In the last few moments via a press conference in London, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary confirmed that seven new routes will be launched from the UK, and attacked NATS openly.
These seven new routes will no doubt have something to do with the airline pulling back such opportunities and aircraft from Dublin.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Ryanair Announces 7 New Routes in the UK…
It is understood that the seven new routes are as follows from London Gatwick, Luton & Stansted:
- Belfast
- Basel
- Ouarzazate
- Tatry
- Tirana
- Treviso
- Vigo
It is also understood that there will be increased frequencies on 30 more routes, such as Alicante, Athens, Bratislava, Cologne & Faro.
To account for this 15% increase in traffic growth from the London area, Ryanair will be basing two new Boeing 737 aircraft at Stansted for the Winter 2023/24 season, representing a $200m investment.
At the Press Conference in London, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary had this to say to journalists that attended, including AviationSource:
“Ryanair is pleased to add 7 new routes this winter from London to Belfast, Basel, Poprad, Ouarzazate, Tirana, Treviso & Vigo, as well as increased frequencies on another 30 Winter sun and city break routes”.
“To support this growing Winter schedule, we have based 2 new aircraft at Stansted, bringing our total London-based fleet to 50 aircraft (a $5bn investment), and creating over 60 new high pay jobs”.
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O’Leary Goes on the Attack Against NATS…
Within this route announcement, O’Leary also went on the attack against NATS following the recent IT failure, as well as this week’s capping of flight movements out of London Gatwick due to staff illness.
“Ryanair is the UK’s No.1 airline, and while we continue to grow and provide unbeatable route choice and low fares to our 52m p.a. UK customers, NATS are busy writing “whitewash” reports to cover up their inexplicable incompetence which led to the cancellation of over 2,000 flights (Over 360,000 passengers) and long delays to more than 5,000 flights (900,000 passengers) on Mon 28/Tues 29 Aug last”.
“Ryanair calls on Transport Minister, Mark Harper, and the UK Govt to urgently reform ATC and guarantee UK passengers that they will not suffer anymore disruptions as a result of repeated NATS failures, mismanagement and incompetence”.
O’Leary also called openly for the CEO of NATS to be sacked as a result of everything that has happened over the last four weeks.
Looking ahead, it remains clear that the airline continues to expand into areas which offer the most incentive, as well as O’Leary not backing down without a fight in regards to NATS.
Overall Updates from O’Leary: UPDATE @ 1546-1610 UK time…
After the route announcements for London and attacks on NATS, O’Leary went into some detail about Ryanair’s progress at present.
He mentioned that traffic levels are currently 123% of pre-COVID levels, and currently has a fleet of 558 aircraft, with orders amounting to 390 yet to be delivered.
From there, 3,200 flights are taking place every day, with the expectation of reaching 225m passengers by FY2026 and 300m by FY34.
Within this also, Ryanair CEO O’Leary explained in London that the airline continues to have the lowest costs in Europe compared to competitors such as Wizz Air and easyJet on the low-cost scale, and IAG on the legacy perspective too.
O’Leary did accept that there are still challenges yet to be faced, such as the recent NATS failure, which cancelled over 2,000 flights, as well as interest rates, fuel and inflation still rising in cost.
He also confirmed that for Winter 2023, there will be the launch of a new base in Copenhagen, as the switch now focuses to Christmas travel.
Across the London Stansted base, Ryanair has a total of 44 aircraft based there, with two more on the way, amounting to a $4.4bn investment.
130 routes, including six new, and increased frequencies on 25, will result in 23.5m passengers being handled in FY24, supporting over 19,000 jobs.
As for Gatwick, four routes in total, including increased frequencies on its popular Alicante route, supporting over 950 jobs, and carrying 1.3m passengers in FY24.
On the topic of London Gatwick, Ryanair CEO O’Leary then decided to delve further into the NATS crisis, calling on them and the UK Government to reimburse airlines and to fix the staff shortages.
O’Leary has also called for better efficiencies within the European Union set-up of air traffic control, and to protect overflights during strike action, pointing the finger towards France yet again.
On UK Government pricing, O’Leary discussed this further, saying that they are fully transparent and upfront with passengers about why some airfares cost more than others.
Moreover, O’Leary has called on the government to intervene on OTA pirates, whose pricing is far more significant that booking through Ryanair directly.
He openly called out the likes of Kiwi.com, Booking.com, LastMinute.com, Beach.co.uk, eDreams and Opodo as “scammers”.
Finally, in his overall thoughts, he reflected on the growth for the London area in the Winter 2023 season, offering low-costs, low-fares, with Stansted being the only viable growth airport in the city, as well as once the Ryanair CEO again calling for the CEO of NATS to be sacked, thus concluding our coverage of this event!
This is a developing story and may be updated at any point.
Reporting & imagery by Thomas Saunders, article composed by James Field
Did you know AviationSource has two newsletters? One covers the general news and analysis of the industry as a whole, and the other to do with emergencies that take place throughout the year! To subscribe to our General News Newsletter, CLICK HERE!
To subscribe to our Emergencies, Accidents & Incidents Newsletter, CLICK HERE!
