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Ryanair and Alicante: not a love story
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Noel Hernandez Wednesday 20 April 2011 |
Ryanair announced to pull nine of its eleven aircraft from its Alicante base in October 2011 following a row with the airport's owner AENA.
The airline's reaction comes after the Spanish Airports Authority decided to force Ryanair to use airbridges on boarding in its passengers rather than allow them simply to walk to and from the aircraft, and pay over £1.75m extra a year in landing charges for these facilities.
Michael O'Leary, Ryanair chief executive, said: "It is time that the AENA monopoly airports in Spain stopped abusing their dominant position to force airlines like Ryanair to use unnecessary facilities which we neither want, nor are willing to pay for. Alicante Airport has opened up a new terminal building which was not needed, and to pay for it, Alicante expects efficient airlines like Ryanair to now use the same inefficient and high cost airbridges that other high fare flag carrier airlines prefer to use."
The Dublin based airline, that has been operating in Alicante for more than five years without using airbridges, claims that the use of those would significantly delay its turnarounds because passengers can only use the front door of the plane, leading to more handling delays and increasing Ryanair's costs at Alicante.
Ryanair said that as a result of forcing them to pay this €2m airbridge use, AENA Alicante will now lose over €18m per year in passenger and turnaround fees from Ryanair and at least a further €12m in lost commercial revenues from the 2.5m fewer passengers which Ryanair will now deliver.
Among the routes Ryanair is willing to cancel are the ones to Bournemouth, Cork, Derry and Doncaster. It also announces that destinations as Gatwick, Stansted, Liverpool, Glasgow Prestwick or Leeds, will be frequently cut in the next winter season.
According to the airport owner: "The use of airbridges is essential to ensure not only quality service, but safety," but it also had said that Ryanair had been offered the possibility of not using airbridges and instead transferring passengers by bus, where the extra cost were just 32 cents per passenger.
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David, Leeds 20 April 2011, 03:38PM | |
I think airbridges hamper flight turn around time, offering only one exit from the plane. That being said they are much more accessible for disabled passengers than the standard stair exits. | |
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Jane Candour, Svoitland 24 April 2011, 12:32PM | |
I see where Ryanair are coming from but I would not want to go back to the days of bus transfers from the terminal to the plane. The air bridge is very civilised and must be an important boon for elderly and disabled people | |
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Chris Penington 24 April 2011, 11:47PM | |
For once, I am on the side of Ryan Air. They know their customers and price (control of operating costs) is very important | |
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