Poland. Chopin and Modlin airport.

[RyanairBristol]

Today Ryanair announced that they will now base 3 aircraft at Warsaw Modlin and start 8 new routes. Belfast, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Newcastle, Toluse and Valencia. Meanwhile Gdansk and Wroclaw will transfer from Modlin to Chopin. So Ryanair return to Chopin another primary airport
Also routes to Bristol and Milan will increase in frequency.
Link: http://corporate.ryanair.com/news/infor ... ?market=pl
(In Polish)

[Ryanairmadrid]

Yes! Wow Chopin is back.
Another move to a primary airport...
They've really changed strategy.

I really think that Ryanair (old) and Ryanair (new) should be two different.
The old one could keep the usual very cheap and original style from secondary airports.
The new airline brand could be a more customer friendly and more into primary airports, ofc, more expensive.

[ryanadmin]

Yes! Wow Chopin is back.
Another move to a primary airport...
They've really changed strategy.

I really think that Ryanair (old) and Ryanair (new) should be two different.
The old one could keep the usual very cheap and original style from secondary airports.
The new airline brand could be a more customer friendly and more into primary airports, ofc, more expensive.

True! They should make a second airline for the primary airports

[RyanairBristol]

That would be good. Perhaps they could call it Ryanair Express and operate a combination of B737-700 -800 and -900. Have first and business class and charge more then using the revenue to lower fares on old Ryanair and fly same route but to secondary airports. I would love to see that happen.

[Ryanairmadrid]

Yes but I think we know that unfortunately it won't happen.
And the old Ryanair will not be back unfortunately.
I was reading about Laker Airways offering the London - New York route for 50 Pounds in the 1980's.
The aircraft were called 'Sky Train' but it closed down after a few years of overwhelming success.

[ryanadmin]

Yes but I think we know that unfortunately it won't happen.
And the old Ryanair will not be back unfortunately.
I was reading about Laker Airways offering the London - New York route for 50 Pounds in the 1980's.
The aircraft were called 'Sky Train' but it closed down after a few years of overwhelming success.

They didn't make enough money?

[RyanairBristol]

They went bankrupt as Laker Airways did not have the financial strength to survive the early 1980s recession and competition by the established scheduled airlines. In addition to undercapitalisation, unsustainably high debts and weak finances, Laker Airways was not backed by any significant assets. The bulk of its fleet was leased, as was the maintenance hangar at Gatwick that also housed the airline's offices. The only financial backup that Laker Airways had was Sir Freddie's stud farm and his personal wealth

Both the UK and US were in recession in the early 1980s, characterised by negative/low growth, high unemployment, high inflation and high interest rates. During that period the company was expanding to sustain commercial success generally and that of Skytrain in particular. Laker Airways needed to position itself to take advantage of additional opportunities to expand its business to maintain its status as Britain's second largest independent airline and third principal long-haul operator. Eventually, the company borrowed at high interest rates. The high interest rates were a major cause for the increase in the firm's borrowing costs as well as its debts.

Although the Laker Airways fleet contained a greater proportion of modern widebodied aircraft than most of its competitors, which made it cheaper to operate and maintain, the airline felt the sudden tripling of the price of crude oil in the aftermath of the Shah of Iran's fall from power. Laker Airways needed to pay the high spot market oil prices because it could not hedge its future supplies by negotiating fixed-rate, forward purchases. Such financial derivatives were non-existent.

The airline attempted to protect itself against sterling-dollar exchange rate fluctuations by buying US dollars at a fixed rate. This was a necessity as most of its costs were in dollars whereas most of its income was in pounds sterling. The company's growing problems were exacerbated by wrongly anticipating the sterling-dollar exchange rate for the 1981/2 winter season.During all 1980 and the better part of 1981 the rate was 1:2. The pound could buy two dollars because sterling was kept high by Britain's North Sea oil exports and the importance these exports assumed against high crude oil prices. Laker Airways did not anticipate the speed of sterling's subsequent decline. This meant that it needed to pay more for dollars than it had originally budgeted, leading to an outflow of funds at a time of financial crisis

Although Laker Airways had lower costs and a simpler organisation, it needed high year-round loads to make money at discount prices. Most of the passengers were likely to travel during the summer peak period. This made it challenging to achieve high loads during the winter.

Taken from Wikipedia.

[Sbutty]

I think the brand would get confusing if you had two business models running separately. The move upward to the 'hybrid' low cost business focused is tried and tested. Only downside is the fares creep up. I think our days of penny flights are never to return.

[Ryanairmadrid]

Yes, that is what I mean - we can't find the same fares as before...
And about Laker Airways yes they went bankrupt but it was total success in the early days.
I wish it was still there to fly to New York for 50 Pounds. Imagine.

[RyanairBristol]

I think the closet we can get now is Norwegian London to New York £209 or to Boston for £149.

[Ryanairmadrid]

Both ways?

[RyanairBristol]

Just one way.

[Sbutty]

Seems mad really considering Edi/Gla to the canaries is basically flying to Boston from the uk and the fares the legacies have on the Atlantic is mad.

[RyanairBristol]

Yes it is crazy, Westjet operate Boeing 737-700(I think if not the -800) from Glasgow to Nova Scotia. It ain't cheep but shows how close they are.

[Ryanairmadrid]

Yes!
And imagine a flight from Stockholm to Canaries - It's about 6 hours.
Ryanair used to fly it if I can remember.
Its basically like a Shannon - Boston flight.
Not that far away!