More International Customers Carried Than Any Other Airline
Ryanair, Europe’s No 1 airline, today (20 June) welcomed confirmation from IATA that it remains Europe’s favourite airline after IATA’s latest World Airline Transport Statistics showed Ryanair carried more customers than any other European airline – and the most international customers of any airline.
Ryanair carried over 128m customers last year (1 Jan – 31 Dec 2017), over 1.5 times Easyjet (77m), double Lufthansa (60m) and nearly three-times BA (44m). In fact, Ryanair carried more customers than Easyjet and BA combined.
Ryanair celebrated retaining its title of Europe’s No 1 and the world’s favourite airline by launching a late summer sale, with 10% off one million seats for sale across its European network for travel in September and October. These low fare seats are available for booking on the Ryanair.com website until midnight Thursday (21 June).
Leading 20 Airlines by Customers”. *:
* IATA World Transport Statistics (2017 edition)
Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said:
“IATA has once again confirmed that Ryanair remains Europe’s favourite airline and this report demonstrates that European consumers want the lowest fares and widest choice of routes. This year, we will carry 139m customers, while continuing to lower fares and grow our route network across Europe. To celebrate we have launched a sale with 10% off one million seats across our European network, for travel in September and October. These low fare seats are only available for booking until midnight Thursday (21 June).”
ATC Staff Shortages/Strikes Crisis Is Disrupting Millions Of Passengers This Summer
Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, today (14 June) called for urgent action by the EU Commission and European Governments to arrest the alarming deterioration in Europe’s ATC services during the months of May and June, and prevent a full meltdown of ATC services this summer.
In May 2018:
– Over 117,000 flights were delayed with 61% (over 71,000 flights) due to ATC staff shortages and strikes.
– Over 56,000 flights were delayed more than 15 minutes, a fourfold increase on the 14,000 flights delayed more than 15 minutes in May 2017.
– Weather delays accounted for 39% (45,000 flights), a fourfold increase in the 11,000 weather delays of May 2017.
– Strangely, a majority (almost 60%) of these weather delays took place on Fridays and Saturdays rather than the other 5 days of the week, which suggests that ATC providers are using adverse weather to cover their staff shortages.
– The EU target delay for 2018 is an average of 0.5 minutes per flight. However, the current forecast for 2018 is now heading towards 1.5 minutes per flight, nearly treble the EU target.
– In May, Ryanair cancelled just over 1,000 flights, almost all due to ATC staff shortages and strikes. This was 24 times the 43 flights cancelled in May 2017.
– In May, EasyJet cancelled 974 flights compared to just 117 in May 2017.
– In May, IAG CEO Willie Walsh said: “The thing most impacted is ATC strikes and the ongoing ATC environment, which is a mess. It is destroying traffic throughout Europe. We thought it would get better in 2018 but it’s getting worse”.
Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:
“Yet again this weekend, French ATC will strike on Saturday and Sunday leading to hundreds of flights being cancelled, disrupting the holiday plans of thousands of passengers. Many of these flights don’t even touch France, yet they will be disruptive because French ATC requires airlines to cancel overflights while they protect French domestic routes. Europe’s airlines are also suffering thousands of ATC delays/cancellations because of staff shortages especially in German and UK ATC providers. These disruptions are unacceptable, and we call on the UK and German Governments, and the EU Commission to take urgent and decisive action to ensure that ATC providers are fully staffed and that overflights are not affected when national strikes take place, as they repeatedly do in France.
Europe’s ATC providers are approaching the point of meltdown with hundreds of flights being cancelled daily simply because they don’t have enough staff to deal with them. The situation is particularly acute at weekends where British and German ATC providers are hiding behind adverse weather and euphemisms such as “capacity restrictions” when the truth is they are not rostering enough ATC staff to cater for the number of flights that are scheduled to operate.
Urgent action must now be taken by the UK and German Governments, and the EU Commission, otherwise thousands more flights and millions of passengers will be disrupted, particularly in the peak months of July and August, unless this ATC staffing crisis is addressed”.
Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (13 June) announced it will open a new base at London Southend, from April 2019, with 3 based aircraft (an investment of $300m) and 13 new routes to 8 countries, including Alicante, Barcelona Reus, Bilbao, Brest, Corfu, Cluj, Dublin, Faro, Kosice, Malaga, Milan Bergamo, Palma and Venice, which will deliver 1m guests annually at London Southend Airport.
Ryanair’s new S2019 London Southend base will deliver:
– 3 based aircraft ($300m investment)
– 13 new routes: Alicante (5 wkly), Barcelona Reus (2 wkly), Bilbao (4 wkly), Brest (2 wkly), Corfu (2 wkly), Cluj (3 wkly), Dublin (2 daily), Faro (5 wkly), Kosice (3 wkly),
Malaga (5 wkly), Milan Bergamo (4 wkly), Palma (4 wkly) & Venice (4 wkly)
– Over 55 weekly flights
– 1 million guests p.a.
– 750 “on-site” jobs p.a.
Southend consumers and visitors can now book their holidays for Summer 2019, on even lower fares, and enjoy Ryanair’s “Always Getting Better” improvements including:
– Reduced checked-in bag fee (€25) but bigger bag (20kg) allowance
– Ryanair Rooms with 10% off Travel Credit
– Ryanair Transfers – wider choice of ground transport with new partner Car Trawler
– Price Promise – find a cheaper fare & Ryanair will refund the difference +€5 to your My Ryanair account
Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer, David O’Brien said:
“We are pleased to add London Southend Airport to our UK base network. Ryanair guests travelling to and from London and the Essex area can now enjoy low fares on a choice of 13 routes through London Southend’s exceptionally passenger friendly terminal.
Southend Airport’s train station will deliver direct services from the terminal to London Liverpool St and also the new Crossrail service (opening in 2019), making the airport even more accessible from all parts of London.
To celebrate we are releasing seats for sale on these new routes from £24.99 for travel in April and May 2019. This offer is available for booking until midnight on Friday (15 June). Since these amazing low fares will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com and avoid missing out.”
Warwick Brady, CEO of Stobart Group said:
“We are delighted to welcome Ryanair and its guests to London Southend in S2019. We have a clear and focused strategy to grow our airport to welcome over 5m passengers a year by 2022. This news will help us achieve that aim, and Ryanair will be a valuable partner to Stobart Group in developing London Southend airport with 13 routes and 6 new destinations, allowing us to play a key role in solving London’s capacity crisis. We look forward to delivering a great service to Ryanair guests to ensure we support the extraordinary growth of Ryanair operations out of London.”
UK Accounts For 25% Of Ryanair’s Fleet
Ryanair today (11 June) announced that it has signed its second cabin crew union recognition agreement with Unite the Union, who will now be the representative body for Ryanair directly employed cabin crew in the UK. This agreement follows Ryanair’s first cabin crew recognition deal with the Italian ANPAC/ANPAV unions.
This cabin crew recognition agreement follows extensive negotiations with Unite the Union and covers the UK market, which accounts for approx. 25% of Ryanair’s fleet. Ryanair looks forward to working with Unite the Union and its Ryanair (Cabin Crew) Company Council to conclude an early CLA for Ryanair’s directly employed cabin crew based in the UK.
Ryanair’s Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson said:
“We are pleased to sign this cabin crew recognition agreement with Unite the Union in the U.K. This is a further sign of the progress Ryanair is making with trade unions since our December 2017 decision to recognise them. We hope to announce further agreements over the coming weeks, in those countries where unions have approached these negotiations in a practical and positive manner. We are making less progress in some smaller countries where minor issues (such as days off for union officials) are unnecessarily delaying agreements.
However, as this growing number of pilot and cabin crew recognition agreements confirms, we are making progress and confounding those sceptics who claimed that our December 2017 decision was not real or genuine. We look forward to working closely with both Unite the Union, and their Company Council to address issues of concern to our UK based cabin crew.”
Ryanair today (6 June) confirmed that it has signed its first cabin crew union recognition agreement with ANPAC and ANPAV, who will be the representative body for Ryanair directly employed cabin crew in Italy. This agreement follows extensive negotiations with ANPAC and ANPAV since Ryanair’s December 2017 announcement that it was willing to recognise Unions for collective bargaining purposes.
Ryanair welcomes the constructive engagement of ANPAC and ANPAV which led to the signing of this first cabin crew recognition agreement, in Italy, which currently accounts for over 80 of Ryanair’s 400+ aircraft fleet and approx. 20% of Ryanair’s cabin crew. Ryanair looks forward to working with ANPAC and ANPAV and its newly elected Ryanair (Cabin Crew) Company Council to conclude an early CLA for our directly employed cabin crew based in Italy.
Ryanair’s Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson said:
“We are pleased to announce this recognition agreement with ANPAC and ANPAV on behalf of our directly employed cabin crew in Italy. This is our first cabin crew union recognition agreement (which follows recognition agreements with pilot unions in the UK and Italy earlier this year) and further demonstrates Ryanair’s progress on recognising and negotiating with unions across Europe for our people. We are making good progress with other cabin crew unions across Europe and we hope to sign more recognition agreements with both pilot and cabin crew unions in the coming weeks.”
Up To 20% Off 1 Million Seats
Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (6 Jun) launched a massive ‘Summer Sizzlers’ seat sale, with up to 20% off 1 million seats, allowing customers to book a last-minute summer break at the lowest fares.
This amazing seat sale is available for travel between June and September and can only be found on the Ryanair.com website, from now until midnight on Friday 8th June.
Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said:
“Summer is here and what better way to celebrate than with a summer getaway break. We’ve launched a massive ‘Summer Sizzlers’ sale with up to 20% off a million seats for travel between June and September. This amazing offer will end at midnight (24:00hrs) on Friday, 8th June so customers should log on quickly and bag their sizzling bargain break today.”
Load Factor Rises 1% To 96% On Lower Fares
Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (5 June) released May traffic statistics as follows:
- Traffic grew 6% to 12.5m customers
- Load factor rose 1% to 96%
- Rolling annual traffic to May grew 8% to 132.1m customers
- ATC strikes and staff shortages cause cancellation of over 1,100 flights in May 18 vs. 43 in May 17
| |
May 17 |
May 18 |
Change |
| Customers |
11.8M |
12.5M |
+6% |
| Load Factor |
95% |
96% |
+1% |
Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said:
“Ryanair’s May traffic grew by 6% to 12.5m customers, while our load factor rose 1% to 96%, on the back of lower fares.
Regrettably over 200,000 Ryanair customers had their flights cancelled in May because of ATC strikes (mostly French), ATC staff shortages and thunderstorms. Ryanair calls for immediate EU Commission action to prevent more ATC strikes and staff shortages disrupting the travel plans of Europe’s consumers this summer.”