Ryanair to cut Alicante flights by 80% in October

Ryanair Boeing 737-8A3 WL EI-EFD (msn 35011) (Comunitat Valenciana) PMI (Javier Rodriguez), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Ryanair’s (Dublin) latest threat to cut the number of flights is directed at Alicante. This time the ultra low cost carrier does not want to pay extra fees for the use of new aircraft loading bridges being imposed on the airline by the airport.

Here is the statement by Ryanair yesterday:

“Ryanair announced deep cuts of up to 80% at its Alicante base from October 2011, following AENA Alicante’s decision last week to force Ryanair to use airbridges, and pay over €2m p.a. extra for these unnecessary facilities. Ryanair has been operating at Alicante Airport for over five years without the use of airbridges and this decision by AENA Alicante is an abuse of its monopoly which increases Ryanair’s handling costs by over €2m p.a. Ryanair has submitted a formal complaint about this monopoly abuse by AENA Alicante to both the Spanish Government and the European Commission.

In response to this mandatory airbridge usage and €2m increase in costs, Ryanair today announces the following deep cuts at its Alicante base with the introduction of its winter 2011/12 schedule from October 2011 as follows:

· From 11 to 2 base aircraft (down 80%).
· From 62 to 31 routes (loss of 31 routes).
· From over 600 to less than 200 weekly flights.
· From over 4M to fewer than 1.5M passengers p.a.
· The loss of over 2,500 jobs at Alicante.

As a direct result of forcing this €2m p.a. airbridge use on Ryanair, AENA Alicante will now lose over €18m p.a. in passenger and turnaround fees from Ryanair and at least a further €12m in lost commercial revenues from the 2.5m fewer passengers which Ryanair will now deliver. Ryanair believes that AENA Alicante should reconsider this decision to break its long standing agreement (since 2007) that Ryanair passengers may walk on/walk off when boarding aircraft and reverse this decision to force Ryanair to use airbridges and pay €2m p.a. extra since this will now cost Alicante over €30m p.a. in lost revenues and see over 2,000 jobs lost at Alicante Airport.

Ryanair pointed out that the new terminal at Alicante has exactly the same boarding gate stairs as the old terminal, which would allow Ryanair’s flights to continue to apply its walk on/walk off boarding facilities. The use of airbridges, will significantly delay Ryanair turnarounds (because passengers can only use the front door), will lead to more handling delays and will increase Ryanair’s costs at Alicante by over €2m p.a.”

Will Alicante become the latest airport to back down given the threats by Ryanair? Stay tuned as they say.

Ryanair’s current routes from the Alicante base: