Ryanair

[TheLocalYokel]

Base size increasing?

A poster on another forum suggest that the Ryanair base size at BRS will increase to four aircraft at the end of next March.

Until March of this year there were five based aircraft but it was then reduced to two. Nothing was ever said publicly by either airline or airport so far as I can determine but speculation suggested there had been a failure to agree on terms for such things as peak hour departures and aircraft parking.

In the event summer 2013, when there were two based aircraft, saw more Ryanair flights overall each week than summer 2012 when there were five, with the majority of flights operated by non-based aircraft in summer this year.

This brought a benefit of spreading out overall arrivals and departures throughout the day but also meant the majority of flights were restricted to routes between BRS and other FR bases. For example, on Saturdays there were seven FR arrivals between 1940 and 2040, all of which then turned around and took passengers to the aircraft home bases at a time when there was little traffic from other carriers at BRS.

If there are more based Ryanair aircraft next summer it will potentially increase congestion in the airport's departure areas even more at peak times. Last summer there were nearly 30 departures (of all airlines) before 0900 at times. This won't reduce next summer so the extra based FR aircraft will add to this.

The central pier currently under construction with its new pre-boarding zones and new gates will certainly be needed.

 

[Marko1]

Just had a look at august 2014 and there appears to be some increases in a selection of services from bristol ( i realise its work in progress - seems to change very day) but so far we have chania 3 pw alicante 8pw malaga 8pw faro 9pw palma 8pw gerona 9pw and budapest 3pw so positive news

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Just had a look at august 2014 and there appears to be some increases in a selection of services from bristol ( i realise its work in progress - seems to change very day) but so far we have chania 3 pw alicante 8pw malaga 8pw faro 9pw palma 8pw gerona 9pw and budapest 3pw so positive news

Last August there were increases on some routes - from memory GRO was 9 x weekly throughout the summer and Malaga was 8 x weekly throughout the summer (so far it's 8 x weekly all next summer too). Alicante, Palma and Faro may be an increase on last August and Budapest and Chania certainly would be.

Incidentally CAA stats show BUD carried over 4,100 passengers in November this year (up 59% on November 2012) so there must have been additional rotations in the month. At 2 x weekly it's not possible to carry that number unless MOL has had an open-top double deck fitted to his aircraft replete with a clippie with a dingaling (showing my advanced age here!).

You rightly say that Ryanair's timetable will be a work in progress at the moment but currently I can't see any of last summer's routes dropped. Porto shows in the drop-down list but nothing is bookable and it seems to have been left there ever since the route was dropped a few years ago. With the revamped FR website I thought they would have got rid of Porto so, who knows, perhaps it's coming back but I wouldn't bet any money on it.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Bologna

Ryanair will commence Bristol-Bologna from 1 April this year at 2 x weekly (Tues and Sat).

I can't remember Bologna being served before from BRS by any airline other than perhaps one-off flights.

It seems to be the usual Ryanair swings and roundabouts though because, compared with summer 2013, Szczecin, Lodz and Bratislava have been removed from the menu list and Katowice though still in the list is currently not bookable. It will be a surprise if Katowice is axed because its a year-round route unlike Szczecin, Lodz and Bratislava that have been summer-only.

As things stand, assuming that Katowice does operate, there will be 29 destinations in summer 2014, two fewer than in summer 2013. However, Ryanair's track record suggests this will not be the final line-up. More routes may come and go yet, if previous years are any sort of guide. Good news all the same to have a new destination.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Ryanair celebrates 10 million passengers at Bristol Airport

100,000 Ryanair seats on over 1,000 European Routes from just £19.99

Ryanair celebrated 10 million passengers at Bristol Airport. Ryanair began operating at Bristol 26 years ago with a route to Dublin and today offers passengers in the South West a choice of 28 exciting destinations.

To celebrate Ryanair is releasing 100,000 seats across its European network at prices starting from £19.99 for travel on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in March and April and these “all in” cheap flights will be available on over 1,000 of Ryanair’s European routes, but must be booked on Ryanair.com before midnight (24:00hrs) Monday 17 February 2014.

Ryanair’s £19.99 sale fare includes all non-optional taxes, charges and fees, so passengers who only travel with carry-on luggage and decline our priority boarding service can book, check-in online and fly for this advertised £19.99 fare.

Shaun Browne, Aviation Director at Bristol Airport, said:
“We are delighted to reach this landmark with one of our longest-standing airline partners. Ryanair’s commitment to the South West and South Wales has made a great range of destinations available at low fares for millions of leisure and business passengers across the region.”[/textarea]
Bristol Airport press release: http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/media-c ... ngers.aspx

I can't remember Ryanair at BRS on the DUB route in 1988. I thought that Ryanair was a small, struggling, loss-making airline then, yet to take on the low-cost business model that has served them so well.

 

[Seasider]

I have a slide of a Ryanair HS748 taken at Luton in summer 1986, I believe their first season.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I have a slide of a Ryanair HS748 taken at Luton in summer 1986, I believe their first season.

Thanks for that, Seasider.

I knew they were around in a small way prior to 1988 and it was probably around that time that they saw the Bae 1-11 in their fleet but I just cannot recall them operating into BRS at such an early date. I would have said the early 90s but memory does fade with age of course and I can find no documentary evidence to support it either way.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Summer 2014

Now the summer season has begun I've had a look at the FR timetable. The FR website has been revamped again and is now much more user-friendly particularly in accessing the timetable.

The total number of weekly rotations is shown as follows for the summer period:

April 102
May 110
June 106
July 106
August 115
September 110

In general terms this is about 6-8 rotations per week fewer than in summer 2013.

Bratislava, Lodz, Szczecin and Katowice have been dropped from last summer. Bratislava and Katowice are surprises because loads have been very high and Katowice has been running through the winter just ended. It must be the yields because these routes have come and gone before with FR despite very high loads then. Lodz and Szczecin are less of a surprise; in fact, Szczecin was a surprise when it was brought back for last summer after being dropped in 2009. Its loads have been easily the worst of FR's BRS-Poland routes which usually see load factors at least in the high 80s% and often well into the 90s%.

Bologna has been added for this summer and is a new route for BRS.

In total there will be 28 routes this summer, down from 31 in summer 2013.

Faro will operate 11 x weekly in August along with easyJet's 15 x weekly. I hope people like the Algarve.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Ryanair takes the cake in Bristol Airport's track-keeping awards

Airline tops league table for on track departures

Ryanair topped the table for the second year running in Bristol Airport’s annual Tracker Awards. The scheme measures compliance with departure routes set up to minimise noise disturbance for local residents and also encourages airlines to use procedures which reduce their noise impact.

The Irish airline, which serves 29 destinations from Bristol and carried over 1.4 million passengers from the Airport last year, was one of eight airlines to operate 100 per cent of departures on track. Ryanair took first place by virtue of its superior Continuous Descent Approach (CDA) performance, operating this noise reduction procedure on 95 per cent of arriving flights.

Ryanair’s Base Captain, Jonathan Moss, was presented with a certificate to mark the achievement and a large cake to share with his fellow flight crew. Aurigny, bmi regional, easyJet, Helvetic Airways, KLM, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways also received a letter of thanks from Bristol Airport’s Chief Executive Officer, Robert Sinclair, for achieving 100 per cent on track departures.

The Tracker Awards were introduced in 2013 to recognise outstanding operational performance by airlines at Bristol Airport, based on monitoring of compliance with noise preferential routings (NPRs) and the rate of CDAs achieved. The league table format is an effective way of encouraging continuous improvement and ensuring any deviations from track are taken seriously.

CDAs are becoming more widespread for aircraft arriving at UK airports, with advances in navigational technology likely to further increase their use in future. When flying a CDA procedure, aircraft stay higher for longer, descending continuously and avoiding any level segments of flying which would require additional engine power to be applied. This reduces the noise impact on the ground under certain areas of the flight path (between around 10 and 25 miles from the runway) by up to about 5 decibels, saves fuel and reduces emissions. Overall, 83 per cent of all flights arriving at Bristol Airport operated CDAs in 2013 – an improvement of four percentage points over the previous year.

Alan Davies, Planning and Environment Director at Bristol Airport, said:

“Ryanair continues to lead the way when it comes to track-keeping but had to see off strong competition from several other airlines this year. Initiatives like the Tracker Awards can only encourage further improvements which will help to minimise the noise impact on local communities.”[/textarea]

BRS press release at http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/media-c ... acker.aspx

 

[Marko1]

Ryanair have added an extra weekly flight to tenerife on saturdays and an extra flight to lanzarote on sundays for the month of june only. Four each per week !!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Ryanair have added an extra weekly flight to tenerife on saturdays and an extra flight to lanzarote on sundays for the month of june only. Four each per week !!

These have been in the Ryanair timetable for at least a couple of months. When I did my summary for summer 2014 (see post of 6 April) they were in place then.

It's a bit of a mish mash this summer.

May saw 110 weekly rotations in total.

June drops to 106 with DUB dropping from 21 weekly to 14, but ACE and TFS both increasing from 3 to 4, and EGC from 2 to 3.

July remains at 106 with ACE and TFS returning to 3 from 4 but ALC increasing from 6 to 7 and FAO from 7 to 8.

August rises to 115 with ALC rising from 7 to 8, AGP from 7 to 9, PMI from 7 to 8, GRO from 8 to 9, FAO from 8 to 11 and CHQ from 2 to 3.

September returns to 110, broadly as May.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

May 2014

I thought I'd have a look at Ryanair's load factors in May compared with May last year. May is usually easily the poorest of the summer months (May-September) for load factors.

I've only looked at those routes where it's possible to determine Ryanair's load factors. Several routes are operated against easyJet (and Aer Lingus Regional to Dublin) and Bergamo was closed for part of May with flights routed to Malpensa.

The load factors are as follows, with May 2013 shown first.

Bergerac 65/70
Beziers 69/68
Limoges 67/72
Budapest 89/96
Girona 76/74
Valencia 77/77
Chania 86/87
Reus 76/74
Arrecife 86/88
Las Palmas 81/78
Treviso 73/82
Malta 88/90
Gdansk 83/97
Poznan 80/96
Rzeszow 87/96
Wroclaw 84/95
Warsaw Modlin 76/95
Kaunas 88/91
Knock 57/60
Bologna na/56

The Polish and other Eastern European routes are noticeably much higher this May, showing load factors usually seen in peak summer. Possibly the reason is Ryanair's decision to axe Lodz, Szczecin and Katowice that all operated last summer and saw load factors in May 2013 of 78%, 55% and 86% respectively meaning that the Polish market is now spread over fewer flights (easyJet operates to Krakow). Bratislava was also axed from last summer with May 2013 seeing a load factor of 81%.

So it seems slightly odd that a route never operated at BRS before (Bologna) should replace these axed routes with a load factor of 56% in May.

If the Polish routes are handling these loads in May peak summer loads in previous years suggest that Ryanair may have to turn passengers away this summer.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Winter 2014-2015

It seems there will be 51 weekly rotations this winter, down from 2013-2014's 57. Winter 12-13 was 51, winter 11-12 was 57 and winter 10-11 55.

This winter there will be only 13 routes, with the previous four winters in reverse chronological order fielding 16, 18, 18 and 18 respectively.

Routes not operating this winter that operated last winter are Katowice, Kaunas and Girona. Looking at last winter's figures the loss of these three routes will lose the airport a total of around 7,000 passengers per month on average through the winter season. The rest of the BRS network will have to be outstanding if there are not to be negative monthly passenger figures each month through the winter.

The routes operating from BRS this winter are:

Alicante 3 x weekly
Malaga 4 x weekly
Gran Canaria 1 x weekly
Tenerife 3 x weekly
Lanzarote 3 x weekly
Faro 2 x weekly
Malta 2 x weekly
Budapest 3 x weekly
Gdansk 2 x weekly
Poznan 2 x weekly
Wroclaw 2 x weekly
Warsaw Modlin 3 x weekly
Dublin 21 x weekly

From the flights timings it appears that 39 of the 51 weekly rotations will be operated by aircraft from other bases with just 12 per week from the BRS base.

Those flights operated by BRS aircraft are:

Monday Gdansk
Tuesday Tenerife and Warsaw Modlin
Wednesday Poznan and Wroclaw
Thursday Tenerife and Warsaw Modlin
Friday Gdansk
Saturday Tenerife and Warsaw Modlin
Sunday Poznan and Wroclaw

This means that only one based aircraft will be needed and even that won't be heavily used.

Last winter 39 of the 57 rotations were operated by BRS aircraft with 18 from other bases.

Summer 2015 so far seems broadly similar with summer 2014 with 28 routes and up to 113 weekly rotations except that Girona is reduced to 5 x weekly. Last summer it was between 7 and 9 weekly depending on the month. I have a notion that Ryanair is reducing its Girona network following some sort of disagreement but I may be wrong.

Addendum

Further enquiry elicits that there aren't any Ryanair Girona flights from UK airports this winter and next summer's programme has been decreased across the board with some airports losing their GRO flights
altogether, so BRS has something to be thankful for in that it's not been dropped entirely next summer.

 

[superking]

ryanair has a press conference in snn this monday. i wonder if its about taking over some of the routes eir were doing and now dropped.
be very nice if they took on the brs route again.
so im hoping some good news monday.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

ryanair has a press conference in snn this monday. i wonder if its about taking over some of the routes eir were doing and now dropped.
be very nice if they took on the brs route again.
so im hoping some good news monday.

SNN-BRS was dropped in 2009 when Ryanair had a fall out with the airports' authority and axed 75% of its SNN routes. EIR operated the route in later years with a break then restarted earlier this year.

FR carried over 94,000 on its BRS route in 2006 and over 97,000 in 2007. EIR never managed 30,000 (high 20,000s was the best year).

The sticking point might be Knock which is not a million miles away which FR operates 3 x weekly to BRS in summer. This route has hung on for about six years despite monthly load factors sometimes being not much more than 50%. SNN would carry higher loads if history is a guide but the yield is unknown of course.

If I betted, which I don't, I wouldn't put much money on a SNN-BRS route being announced but I might be wrong which would show why I never bet.

 

[superking]

no new routes announced out of snn this morning.
you never know with fr on routes weather new ones or dropping.
if snn is not announced by fr at a later date, then it looks like we lost that one again.

 

[Marko1]

Now that easyjet has launched seven new routes for next summer, any chance Ryanair May launch anything new ?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Now that easyjet has launched seven new routes for next summer, any chance Ryanair May launch anything new ?

Who knows with Ryanair? I've long gained the impression that they are not as committed to BRS as are easyJet which from their perspective is fair enough if that's how they judge their business.

Currently there is renewed hope amongst CWL aficionados that Ryanair might increase their presence there following comments from someone who attended a meeting with CWL management this week.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It seems there will be 51 weekly rotations this winter, down from 2013-2014's 57. Winter 12-13 was 51, winter 11-12 was 57 and winter 10-11 55.

This winter there will be only 13 routes, with the previous four winters in reverse chronological order fielding 16, 18, 18 and 18 respectively.

Routes not operating this winter that operated last winter are Katowice, Kaunas and Girona. Looking at last winter's figures the loss of these three routes will lose the airport a total of around 7,000 passengers per month on average through the winter season. The rest of the BRS network will have to be outstanding if there are not to be negative monthly passenger figures each month through the winter.

The routes operating from BRS this winter are:

Alicante 3 x weekly
Malaga 4 x weekly
Gran Canaria 1 x weekly
Tenerife 3 x weekly
Lanzarote 3 x weekly
Faro 2 x weekly
Malta 2 x weekly
Budapest 3 x weekly
Gdansk 2 x weekly
Poznan 2 x weekly
Wroclaw 2 x weekly
Warsaw Modlin 3 x weekly
Dublin 21 x weekly

I noticed today that Kaunas is operating. A look at last week's Mayfly shows it operational then too and Ryanair's booking engine is showing it 2 x weekly (Mon and Fri) for the rest of the winter. It was definitely non-op when I checked at the start of the winter. I don't know whether it operated in November or started in December. Timings suggest it is a BRS-based aircraft.

It means there are 14 routes this winter with 53 weekly rotations.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Knock

Now showing in the booking engine for next summer as 4 x weekly, up from the 3 x weekly of recent summers. A Monday flight has been added to go with Wed, Fri and Sun.