We all know that we are in the midst of tough times financially at the moment. And airports seem to have been particularly hard hit.
The costs of running an airline lead to marginal profits at the best of times, and that means we are seeing some uncomfortable changes lately with various airlines and airports.
One recent example concerns Ryanair and Manchester Airport. Ryanair looks set to withdraw nine of the ten routes it currently has flying from Manchester Airport on a regular basis. The reason it has given for this is down to costs. The airline claims that Manchester Airport has levied high charges on them. This has in turn led to their decision to axe the routes as it is no longer cost effective for them to keep them in operation.
Obviously this could be disastrous for Manchester Airport and Manchester Airport Parking, as some of the destinations that were served by Ryanair were rather popular for Mancunians to travel to in particular. These included Frankfurt, Barcelona, Dusseldorf, Shannon and Marseille. Ryanair will continue to provide these destinations on its roster of flights, but they will now go from alternative airports. Needless to say this could provide a problem for locals who still want to board the flights.
Manchester Airport has said that rival airlines could well be able to fill the shoes left behind by Ryanair. You can read more about this on the Telegraph website; the story is located at the following link.
So who is in the right here? Is Ryanair correct in pulling services when it believes the landing charges set by Manchester Airport – the crux of the matter – are too hefty? Is Manchester Airport right in not being held to ransom by the airline?
It should be noted that Ryanair have always tried to negotiate better and lower prices in the past. They are one of the so called ‘budget airlines’ and in order to keep those prices in the budget range they need to keep all other costs as low as possible as well.
That is fair enough, but as Manchester Airport have pointed out, we are in a recession. And in a recession different rules apply. The chances are that most if not all of the routes that Ryanair currently provide from Manchester Airport will be met by other carriers. So will they have achieved anything much at all?
The company has also cut back on various services already this year, so this is not new territory for them. Obviously if a flight isn’t bringing in the passengers it needs to survive then it makes perfect sense to get rid of it. But in the case of the flights going out of Manchester Airport a lot of local people will be left out in the cold, wondering how they will get to the destinations that have been ditched.
Even if they have been loyal to Ryanair in the past it is hard to imagine them going to another airport further away just to stay with them. If Manchester Airport can indeed provide the same destinations with different carriers, it is those carriers who will benefit.