Ryanair continues to rage on European skies. The Dublin airline never ceases to amaze: on the one hand by giving up on Alitalia after the expressions of interest expressed several times by CEO Michael O'Leary, on the other by canceling further flights and complicating the lives of hundreds of thousands of travellers.
Ryanair: cuts to flights
After the controversy surrounding the cancellations of over 2 flights until the end of October, the situation is getting even more complicated. The Irish company that will cut further routes through March 2018, creating inconvenience to about 400 passengers throughout Europe. Not only that, the colossus led by O'Leary announced in the morning that in the winter season, ie starting from November, it will fly 25 fewer planes than previously expected. By doing so, it will be possible to eliminate any risk of further cancellations, because a slowdown in growth creates many reserve aircraft and crews in the company's 86 bases” scheduled for this winter.
According to initial estimates, the cancellations will affect 34 routes (11 of which in Italy) leading to a total of 18 flights cut. Of the suspended air routes, eleven concern the Italian airports of Trapani (of which three with European cities and four connections with Parma, Genoa, Rome and Trieste), the Venice-Hamburg and Venice-Sofia routes, and those between Pisa and Sofia and between Palermo and Bucharest.
The company also underlines that the passengers affected by the change of plans have received a communication via email, between 5 weeks and 5 months in advance, with the offer of an alternative flight or a full refund together with a voucher from 40 euros (80 for return) to book other Ryanair services in the period.
The decision will obviously also have financial implications, in addition to determining a "slight reduction" in traffic for 2017 and 2018: monthly growth from November 17 to March 18 will drop from 9% to 4%, while traffic will decrease from 131 to 129 million. For the summer 2018 season, with the fleet shrinking from 445 to 435 aircraft, Ryanair expects traffic as of March 2019 to slow from 142 million to 138 million passengers (a growth rate of 7%).
Speaking instead of the cost of the cancellations made last week, it should be less than 25 million euros. or reads a note from the Irish low cost company, which does not foresee that the cancellations "alter the current guidance for the year".
Ryanair withdraws from the tender for Alitalia
Ryanair is no longer interested in Alitalia. This was announced by the low cost company itself in a note, explaining that it intends to withdraw from the tender to avoid distractions to its management.
"We have notified the extraordinary commissioners that we will not pursue the interest in Alitalia, nor will we present any further offers for the airline", reads the note.
At the end of August it was the same to O'Leary, in a press conference to talk about his interest in "the fleet of the Italian company", and in particular for the long range.
