White Heather]

The Air Malta charter flight dates from 1976 I think and it was definitely the first jet IT charter route from LBA, ahead of Britannia Airways.

 

[channex 757]

About Air Malta, even though they are going through a restructuring program at the moment die to the economic climate, they are looking to expand to more UK airports so LBA could be an option if Ryanair pull out.