We'll pull planes from Stansted, warns Ryanair in row over fees
Dan Milmo
Wednesday June 20, 2007
The Guardian
Ryanair has threatened a partial pull-out from its largest airport base in a row over fees. The low-cost carrier said it will withdraw planes from Stansted unless BAA, owner of the Essex airport, cuts its charges. Ryanair issued the ultimatum as it warned that higher airport costs, plus increased taxes, were continuing to affect demand among British customers.
"We will take some flights and aircraft out of Stansted this winter if there is no movement on these high costs," said Ryanair's chief executive, Michael O'Leary.
Ryanair is blaming BAA and the government for a recent drop in its passenger load factor - a measure of how full its planes are. The carrier says a doubling of air passenger duty to £10 and a doubling of fees at Stansted to £12 a passenger has filtered through to ticket prices and affected demand. Mr O'Leary added: "Passengers are suffering a double whammy."
BAA could not be reached for comment. Mr O'Leary said Ryanair would start by withdrawing 10% of its fleet from Stansted, equivalent to four planes.
The Ryanair chief also warned that the airline market was due for a severe downturn. He said there would be "blood on the walls" in the sector over the winter if the current weak sales across Europe continued into the autumn, without summer holiday sales to shore up demand. "The market will downturn. We expect it to be in the next 12 months. We just don't know what is going to cause it," he said. "All we know is that this business is cyclical and the down points of the cycle tend to be very deep." Ryanair underlined its concerns yesterday by launching another seat sale during its busiest time of year, selling 3m flights for £10 including charges and taxes, less than a month after it gave away 1m tickets for 1p including add-ons. The offer will cost Ryanair between £20m and £45m. "Our concern is not so much the summer, where we already have decent visibility. We are much more concerned about the coming winter. If those soft markets continue it could be a very difficult winter in general," said Mr O'Leary.
Ryanair reported a 33% rise in pre-tax profits to €451m (£305m) earlier this month, but predicted growth in the current financial year would be just 5% and said it could lose money over the winter. Its load factor fell from 82% to 80% last month, with easyJet and BA also reporting difficulties in filling their planes.
I quattro 738 che dovrebbero eventualmente lasciare Stansted andrebbero ad essere riposizionati a Luton.