Two more than Air Malta currently has
Noel Grima
Ryanair yesterday announced it will base a third plane in Malta and will have nine new routes next summer.
The airline's Director of Schedule Development, Colin Casey, told a news conference at the Marina St George Hotel the new routes will be to Baden (two weekly flights), Berlin (two weekly flights), Budapest (two weekly flights), Cologne (two weekly flights), Dusseldorf (two weekly flights), Gdansk (two weekly flights), Manchester (three weekly flights), Poznan (two weekly flights) and Rome (one flight daily).
Besides, the airline will increase the frequency of some of the routes it operates: Birmingham goes up to three flights a week, Edinburgh to five flights a week and London to a daily flight.
The new routes will add 400,000 tourists to Malta to a total of 1.5 million tourists carried by the airline alone. It estimates it will carry 35% of the passengers to Malta, up from the current 26% which puts it in the second place of carriers at MIA. But while Air Malta currently carries 40% of total passengers, Ryanair will have more routes (36) than Air Malta currently has (34).
Four of the new routes are in Germany which has been targeted by the airline for growth next year and where a base has been established. Two are in Poland.
The Rome route is a special case. Ryanair will move from Ciampino to Fiumicino after this winter and on current standings there will be five airlines competing for custom from Malta to Fiumicino. Ryanair is not afraid of the competition especially since its route to Milan has proved to be very successful.
The additional routes should translate, according to the airline, to 1155 new jobs and €120 million in savings for the passengers.
Malta is the fifth largest airport for growth, according to the airline while the first one for growth is Berlin which as from this month has become a base with five planes in it.
Ryanair is celebrating its 30th birthday. It will carry 104 million passengers this year from 195 airports in 31 countries and 74 bases flying 1600 routes. It has 380 planes on order and aims to carry 160 million by 2024.
It is the first carrier in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Ireland and Portugal; the second carrier in Malta, and the third one in the UK, Germany and France.
The airline boasts it is getting better:
- A new US website
- New customer charter
- Airport and sport equipment fees cut
- New mobile app
- A third GDS and Sabre
- It is choosing more primary airports such as Amsterdam, Cologne and Copenhagen; and
- A new car hire partner.
Among its coming innovations, one may list
- Hold the fare (for a small charge)
- Real customer destination reviews
- New inflight menus (November)
- New crew uniforms (December), and
- New Boeing Sky interiors, replacing the yellow with pale blue (January).
In short, Mr Casey concluded, it aims to become the Amazon of the flight industry, offering no longer just the flight but the whole package and also including after journey offers such as special packages for frequent fliers.
Replying to questions, Mr Casey said there will be additional flights to 10 routes this winter, including Rome, East Midlands and Kaunas.
As for Winter 2016, assuming the benefit of cheap oil continues, flights may continue to Rome, Cologne, Berlin, and Budapest.
Mr Casey excluded Ryanair doing inter-continental flights to the US but said the airline is in talks with long haul carriers such as TAP and Alitalia to tailor flights so as to offer connections across the Atlantic