Will Ryanair's five new destinations cause a bloodbath?

[OO-SBZ]

On 14/12/2005 Irish budget carrier Ryanair announced five new routes from its Charleroi (aka Brussels-South) base.
The new services include four "sunny" leisure destinations: Faro, Malaga, Nimes and Valencia and Salzburg (Austria).

Three of the "leisure" cities are already proposed by other no-frills or charter operators. Virgin Express does indeed fly from Brussels (Zaventem) to Faro, Malaga and Valencia whereas Spanish competitor Vueling operates a daily Valencia-service.

As far at the so-called charter operators are concerned (JetAirFly - i.e. the newly rebranded TUI/Jet Air - and Thomas Cook) flight-only tickets to Faro and Malaga can be bought.

The budget-sensitive customers/passengers can therefore expect reduced fares to these newly overserved destinations.

However it looks like budget operators are moving away from the so-called low-cost model:

Underserved and overpriced is the Southwest Mantra to identifying routes where low fares can prosper

CALDER 2003, No-Frills, The Truth Behind the Low-Cost Revolution in the Skies, p.232

Can we expect in blood-bath amongst Ryanair, Virgin Express, Vueling, JetAirFly and THomas Cook Belgium? Would some unhappy airline managers have to agree with Richard Brandson when he claims « How do you get to be a millionaire? Be a billionaire, and start an airline »? Or would the extra seats boost the demand?

Regards

BeN

[A318]

I think some LCC's will suffer now.
As we all know Ryanair will not be the one, they will win this fight, they are to big to compete against.

[jal]

I think some LCC's will suffer now.
As we all know Ryanair will not be the one, they will win this fight, they are to big to compete against.

And who let them become that big ,although everybody saw it happen

[airazurxtror]

I think it will be a question of price, first of all.
And also, of the airport of departure. Ryanair is the only carrier flying from Charleroi.
Not every traveller live in Brussels. For quite a few Belgian, Charleroi is nearer than Brussels (for example, for those who live in Arlon, Namur, Mons, Charleroi of course, not to mention Valenciennes and Maubeuge for the French) and for others (Liège for example), Charleroi is no farther away than Brussels.
Thus, I think (and I hope) that Ryanair will be happy with the new routes from Charleroi.

[Ozzie1969]

The more, the merrier.

[Buzz]

It's a free world... Let the fight begin, and may the strongest win.

My guess is especially VEX will suffer, since TUI and Thomas Cook have the package holidays going for them.

[Atlantis]

I'm not convinced that it will cause a bloodbath. If you compare different LCC like Ryanair, Vueling, Virgin, etc they can offer all prices like 10 euro for a one way ticket if you search for the cheapest flight, except Virgin. Ryanair is not flying to big cities while Vueling and Virgin does. F.e Ryanair is flying to Girona, Vueling and Virgin to Barcelona. The pax of Ryanair have to travel 95 km by car or bus before they can reach the city.

And Charleroi has to cope many times with bad weather conditions like fog. Every time they closed the airport for that.

F.e. I drove this week my parents in law to Charleroi. As usual bad weather: fog. The flight was still ok. I drove back in the direction of Brussels. It's a one hour ride, so in that time I was riding two hours. After some time they phoned us to say the flight was cancelled. Again two hours ride. In total 4 hours!! At that time the weather was also not fine at Brussels airport. The flights there were all ok, some with a small delay.

That's the difference. For me personal I fly always via Bru, it doesn't bother me what is costs. The people who wants to travel via charleroi has to take the consequences of such an airport.

If I can chose between an A32O of Vueling to Barcelona or a B737-800 of Ryanair to Girona with a bus connection and a 95 km ride for the same price, it's not a difficult choice.

But that's my opinion, so that's my statement about a "possible" bloodbath.

[Acid-drop]

I think brussels will suffer more than charleroi.

Flights from charleroi are usually much cheaper and everybody tend to know that. I think that those people who like cheap flights are the people who didnt travel before because it was too expensive, so those people want as cheap as possible, no matter if they loose 1h in a bus in the destination city.

And the new terminal and parking will increase the good opinion of the travelers.

[rares_dan]

Some travelers have some high standards. Those one's expect to get out the house and take directly the plane. For this ones(max. 10% of all passengers) Brussels will remain the sole option. For the other 90% the newest Ryanair's CRL flight wil matter a lot. I say that with this move Ryanair is taking some hard hits to Virgin Express.

[BrightCedars]

Next Summer, as usual, my wife and daughter will visit their family in Lebanon. Well, I crawled the websites for the best possible fare from Brussels (BRU) to Beirut (BEY). We've already used a dozen combinations and airlines on the route. And of course we wouldn't fly on Syrian Air's BRU-BEY-Damascus (DAM).

What turned out to be the best fare is AZ (Alitalia) from Amsterdam(AMS)! I don't care for the 2h drive and back since I have a company car. And even if I didn't, it would just amount to some 20 EUR of diesel. The fare (670 EUR in total for 1 adult and 1 child) is 140 EUR cheaper than the cheapest fare available from BRU on Olympic (OA). And, funnily, nearly 300 EUR cheaper than AZ's own BRU-...-BEY and back on the same days.

If people like me find it silly to pay 100's more to fly from BRU and opt for AMS or Dusseldof (DUS) (not Paris (CDG), it's awful!), I'm pretty sure many will make their way to Charleroi (CRL) for the same reason. This is a direct hit by Ryanair (FR) at Virgin Express (TV) to hinder the return to profitability of TV and even deals a blow at SN at the same time.

[jelger]

I doubt whether it will be such a "loss" for other airlines, and win for RyanAir.

EasyJet has quit quite some flights outbound AMS to the south recently (BCN/NCE). even Glasgow (my prime destination with EasyJet from AMS) has been cut out...

RyanAir had ironically too much succes with their flights out of Groningen, and was it Twente(?), and as result of that quit them.

off-topic in regard to LCC's and their airports...
travelconvenience is something that seems to be forgotten by many, and a ticket price seems to be what matters, and people forget other related extra expenses you have to make to fly airports that are out of the way.

I find it silly to fly Stansted, pay a huge sum for train, whereas i can get cheap with BMI as well, and fly to LHR, just spending 4 quid on the metro.

i dont drive to airports out in the nowhere (oostende, charleroi) just in order to have a cheap ticket. all costs outside of flight, but related to the trip itself have to be added (parking, and/or extra buscosts/traveltime), often it turns out that it doesnt really matter what you fly then ... and mostly have more travelconvenience/efficiency with "regular airlines.

[Atlantis]

The question is what will other airlines do? What would Vueling and Virgin do? That's the main question.

[fostro]

To my opinion, TV (Virgin Express) will suffer the most. AGP (Malaga), FAO (Faro) and VLC (Valencia) are three destinations of them which are now connected with CRL (Charleroi) by FR (Ryanair). Of course, it's not 100% the same, but for a certain number of people the price is the only thing that counts - believe me!

Besides that, some people who are living closer to CRL than BRU or who like much more FR and their attractive fares, are probably lost customers for TV due to these new connections closer to home.

On top of that, TV is already feeling the warm breath of VY (Vueling) which is taking a big part of the Spanish market ex-BRU! Competition grows as VY is launching BRU-MAD as from 21 December onwards.

As a conclusion I would say we won't see a bloodbath, but a slight change of customer number on the most competetive routes. Perhaps a change in frequency by TV... But, let's wait and see how well the new FR-destinations will do and talk again within about a year - when they have completed a summer and winter season.

P.S.: Today fares are so attractive that nearly everbody can fly! Why don't you surprise your grandma with an airline ticket

P.S.2: Season's greetings to every Luchtzakmember and all the best in 2006!

[A318]

I doubt whether it will be such a "loss" for other airlines, and win for RyanAir.

EasyJet has quit quite some flights outbound AMS to the south recently (BCN/NCE). even Glasgow (my prime destination with EasyJet from AMS) has been cut out...

Correct, but the reason was that the competition from Transavia became to strong for Easyjet.
Which, in my opinion, is silly since Easyjet was offering better prices and a nicer service then Transavia is offering, I mean did you ever find a flight with Transavia for a price comparable with Easyjet or Ryanair?
I never did and believe me I do search a lot of flights.

Ryanair will for sure start a new war here and it will definitly be felt by Virgin Express.
Don't think SNBA will suffer that much since they probably have more business passengers onboard.

[Airbus330lover]

Other point. New destinations of FR can easy compete with the TGV
Like CRL Nimes.
Many belgians have a residence in France and specially in the region of Nimes.
For many if will be easier and cheaper to travel by plane. Otherwise, you have to travel to a train station (Brussels Midi or Lille) and the journey time is much longer.