Ryanair to slash Alicante base by 80% this winter, as airport imposes airbridges to increase fees
05-Apr-2011 Ryanair, the world’s favourite airline, today (5th Apr) announced deep cuts of up to 80% at its Alicante base from October 2011, following AENA Alicante’s decision last week to force Ryanair to use airbridges, and pay over €2m p.a. extra for these unnecessary facilities.
Ryanair has been operating at Alicante Airport for over five years without the use of airbridges and this decision by AENA Alicante is an abuse of its monopoly which increases Ryanair's handling costs by over €2m p.a. Ryanair has submitted a formal complaint about this monopoly abuse by AENA Alicante to both the Spanish Government and the European Commission.
In response to this mandatory airbridge usage and €2m increase in costs, Ryanair today announces the following deep cuts at its Alicante base with the introduction of its winter 2011/12 schedule from October 2011 as follows:
· From 11 to 2 base aircraft (down 80%).
· From 62 to 31 routes (loss of 31 routes).
· From over 600 to less than 200 weekly flights.
· From over 4M to fewer than 1.5M passengers p.a.
· The loss of over 2,500 local jobs at Alicante (hotel industry and tourism support jobs).
As a direct result of forcing this €2m p.a. airbridge use on Ryanair, AENA Alicante will now lose over €18m p.a. 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. Ryanair believes that AENA Alicante should reconsider this decision to break its long standing agreement (since 2007) that Ryanair passengers may walk on/walk off when boarding aircraft and reverse this decision to force Ryanair to use airbridges and pay €2m p.a. extra since this will now cost Alicante over €30m p.a. in lost revenues and see over 2,000 jobs lost at Alicante Airport (hotel industry and tourism support jobs).
Ryanair pointed out that the new terminal at Alicante has exactly the same boarding gate stairs as the old terminal, which would allow Ryanair's flights to continue to apply its walk on/walk off boarding facilities. The use of airbridges, will significantly delay Ryanair turnarounds (because passengers can only use the front door), will lead to more handling delays and will increase Ryanair's costs at Alicante by over €2m p.a.
Announcing these deep cuts in Alicante today, Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said:
"It is time that the AENA monopoly airports in Spain stopped abusing their dominant position to force airlines like Ryanair to use unnecessary (airbridge) 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.
This abusive behaviour by AENA Alicante will now mean that the airport loses over €30m p.a. in revenues, more than 2.5m passengers and over 2,000 jobs, as Ryanair's based aircraft and flights are cut by up to 80% from October 2011.
Ryanair remains committed to serving Alicante Airport, and even with 1.5m passengers and 31 routes, will continue to be the largest airline at Alicante. However, AENA Alicante must understand that Ryanair is an efficient, low cost carrier, and we have many other low cost airport alternatives across Europe if Alicante doesn't want to provide low cost facilities. We are not going to be bullied by an abusive airport monopoly, or forced to pay €2m extra for inefficient airbridges which neither we nor our passengers want.
We hope that the Spanish Government and the EU Commission will support our complaint against this abusive behaviour by AENA Alicante and we have assured Spain's Transport Ministry that if AENA Alicante reverse this foolish decision to force Ryanair to pay €2m p.a. for airbridges (which aren't necessary), then these deep cuts in routes, traffic and jobs can be reversed.
We hope even at this late stage that AENA Alicante will recognise the stupidity of trying to force up Ryanair's handling costs by €2m p.a., which will now cost AENA Alicante more than €30m p.a. in lost aeronautical and commercial revenues."
ALICANTE WINTER CANCELLATIONS AND CUTS
31 Routes Canx 27 Freq Cut
Aarhus Baden Baden
Maastricht Krakow
Stockholm Vasteras Santiago
Vaxjo