news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Tim Jeans, former commercial director at Ryanair, said the golden age for ”low, low fares” is coming to an end.

He blamed escalating fuel costs, increased ‘Air Passenger Duty’ and so-called green programmes like the ‘Emissions Trading Scheme’, for impacting on airline profits.

Talking about whether the ”golden era of air trave’l’ was over, Mr Jeans said: ”The only thing that can happen is fares will go up and passengers go down. The vicious circle of decline in our industry will start.”

source: dailymail.co.uk

Ryanair is partnering with publisher Ink to create customised ads on home-printed boarding passes, which target fliers based on their travelling routes and location.

Ink, the in-flight magazine publisher, is developing a system that will customise advertising for travellers, according to their route and demographic data.

The ads will be printed on Ryanair boarding cards and will target destination and departure points.

s0urce: marketingmagazine.co.uk

Ryanair has decided to pull off a route in Spain because of competition from high-speed trains.

The budget giant will cease flying between Valencia and Madrid from April in light of competition from the new AVE high-speed train service operated by Spanish state railway Renfe. The AVE service connects Madrid to Valencia in 90 minutes. Iberia also announced it was ending daily flights on the route last week.

source: travelweekly.co.uk

Budget airline Ryanair is to cut 18 routes from its base at Girona, following a disagreement with the Catalonian government.

Ryanair said the new government, which oversees operations at Girona, had “‘refused to honour’” a five-year extension of its agreement to base 11 aircraft at the airport rather than 6.

Five of the 11 aircraft will be relocated to bases elsewhere in Europe, resulting in the loss of 18 routes from Girona. These include London Gatwick, Madrid and Dusseldorf Weeze. 17 more routes will see their frequencies cut.

source: businesstraveller.com

Ryanair and Maxroam have teamed up to provide Europe’s first free mobile phone roaming service.

Customers will be able to buy a SIM card for €5 which comes loaded with €10 of calling credit. They can then use the new SIM to receive calls and text anywhere in Europe for free.

source: travolution.co.uk

Ryanair has threatened to turn away passengers arriving at check in without their pre-printed boarding pass unless a ruling from a Spanish court is overturned.

Currently the airline charges £40 for a boarding pass for those who have not printed out their own.

A judge in Barcelona has ruled that the charge is illegal.

The airline said it might stop issuing boarding passes, hence passengers would not be allowed on the aircraft.

source: BBC

The no-frills airline had promoted anger among passengers for the charge, when they were introduced.

However the 40 euro (£34) charge was challenged in Barcelona. In Britain the charge is £40.

Judge Barbara Maria Cordoba Ardao, sitting at Commercial Court Number One in Barcelona, ruled the company was breaking international law by imposing the levy.

She ruled that responsibility for printing the boarding pass had always rested with the airline.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

Budget airline Ryanair has announced today that record numbers of passengers travelled on its services during 2010.

In a statement today, Ryanair said its traffic grew by 10pc from 65 million passengers to 72 million.

In August, a monthly record was set when more than 7.7 million passengers flew with the airline. However, the company’s busiest day was recorded on July 30 when more than 1,400 flights carried over 255,000 people.

source: businessandleadership.com

Ryanair should be more like Tesco and won’t always offer the cheapest fares to consumers, its chief executive Michael O’Leary has said.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr O’Leary said that there was no reason why Ryanair’s fares should always be significantly cheaper than those of rivals, but said the changes are unlikely to happen until after he leaves the airline within the next two to three years.

“‘There’s no reason why our average price should be 50pc cheaper than anybody else,'” he said. “‘I think it could easily be 25pc cheaper than everybody else, but that means a different kind of sales mission and a different kind of culture.'”

source: independent.ie

Ryanair has ruled itself out of the running as a possible bidder for Virgin Atlantic.

The European low fares giant dismissed rumours that it might bid for Virgin after Sir Richard Branson’s carrier started considering possible partnership options.

“‘While Ryanair is interested in a low fares transatlantic service it has no intention of bidding for a high fares airline,’” a statement said.

source: travelweekly.co.uk