Ryanair are not happy with the new terminal

Ryanair has continued its growth and domination of the budget airline market with an 8% increase in passenger number in March of this year and a staggering 73.5 million seats sold so far this year.

They have also announced that despite the actions of other travel companies, and despite their reputation for charging for any sundry item or service that they can, they will not put a fuel surcharge on any of their flights ever.

All of this together, and the promise of frequent low price sales, have ensured that passengers are gaining confidence in the airline and seem to be quite happy to pay for what some people may consider to be premium services.

Despite this growth in loyalty and traffic, Ryanair have now announced that they are planning to slash their base in Alicante by 80% because the new terminal wants them to use the so called “airbridges” which they say will increase the cost to the airline by some 2 million euro per year.

Ryanair has been operating at Alicante Airport for over five years without the use of airbridges and they consider that forcing them to use the covered facilities are an abuse of the airport authorities monopoly for which they have submitted a formal complaint to both the Spanish government and the European Commission.

In a move designed to force AENA’s hand, Ryanair have announced that, from October this year, they will reduce the number of aircraft based at Alicante from 11 to 2 resulting in a loss of half of their scheduled flights on 31 routes. That means less than 200 weekly flights, compared to their original plan of 600. They also anticipate that their actions will create a loss of 2.5 million passenger places and 2,500 jobs.

Routes cancelled will include Bournemouth, Cork, Kerry, Doncaster, Humberside, Kerry, and Knock along with reductions to Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Manchester in the UK alone.

The financial implication for the airport is estimated to be in the region of 18 million euro from fees directly paid to the airport authority, and the loss of 12 million euro in lost commercial revenue.

Ryanair points out that the new terminal at Alicante has exactly the same boarding gate stairs as the old terminal, which they say would allow Ryanair’s flights to continue to apply the same walk on/walk off boarding facilities which have been in place since 2007. They say that using steps to both aircraft doors reduces turnaround time and thus cost.

You know this strikes me as being a major piece of bluff on the part of Ryanair. The company knows that AENA cannot afford such losses having just completed the new terminal. At the same time, Ryanair will not want to reduce the number of its flights to Alicante because they are in the business of expansion not reduction. It’s not as if they could move to another airport because there isn’t one nearby that could cope with that capacity.

It is very much a case of who is the more powerful, the airline or the airport – we shall see who gives in first.