MARCH 2019 PAGE 30
THE FLYING COLUMN CHRISTOPH MUELLER,
Aer Lingus CEO from 2009 to 2016, has resigned as Emirates Chief Digital and Transformation Officer and plans to return to Europe, despite rumours linking him to Etihad.
PARC Pre-tax profits at Parc Aviation increased by 17pcto €3.78m to end March 18. Revenues were up by 7pc to €134.45m. SPATIALIS UAE-based Spatialis to
manufacture an A321NX Extended Over Wing Exit Trainer at Aer Lingus’s Training Academy based at Dublin Airport to enable Aer Lingus’s cabin crew to be trained in passenger service and Safety and Emergency Procedures.
AER LINGUS is to add a fifth weekly flight on Thursdays on the Dublin-Seattle route from June 6-October 17.
DUBLIN Airport welcomed Hainan’s new service from Dublin to Shenzen, a mere two weeks after it was revealed in the Sunday Supplement. BA British Airways will be moving to JFK T8 with American Airlines in 2022 after 50 years in T7, allowing T7 to be demolished to allow for JetBlue’s new terminal, which will cover the areas of the current T5, T6 (demolished in 2011) and T7.
AIR FRANCE is to change its HOP !branding to Air France HOP to “link the regional flight offer more clearly to the Air France brand”.Services from Cork-CDG remain unchanged. AER LINGUS and the Bank of
Ireland have launched a credit card aimed at frequent fliers with the airline. Christine Hamill, Head of Retail Cards at Bank of Ireland, is pictured with Susanne Carberry, Director of Revenue Management at Aer Lingus.
IAG Willie Walsh told the Irish Tourism In-
dustry Confederation that Aer Lingus could not deliver on its ambitions as a stand-alone airline but IAG knew the business well and the value of the brand and stood behind it. Watch here
CHICAGO’s O’Hare International Airport has overtaken Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson as the US’s busiest airport, with 903,747 arriving and departing flights last year. LAUDAMOTION is targeting
routes to 50 airports following its full takeover by Ryanair Holdings.
ADDIS ADABA’s new $363m terminal which will boost passenger capacity from 8m to 22m a year at Bole Airport was officially opened by Ethiopian Airlines. GENERAL ELECTRIC has no plans to sell Gecas,its Shannon-based aviation finance arm, CEO Larry Culp said.
QANTAS Tallaght born CEO Alan Joyce said Perth-London services have load factor of 91pc since the route was launched in March 2018 and generated AU$100m in free publicity for Western Australia. DUBAI 89.15m passengers passed through Dubai International last year.
Ryanair aircraft at Dublin airport: Brexit threatens the new Dublin-Southend route
FR to grow 5pc
Ryanair to launch four new bases in summer 2019
R
yanair summer seat capacity is up 5pc, with 182 new routes and 150 gone. Ryanair remains Europe’s leading airline as measured by seat departures from European airports. For the 12 months ending March 2019 the airline currently expects to have welcomed over 140 million passengers, an increase of 8pc on the previous year. Ryanair’s network this summer will encompass 92 bases across Europe and North Africa At present Ryanair’s flights and seat capacity are set to grow by a relatively modest 5.1pc in S19 compared with S18, though ASKs (Available Seat Kilometres) are set to rise by 6pc, reflecting an increase in average sector length from 1,282 kilometres to 1,293 kilometres. The airline is due to start taking delivery of its first five new 737 MAX 200s this spring, with 42 deliveries planned between August 2019 and March 2020. These are likely to be configured 2019 Jan 10.0m
with 197 seats instead of the current 189 seats on its 737-800s. This change will increase the summer seat capacity a little further. The base in Germany is Berlin SXF in 11th while the leading French airport is Paris BVA, which is not technically a base, but is Ryanair’s 24th biggest airport this summer. This summer will see Ryanair launch four new bases; two in France (Bordeaux and Marseille), one in Germany (Berlin Tegel) and one in England (Southend). The Berlin base is the airline’s second in the German capital after Schonefeld, a base that is really just using the slots used by Laudamotion, which launched its base at the airport on June 1 last and served 18 destinations last summer. Ryanair is serving 19 destinations having replaced Bari, Fuerteventura, Girona, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Rijeka and Tenerife south with Alghero, Alicante, Kefalonia, Krakow, Lamezia Terme, Luxembourg, Naples and Pafos.
The two French airports have both been served for many years by Ryanair. While Marseille will see seat capacity grow by 27pc, capacity at Bordeaux will increase by 150pc. The launch of flights from London Southend in early April will mean that Ryanair now flies from four of London’s six airports (the exceptions being Heathrow and London City). Subject to Brexit restrictions such as the aviation cap being removed, the Southend base will offer flights to 14 international destinations, four of which (Alicante, Faro, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca) are already served by easyJet from the airport.. Ryanair January passenger numbers were up 11pc to 10.3m, the first time it has passed 10m in January. Load factor was 91pc and rolling annual numbers passed 140m for the first time. New Ryanair routes announced for summer 2019 include Bristol-Malpensa 2w; Malpensa-Palma 3w; Lamezia Terme-Palma and Bordeaux, each 2w.
RYANAIR MONTHLY PASSENGER NUMBERS 2018 Dec 10.0m Nov 10.1m Oct 12.6m Sept 12.6m Aug 13.3m July 13.1m June 12.6m May 12.5m April 12.3m Mar 10.0m Feb 8.6m Jan 9.3m
2017 Dec 9.3m Nov 9.3m Oct 11.8m Sept 11.8m Aug 12.7m July 12.6m June 11.8m May 11.8m Apr 11.3m Mar 9.4m Feb 8.2m Jan 8.77m
2016 Dec 9m Nov 8.8m Oct 10.9m Sep 10.8m Aug 11.5m Jul 11.3m Jun 10.6m May 10.6m Apr 9.90m Mar 8.5m Feb 7.4m Jan 7.48m
2015 Dec 7.5m Nov 7.71m Oct 9.68m Sep 9.55m Aug 10.4m Jul 10.14m Jun 9.5m May 9.5m Apr 9.0m Mar 8.5m Feb 7.4m Jan 7.48m
2014 Dec 6.02m Nov 6.35m Oct 8.4m Sept 8.5m Aug 9.4m Jul 9.1m Jun 8.3m May 8.2m Apr 7.8m Mar 5.2m Feb 4.5m Jan 4.6m
2013 Dec 5.0m Nov 5.2m Oct 8.0m Sept 8.0m Aug 9.0m Jul 8.8m Jun 8.0m May 7.9m Apr 7.4m Mar 5.4m Feb 4.2m Jan 4.4m