28 October 2009

Germanwings boss: Ryanair won't last

The chief executive of German low-cost carrier Germanwings Thomas Winkelmann has predicted the demise of Ryanair because it does not attract the corporate market.

The airline boss told Travelmole that airports also found that the more Ryanair flies to an airport, the higher the losses it has to sustain. He added that tax payers in destinations should not have to bear the brunt of Ryanair’s business model.

He said: "I think the Ryanair model is coming to an end. The more Ryanair flies to a destination, the more losses taken by the airport and the local tax payers wont stand for that."

Ryanair was unavailable for comment.

Winkelmann, who was in the UK to promote his airline’s new flight between Manchester and Cologne/Bonn, said the economic downturn, however, had provided the right growing conditions for most low-cost carriers. It had made travellers more price sensitive, made class differentiation irrelevant on short-haul flights and necessitated the lowest possible distribution costs.

He added: "Travellers are acutely aware of the whole cost of a trip and do not want to fly from nowhere to nowhere, having to pay for car hire on top of the flight. That deters both leisure and business travellers."

Winkelmann said Germanwings was in good shape thanks to not over-ordering on new planes prior to the recession. The airline is making in-roads into the UK market and with the opening of the Manchester route now has three UK destinations.

It flies from Cologne and Stuttgart to Stansted, from Cologne to Edinburgh and now from Cologne to Manchester. Winkelmann also noted that some 50% of Stansted flights are sold in the UK despite the carrier not being as well known as UK competitors. "It just shows that with good SEO customers can find us and want to fly with us."

Dinah Hatch

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Your Comments (3)

Go for Yield!

What the CEO of Germanwings found out is not new: remember KLM~´s first LCC approach via its half hearted founding of LCC subsidiary "buzz",in 2000-2003: they were the first ones to approach corporates too...unfortunately, too early at that time. But at least its good to know that more and more LCC~´s follow this track, especially in times like we face it now. Its simply good for their yield!

By andreas w. schulz, Friday, October 30, 2009
Ryanair was unavailable for comment.

That must be a first!

By Richard English, Thursday, October 29, 2009
What a party!

Imagine the reaction of competitors, some passengers and others if Ryanair bit the dust. It would redefine the expression of "Dancing on someone's grave".

By J Hewson, Thursday, October 29, 2009