In “news that made me go hmm”, Ryanair is to launch three routes out of Exeter Airport in the south-west of England.
Ryanair Boeing 737-800 coming into land at Dublin Airport – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
The new routes that will operate out of Exeter will include from 2nd April 2019:
- Malaga
- Malta
- Naples
All sun and leisure destinations. Routes will operate twice weekly – a total of six flight a week. Lead-in prices start
Onto the PR’s, with Ryanair’s Robin Kiely stating:
“We’re pleased to announce Ryanair’s low fares have arrived at Exeter, our newest airport and 21st in the UK. Our three new routes to Malaga, Malta and Naples start in summer 2019, each operating twice weekly, ensuring customers in the Devon region can book low fare flights to the sun.
Exeter Airport MD, Matt Roach said:
“This is a significant vote of confidence in the continued growth of Exeter Airport and we are delighted to be welcoming Ryanair for the very first time. These routes are popular destinations and offer customers even more choice and greater connectivity from their local airport.”
So why should FlyBe be scared? It’s Flybe’s home base. Or the equivalent of parking in-front of someone’s drive and putting on bad music loudly, letting them know they might be moving in. With the issues that Flybe have been on the end of recently (namely their poor on-time performance), whilst Exeter won’t be a battleground airport for Ryanair, you can bet that the airline is looking at it very carefully at expansion, as well as the profitable services out of the airport.
With Ryanair eyeing passengers on Flybe’s home turf, this could get extremely interesting very fast if they decide “let’s launch some domestic services”, or “lets match routes”.
Because I’m not sure the market could sustain two carriers…
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