At a press conference held today at Lux-Airport, Ryanair, in conjunction with with airport's management company, presented the outline of their winter schedule 2017/2018 and also spoke about the broader implications of their expansion, both here in Luxembourg and across Europe and beyond.
Yann Delomez, Ryanair’s Sales and Marketing Manager for Benelux, France and Morocco, presented a slideshow of facts and figures which included the opening of a new route from Luxembourg to Barcelona El Prat, planned for the start of the winter season in late October 2017 with four flights per week, as well as the expansion of its other Luxembourg routes to Madrid (four weekly), Milan Bergamo (four weekly), Lisbon (five weekly) and Porto (six weekly); including London, that now makes 6 routes from and to Luxembourg.
Ryanair anticipates contributing about 450,000 passengers going through Findel airport for 2017, and, quoting ACI (Airports Council International) research, Mr. Delomez said that this could be anticipated to create an additional 340 on-site jobs in Luxembourg. Already, in the short time that they have been flying in and out of Luxembourg the Ryanair flights are running at over 90% average capacity, and other airports in Europe have already expressed interest in linking in to Luxembourg with Ryanair.
A Q & A session followed with a panel consisting of Mr. Delomez, Johan Vanneste, President and CEO of Luxembourg Airport, and Kenny Jacobs, Chief Marketing Officer of Ryanair.
Kenny Jacobs expanded on the 450,000 passenger estimate in saying that there is no reason why, quickly, this figure could not rise to over a million. He added that this figure would be achieved only with the help of advertising and promotion of Luxembourg as a week-end destination. In response to a question he said that The Canaries, Luxembourg’s favourite winter holiday destination, would “absolutely be on the list of Luxembourg destinations” for them to consider.
Looking at the bigger picture, Mr. Jacobs also spoke of Ryanair’s long-haul plans. He said that they will not go into the long-haul market per se, but that they are very interested in the American model that sees budget short haul carriers linking in to the established airlines’ long-haul routes to provide a service, for example, from Luxembourg to New York via Barcelona. The idea would be that not only would the schedules knit together, but also that the entire journey could be booked from the Ryanair website. Initial trials should start with Norwegian and IAG Aer Lingus (IAG is the holding group for Aer Lingus, British Airways and Iberain, among others) this summer. Furthermore, Ryanair flights in and out of Frankfurt am Main will become a reality this year, with German sun and sea destinations being the initial target market.
Referring to some German concerns regarding the relative proxility of Hahn Airport, Mr. Jacobs confirmed that there will be no redeployment of planes from Hahn to Luxembourg, and citing the examples of Charleroi/Zaaventem in the Brussels area, and Bergamo/Malpensa around Milan, he said that he could see little need for concern about competition between the two airports and indeed only positives for the future growth of both of them.
In terms of fleet investment, Ryanair will be adding approximately 50 new aircraft a year for the next several years, retaining their lead position in this area.
It was also announced that there will be a special €9.99 per leg per passenger promotion for some Luxembourg flights when booked through www.ryanair.com before midnight on Sunday 29 January subject to certain terms and conditions.
Photo by John Chalmers (L-R): Johan Venneste, Kenny Jacobs, Yann Delomez
