Ryanair nets nine new routes
Ryanair’s Head of Communications Robin Kiely (second left) and Dublin Airport’s Aviation Business Development Manager Daragh Hanratty (third right) were on hand to oversee the ribbon cutting ceremony proceedings to mark the carrier’s start of thrice-weekly services from the Dublin to Athens on 18 March.
More ribbon cutting at the other end of the route linking the Irish and Greek capitals, this time Athens Airport’s Director, Communication & Marketing, Ioanna Papadopoulou (left) was presiding over the gate lounge ceremony.
The Ryanair route from Budapest to Malta is off and running. Continuing its running shoe theme for its route launch cakes to promote its Runway Run on 3 September ‒ the air transport industry’s premier charity-sportive event ‒ the Hungarian airport this time baked one in the Irish ULCC’s colours.
- Ryanair launched nine routes this week, with the longest sector of the bunch being the 2,873-kilometre, thrice-weekly link between two of Europe’s capitals – namely Dublin (DUB) and Athens (ATH). While the average sector length was 1,968 kilometres, the shortest of the new services was the 1,345-kilometre, twice-weekly operation between Budapest (BUD) and Malta (MLA) – again linking two European capitals. The average weekly frequency for the Irish ULCC across these new city pairs was 2.56, with five out of nine seeing direct competition.
| Launched | From | To | Aircraft (WF) | Competition (WF) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18-Mar | Budapest (BUD) | Malaga (AGP) | B738 (2) | Wizz Air (2) |
| 19-Mar | Cologne Bonn (CGN) | Malta (MLA) | B738 (2) | |
| 19-Mar | Budapest (BUD) | Malta (MLA) | B738 (2) | Wizz Air (2) |
| 18-Mar | Dublin (DUB) | Athens (ATH) | B738 (3) | |
| 17-Mar | Gdansk (GDN) | Malta (MLA) | B738 (2) | Wizz Air (1) |
| Palma de Mallorca (PMI) | Hamburg (HAM) | B738 (5) | airberlin (23), easyJet (6), Germanwings (6), Condor (2), Eurowings (1), TUIfly (1) |
|
| 19-Mar | Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden (FKB) | Malta (MLA) | B738 (2) | |
| 18-Mar | Manchester (MAN) | B738 (3) | Air Malta (4), easyJet (3), Thomas Cook Airlines (1), Thomson Airways (1) |
|
| Malta (MLA) | Poznan (POZ) | B738 (2) | ||
| Source: OAG Schedules Analyser for w/c 22 March 2016. | ||||
easyjet’s manchester to malta is 6 times a week rather than 3 times a week.
For the week commencing 22 March (our week of analysis) easyJet only operates three flights, but from the following week it does indeed increase to six flights per week.