Low cost carrier Ryanair will discontinue its year-round flights from Stockholm Skavsta Airport to Banja Luka, Niš and Podgorica at the start of the 2020 summer season, as well as seasonal services to Rijeka due to the closure of its base. However, its seasonal flights from Zadar remain unaffected. The airline said the base closure comes as a result of delays in the delivery of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft which are currently grounded by aviation authorities across the world. “We also expect to cut summer capacity in a number of other existing bases, and we are currently in discussions with our people, our unions, and our affected airports to finalise these minor reductions”, Ryanair said in a statement. The no frills airline currently maintains two weekly flights from Skavsta to Podgorica, Niš and Banja Luka, with their last services scheduled for March 27 and March 28.
Ryanair handled some 1.2 million passengers to and from Skavsta each year and accounted for about 50% of the airport’s traffic. "We are continuing to work with Boeing, our people, our unions and our affected airports to minimise these capacity cuts and job losses", Eddie Wilson, Ryanair’s Chief Executive Officer, said. Its decision gives Wizz Air the opportunity to pick up some of the suspended routes. The low cost airline has a significant presence at Skavsta Airport although it doesn’t boast a base. It serves the city from Belgrade, Tuzla and Skopje, among others.
Meanwhile, Ryanair handled its 100.000th passenger on flights to and from Banja Luka in 2019 last Sunday. The traveller arrived on a flight from Berlin. The budget airline will introduce a new service from Hahn to Banja Luka next year and anticipates handling 160.000 passengers on its flights to the city. “We will continue our successful cooperation with Ryanair which enables our passengers connectivity with Europe and the world and brings us constant growth”, the General Manager of Banja Luka Airport, Milan Račić, said. Ryanair subsidiary Lauda will also introduce flights from Vienna to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s second largest city next year, although the route will be maintained with Ryanair equipment.
7 months per year, the entire summer timetable, Ryanair operates Skavsta from and to Rijeka, for years already. And Rijeka is not mentioned in the text at all. Also if both ZAD and RJK are staying, than FR is not withdrawing from ex-yu market(s). So, @ex-yu, correction please
ReplyDeleteRijeka is suspended too.
DeleteIt says in the article, Rijeka is suspended too. And you can't buy tickets for it. Zadar isn't suspended because it's operated with an out of base plane.
DeleteCorrected later; original article was not including "as well as seasonal services to Rijeka due to the closure of its base"
DeleteI am actually not sure, it was there from the beginning.
DeleteMaybe it was there when you read it. But my post was the first today and I reacted and asked ex-yu to correct it which he did. Why should have I reacted if it was there?
DeleteWho knows really? Only you know that my friend. :)
DeleteIt would be good for Wizz to take over, at least from Podgorica and Niš to which they already fly from to other airports.
ReplyDeleteI doubt they will. They seem to fly to NYO only from base airports.
DeleteThey could fly W routing. For example BEG-NYO-INI-NYO-BEG.
DeleteJU may start that W route with ARN instead of NYO
DeleteThat would be great.
DeleteToo long rotation to be legal.
DeleteTypical Ryanair excuses. Yes, Max is to blame but NYO is also not bringing them enough money. Sweden is expensive and you already have 2 other Stockholm airports - better connected and not so far.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it seems BNX will soon reach INI. Gap is becoming narrower.
Ιt isn't really an excuse, more like an explanation.
DeleteΙt makes sense to cut the least profitable routes and bases first.
Τhe 737MAX fiasco has caused major issues to a lot of airlines.
I wouldn't have suspected that NYO was once of their least profitable bases.
DeleteWhy not? Tell us more please.
DeleteI would guess that a Swedish base is among the most expensive bases in FR's network.
DeleteCost of salaries, insurance contributions, cost of handling, fuel, etc.
And people were saying how Nis is being suspended due to protectionism. Lol
ReplyDeleteINI sales were closed long before this announcement, so...
DeleteI'm sure they didn't decide about the base closure yesterday and that they knew it for several months.
DeleteBut why did they ended just the Nis service and not the others back then. They could have waited to do it now if its related to the base closure.
DeleteThey closed Rijeka then too.
DeleteThey also closed several destinations in Spain and one German destination, can't remember which now. So INI wasn't the only one for your information.
Delete@10.09 not true. they were all put on sale for the summer schedule. the german destination was Memmingen. INI was closed due to economic reasons
DeleteDo you have a source that INI was closed due to economic reasons?
DeleteWould be nice to go back to the topic about INI losing NYO flights and to read comments and compare it to the published text today. It wasn't INI that was the problem, it was Sweden. ;)
ReplyDeleteINI is clearly facing issues.
DeleteIt will lose LX, has lost EIN, NRN, HHN, BUD and now NYO. This is the main reason why BEG is also growing.
It was growing when all those routes were in service too. In fact it has been growing continuously each month since 2009. So your conclusion is irrelevant.
DeleteWhich issues? LX - terminated in both Sarajevo and Zagreb, and just recently launched in Ljubljana, after three years and after Adrias bankruptcy.
DeleteHahn - wasn't even launched, our guys didn't give them permission.
Budapest - well nobody except Belgrade has those flights (in May 2020).
NYO - explained in the article.
Also, EIN was closed because of FR from Weeze. FR closed the Weeze base and INI was discontinued. EIN can't really get more flights because the airport is capped.
DeleteAnd no, BEG is growing because E.V.E.R.Y. airline there is doing well.
BEG is growing because of INI ending routes. Makes sense now. No wonder why FR will never be allowed to land in BEG.
DeleteOh well...
Do you have a source that BEG is growing at the expense of INI? The last time I checked in November INI grew by 17%. Also BEG got many routes which are not duplicated from BEG.
DeleteAlso BEG doesn't even have an air link with Budapest right now.
wow that's a big deal for them to shut an entire base. They must have been loosing money big time.
ReplyDeleteSeems they closed it because of union negotiations, not because of unprofitability. NYO was their third base outside the UK after CRL and GRO. :/
DeleteCan you explain more? Why would they close a base because of unions?
DeleteFrom another forum:
DeleteMost likely union busting. The pilots in Skavsta did get a better deal a couple of years ago but Ryanair still has problems to negotiate and accept a collective agreement with the Swedish pilot union.
For the Cabin Crew it’s even worse, a deal the Swedish union could accept, would mean a cabin crew would cost more than Wizzairs Captains they are competing directly with on the Eastern European routes.
I’m sure Ryanair will start a base again soon with new people and delay all union negotiation because suddenly no one is a member of the Swedish union anymore.
Routes towards eastern part of Europe with workers and Swedish tourists looking for a cheap weekend they can fly from more cost effective bases and timetable is less important.
However the tourist routes to Mediterranean benefits from an early morning departure from Stockholm Skavsta.
Thanks! Very interesting.
DeleteThere we have it, that is how FR and W6 make money, by providing extremely bad work conditions for their workers. Such a shame for Europe, we need better than that. We need human dignity for the working class.
DeleteYet they still pay more than a lot of other airlines and offer more time off.
DeleteNot more than legacies though.Especially not FR.
DeleteOuch
ReplyDeleteIt isn't really an excuse, more like an explanation.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense to cut the least profitable routes and bases first.
The 737MAX fiasco has caused major issues to a lot of airlines.
Going down and well done, Ryan!
ReplyDeleteSmall bases are less profitable than larger ones. Add to that probably higher costs in Scandinavia than elsewhere and...
DeleteNow they have to wait until MC21 enter production. :)
ReplyDeleteStrategy having only one model (holy grail for bunch of "experts") comes to be paid...
Well, it's worked for them (and a bunch of other very profitable airlines) for decades.
DeleteHaving 50% of the fleet A320, MC21 or whatever other type wouldn't change such problems. If you don't get new aircraft, you have to modify the schedule you are planning to fly.
Unfortunate.
ReplyDeleteHas Sweden introduced that eco-tax on airlines or has that been scrapped?
ReplyDeleteIt was introduced, then scrapped and now it will probably be introduced again.
DeleteThey will reintroduce it so they can fund the reduction in income tax.
DeleteI hope they will introduce another route as a substitute.
ReplyDeletePity. Banja Luka flights were performing really well.
ReplyDeleteThe MAX grounding has really messed with a lot of airlines
ReplyDeleteIs there a provisional timeframe when they should return to service?
DeleteThere were some timeframes but each time they were moved further and further back. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if they are grounded for another year.
DeleteMost airlines don't expect the planes to be back in service before April 2020
DeleteGood news for Croatia Airlines and Air Serbia for their respective Arlanda flights.
ReplyDeleteHow? Ryanair flies from Rijeka and Nis, not from Zagreb and Belgrade.
DeleteYes, but now people from those regions won't have a choice and will have to come to either Zagreb or Belgrade.
DeleteThe monopoly Flygbussarna has for transport to NYO might be part of the problem for Ryan and Wiz. Skavsta is awful to get to, especially if you live in south east Stockholm. A ticket has to be at least 1000 SEK(108€) more for me to consider using that airport. When the bus passes by Skarholmen, I often think about telling the driver I have to get off right now because I have terrible diarrhoea.
ReplyDelete