Ryanair

[BRSregular]

Surely Wizz would be well placed to step in on the Budapest route? I’d love to see Wizz increase their presence at BRS

 

[Marko1]

Wikipedia is not the most accurate source. Someone keeps removing kos and preveza off easyJet’s routes when they are on sale for example. It was also incorrectly stating that wizz was ending its Katowice service which was definitively wrong.
Somehow I got a feeling that Ryanair is sorting slots out at the busier airports and would return some or all of these routes back to sale. I got a feeling that rather than reducing services from Bristol they may increase services instead. After all they have Eastern Europe entirely to themselves ( except krakow ) and there’s lots of potential

 

[Jerry]

If Ryanair do axe Budapest it could be ideal for Wizz?

 

[Marko1]

Don’t forget easyJet fly to Budapest too

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Don’t forget easyJet fly to Budapest too

No direct easyJet flights to Budapest. Those in the easyJet booking engine are in the easyJet Worldwide section and operate via other airports - Paris, Basel and Lyon airports are some connecting examples shown.

 

[Marko1]

They fly up to 3 daily from Gatwick and 3 x weekly from Manchester

 

[TheLocalYokel]

They fly up to 3 daily from Gatwick and 3 x weekly from Manchester

In your previous post I thought you meant that easyJet fly direct from BRS to BUD.

BUD from BRS with Ryanair is certainly one to keep a particular eye on to see if it returns to the booking engine next summer. It's still bookable during the current winter.

The other Ryanair UK BUD routes - EMA, STN, EDI and MAN - are shown as bookable for next summer although EMA is not operating this winter.

 

[BRSregular]

I think I flew BRS to BUD in 2006. The route could certainly return with EZY if they were so inclined

 

[superking]

Any one know what the FR66 is all about. It landed in BRS about 12.20 local today.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Any one know what the FR66 is all about. It landed in BRS about 12.20 local today.

It might be a positioning flight code for the aircraft that is due to fly the Bristol Bears rugby team to Shannon at 1400 today as FR904 for their match tomorrow against Connacht in the Heineken Cup.

 

[Marko1]

Still no Budapest gdansk etc and just 3 months to go.

 

[superking]

It might be a positioning flight code for the aircraft that is due to fly the Bristol Bears rugby team to Shannon at 1400 today as FR904 for their match tomorrow against Connacht in the Heineken Cup.

Thanks for the reply Localyokel. I forgot they were to go over there. I seen the flight number one day in the past week and took no notice where it was going or where it came from.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Still no Budapest gdansk etc and just 3 months to go.

There was a post in the Dried Plum MAN forum this week saying that Eindhoven, Kiev, Cologne and Prague are not bookable from MAN next summer. Someone else then posted that next summer's Ryanair schedule is not yet fully loaded.

In terms of the two Polish routes and Budapest that are not currently bookable their load factors each summer are always extremely high (mid 90s%-plus) as are the other Ryanair Polish routes that are bookable. Load factors are not necessarily the main indicator of a successful route of course but one would wonder why these central/eastern European routes have gone (if they have) when similar routes in terms of loads are staying.

I've just checked the FR booking engine and Gdansk, Rzeszow, Budapest, Girona, Bergerac, Limoges, Bergamo, Knock and Bologna are still not bookable for summer 2021.

Gdansk, Rzeszow, and Girona are not bookable from MAN either. Budapest, Bergerac, Limoges, Bergamo and Knock are bookable from most UK airports that served them in the past but Bologna has been removed from the dropdown in the BRS booking engine (I have a feeling that it was axed for summer 2020 before the pandemic but am not completely certain - its loads were always slightly below most of Ryanair's summer numbers). As for Bergamo, as I said in a previous post Ryanair has boosted its nearby MXP route next summer (5 x weekly) so Bergamo might be sacrificed on the altar of a bigger challenge to easyJet's MXP route.

Given that a number of these routes are bookable elsewhere and given some some notable exceptions from MAN, it seems odd if they have all been removed from BRS given their past success in terms of passenger volume. I would not be surprised to see most of the missing routes reappear before the season starts. It might be a case of completing the BRS part of the Ryanair network operational jigsaw.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Just to add a bit to my previous post #953, I had a look at summer 2019's load factors on some of the routes still not yet in the summer 2021 booking system. Whilst always aware that the yield is the figure that counts with airlines, the load factors on the missing routes are similar to those that are in the booking engine for next summer.

Although I've shown the main summer months for 2019 which replicate the load factors in previous recent summers, all the routes are year-round and load factors are not much less in winter.

Percentage load factors are from May to September respectively. All stats courtesy of CAA.

First the two missing Polish routes - all percentages shown are to the nearest whole number:

Gdansk: 98, 96, 96, 96, 95
Rzeszow: 96, 98, 98, 97, 98

Now the Polish routes that are shown as operational next summer:

Poznan: 97, 96, 97, 98, 96
Wroclaw: 98, 99, 96, 97, 96
Warsaw Modlin: 96, 96, 96, 96, 95

Krakow is operated by Ryanair and easyJet so I can't determine the Ryanair load factor, and Katowice is operated by Wizz Air.

Away from Poland, Budapest in not yet bookable for next summer and its summer 2019 load factors were as follows:

95, 95, 97, 97, 95

Ryanair's remaining* former Eastern Bloc routes are bookable for next summer and displayed similar load factors to the others in summer 2019, viz:

Kaunas: 97, 97, 97, 99, 95
Bucharest: 97, 97, 97, 97 (for some reason I didn't record September)

So all in all it does seem a mystery as to why Gdansk, Rzeszow and Budapest are not bookable next summer when compared with similar routes that are.

* I've not included Sofia which is ski season only and anyway competes with easyJet and a charter carrier (Enter Air in recent seasons)

 

[Marko1]

I find it hard to believe that Ryanair would end the Eastern European routes given that they have operated some or all of them right from the start of the base operation. The fact that most days call for four based aircraft and there are gaps to fill I can only hope that these routes will be put on sale soon. Otherwise it’s like a prize giving to their rivals - easyJet ( Budapest) , wizz air ( Gdańsk and Budapest).
Also to note that Venice , Limoges , Bergerac , knock and girona are also not on sale either

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I find it hard to believe that Ryanair would end the Eastern European routes given that they have operated some or all of them right from the start of the base operation. The fact that most days call for four based aircraft and there are gaps to fill I can only hope that these routes will be put on sale soon. Otherwise it’s like a prize giving to their rivals - easyJet ( Budapest) , wizz air ( Gdańsk and Budapest).
Also to note that Venice , Limoges , Bergerac , knock and girona are also not on sale either

It's a fair old chunk of passenger volume to ditch and it's not as if the flights were lightly loaded. Just the opposite as the stats in my previous post show. In 2019 BRS's seven Polish routes (operated variously by Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air) carried a total of 415,547 passengers.

easyJet used to operate to Gdansk and Budapest but dropped them around 15 years ago shortly after which Ryanair took them on. Venice MP is an odd one. easyJet have reduced their offering to 2 x weekly next summer. Whether that's anything to do with the temporary closure of the easyJet Venice MP base I don't know.

I think that 2021 is still a 'suck it and see' year everywhere, not just at BRS and with all airlines.

Someone did tell me that they had recently contacted Ryanair about the missing BRS routes and received the somewhat cryptic reply, ‘Keep your eyes on the booking engine for January’. So we shall have to wait and see.

 

[Marko1]

Interesting last comment there LY. I suspect something is coming

 

[superking]

Has there been a ban of flights to Poland thisvlast week or is it just a FR thing. I noticed no flights to Poland cancelled today. Any thoughts any one or can explain whats going on.

 

[KARFA]

Yes there was a ban, but I believe it is being lifted next week.

 

[KARFA]

Forget the above, Polish ban on flights now extended to 13 Jan