Ryanair

[Tinkerman]

January is typically a difficult month for air travel. Even moreso when the ongoing effects of COVID-19 are still being played out.

Worthy to note that CWL isn’t alone on this front either with FR DUB cuts. BRS has gone from 4 daily to 2 daily. At 2 weekly the CWL route isn’t the greatest of use.

 

[Jerry]

January is typically a difficult month for air travel. Even moreso when the ongoing effects of COVID-19 are still being played out.

Worthy to note that CWL isn’t alone on this front either with FR DUB cuts. BRS has gone from 4 daily to 2 daily. At 2 weekly the CWL route isn’t the greatest of use.

The flights are on Monday and Friday so does cover weekend aways and VFR traffic that are visiting Wales or going back to Ireland.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Looks like Ryanair have cut Dublin to 2 weekly for the rest of this month. Goes back to 4 weekly in February.
CAA stats for November are out. 3925 passengers used the route in November which averages 115 passengers per flight. Personally i don't think that's too bad in a pandemic. Will be curious to see what December is like.

I would say that average load is very good given the circumstances. I didn't expect it to be that high initially because of all the problems that aviation is facing. The yield is obviously the important thing in the long run but Ryanair will probably be happy to get people in the habit of using the service at this early stage of the route's development.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

My thanks and acknowledgement to Ian Farquharson for his post in the BHX Ryanair thread which sets out some Ryanair flight reductions at a number of airports for the remainder of this month. His figures, reproduced below, show that it's quite a cull. I suspect that most, probably all, UK airports are similarly affected.

BHX has 40 weekly flights compared to 94 normally - down 57%
MAN 113 rather the 293 down 61%
EDI 71 rather than 187 down 62%
LTN 31 rather than 107 down 71%

 

[Jerry]

At least the route will still be operating.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

Looks like Ryanair have cut Dublin to 2 weekly for the rest of this month. Goes back to 4 weekly in February.
CAA stats for November are out. 3925 passengers used the route in November which averages 115 passengers per flight. Personally i don't think that's too bad in a pandemic. Will be curious to see what December is like.

Works out 61% load factor. Not too bad considering!

 

[Jerry]

Works out 61% load factor. Not too bad considering!

Yes not too bad considering the pandemic and restrictions.

 

[Jerry]

I just saw a social media post from this mornings Dublin flight saying that the flight was completely full and the aircraft was a MAX200 which has 197 seats I believe. Hopefully eventually we might see more frequency added over time.

 

[Tinkerman]

Good point Jerry and one i’ve noted across the last few weeks. Monday and Friday unsurprisingly seem the most popular at the moment, with the mid-week flights tailing off a bit.

 

[Jerry]

Yes no doubt a lot of VFR traffic on Mondays and Fridays as well as people going for weekend breaks.
One good thing is that the flight seems to be attracting people from outside of Wales to it. Apparently there was a couple from Devon on the flight that the poster was talking too.

 

[geoff]

Family friends flew on the Wednesday flight a couple of weeks ago, flight was full on the way out, and a few empty seats on return leg last week, route seems to be doing very well.

 

[Chris Gronow]

Interesting link below albeit a bit odd

Ryanair chief explains what they need from Cardiff Airport to run more flights

Eddie Wilson says he 'would like to think we'd expand there', but he needs something in return

www.walesonline.co.uk

 

[Jerry]

So what's the difference between Wizz opening a base and Ryanair? I'm sure Wizz had conditions that the airport had to meet to get a base so does make you wonder what Ryanair has demanded that the airport hasn't met those demands.

 

[Pontyboy]

Very odd and generic comments and hardly news worthy. I imagine Ryanair are more aggressive in their tactics compared to Wizz but then this flies in the face of why do Ryanair operate out of CWL.....they must be making money on the flights they sell now.

Also, we don't know what Wizz were offered and whether the fact that the relationship was warmer from the beginning because Owain Jones at Wizz is Welsh.

Most of the comments on WalesOnline and social media are so anti CWL that people are still spouting out the same rubbish that's been said for years. People haven't got a clue about the string of misfortune and bad luck the airport has had. Definitely looking a lot brighter now Wizz is operating.

 

[Jerry]

Also, we don't know what Wizz were offered and whether the fact that the relationship was warmer from the beginning because Owain Jones at Wizz is Welsh.

Who is now in a different role but his replacement seems just as positive about the base. I suppose the big difference between Ryanair and Wizz is that Ryanair has yields to protect at Bristol so in their head CWL may need to produce a deal which is really good to attract them unlike Wizz who may have well been looking for a foothold in the area.

 

[geoff]

I'm sure that Ryanair could put two more flights a week on the Dublin route which seems to be doing well, but they are so demanding of airports when it comes to setting up routes. and of course as you say Jerry, they will want to protect their interests at BRS.

 

[Jerry]

Ryanair haven't put Dublin onsale yet but have loaded the flights. At the moment the route is 4 weekly Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Departure times from Cardiff are 2250, 1710, 2300 and 2205.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

Ryanair haven't put Dublin onsale yet but have loaded the flights. At the moment the route is 4 weekly Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Departure times from Cardiff are 2250, 1710, 2300 and 2205.

Awful flight times.

 

[Jerry]

Yes the times aren't very good. Kind of fear they may accidentally sabotage the route if they remain. Hopefully the airport can persuade them to change them.

 

[aviatorconcorde]

Sort of okay if you are leaving Dublin i guess. Terrible going the other way.