New blow to Prestwick as airline quits
Wizz relocates its Polish routes to Glasgow
PRESTWICK airport has been dealt a further blow as low-cost carrier Wizz Air announced it would relocate its two Polish routes to Glasgow Airport.
The move leaves Ryanair as the only passenger airline operating from the Ayrshire base as Infratil, the New Zealand-based owner, attempts to sell what it has described as an “underperforming” airport.
Twice-weekly flights to Warsaw and Gdansk will switch to Glasgow in March, seven years after Wizz established services at Prestwick.
Stij n Vandermoere, the Hungarian airline’s head of network development and scheduling, said market research had shown that its passengers mostly originated in Glasgow and north of the city and did not want to travel to Prestwick, which has seen passenger numbers tumble in recent years.
“Wehave talked to our customers and they have told us they want low fares, but they also want to be able to travel from an airport that is closer to where they live. A great deal of our customers are from Glasgow and north of Glasgow, so it makes sense moving there from Prestwick,” he said.
Infrastructure firm Infratil put Prestwick up for sale last March, along with Manston airport in Kent, describing both airports as underperforming and saying it expected a deal to be completed by early 2013. Tom Wilson, group chief executive of Infratil Airports Europe, admitted the sale of Prestwick was taking longer than expected but said there were a number of parties interested in buying what he described as a “relatively complicated asset”.
He said: “All the elements such as air maintenance, freight and training do take time to assess, along with uncertainty about aviation and the increases in Air Passenger Duty.”
Passenger numbers have dropped by half since a peak of 2.4 million in 2006 as Ryanair relocated a number of its
A great deal of our customers are from the Glasgow area, so it makes sense moving there from Prestwick
services to Edinburgh and axed flights to Stansted.
However, the airline announced last month it would start expanding services from Prestwick again this summer with new routes to Rzeszow and Warsaw Modlin.
Mr Wilson said Ryanair’s decision to go head-to-head with Wizz on its Warsaw service last October was likely to have influenced the move to Glasgow.
“The issue about catchment may be correct but our information is that passengers value having a direct rail link to Prestwick, which they will no longer enjoy at Glasgow,” he said.
A spokesman for the airport added the move would be “relatively insignificant” given that Wizz accounted for a small proportion of flights from Prestwick.
Amanda McMillan, managing director of Glasgow Airport, said the move would ensure Poland was served by the airport after a gap of 15 years.
“Wizz Air is an ambitious and rapidly growing airline which carried over 12 million passengers in 2012 alone, and we are looking forward to working alongside the team at Wizz to ensure it enjoys further growth and success at Glasgow.
“This announcement underlines our commitment to expanding our route network and delivering the routes and services our customers demand,” she added.
HOLIDAY air travellers prepared to pay significantly higher fares in December gave Ryanair an unexpected Christmas present in bumper profits, the low-cost airline revealed yesterday.
Ryanair lifted its full-year profit forecast after strong demand in northern Europe lifted average fares dramatically in the last three months of 2012.
Dubl i n - b a s e d Ryanai r, Europe’s no-frills market leader, which has used its size and low costs to undercut struggling flag carriers, hiked its forecast to €540 million (£442m) for the year to March, up from previous guidance of €490m to €520m.
An 8% rise in average fares lifted the airline to a profit of €18m (£14.8m) in the traditionally weak three months to December.
That compared with an average analyst forecast of a 3% fare rise and a €5m loss.
Michael Cawley, chief operating officer, said the airline had enjoyed strong demand out of the UK, out of Germany and out of Scandinavia. He added: “That
Demand is exceeding supply and Ryanair is capitalising on it. The market will be happy with these numbers
has gone straight to our bottom line.”
Buoyant sales in the run-up to Christmas and a high uptake of the airline’s new reserved seating options helped to lift ticket prices in northern Europe well above the company’s forecasts, he said.
Sales were not as buoyant in southern Europe, with Spain in particular “very weak” and fare growth in Italy flat, he added. Average fares will grow at a slower pace in the three months to March, however, Mr Cawley said.
Ryanair operates out of Edinburgh and Prestwick, and will begin new services to Bologna and Cagliari in Italy, Beziers in France, Corfu in Greece, Katowice in Poland and Santander in Spain from Edinburgh this summer, along with new routes from Prestwick to Warsaw and Rzeszow in Poland.
It follows the loss of 13 routes last year from Edinburgh, where Ryanair has been threatening further cuts unless it can renegotiate landing charges with the airport’s new owner, Global Infrastructure Partnership.
Many routes have been switched in the past to Edinburgh from Prestwick, where it still has 25 routes and a maintenance base employing more than 250.
Ryanair has continued to poach customers from higher cost rivals in the face of depressed consumer demand in Europe and high fuel costs. Revenues climbed 15% to €969m in the quarter, better than the 9% revenue growth reported last week by its chief low-cost rival easyJet.
Ancillary revenues, which exclude ticket prices, were up 24% from a year earlier.
“Demand is exceeding supply in the short-haul market and Ryanair is capitalising on it,” said one Dublin-based analyst. “The market will be very happy with these numbers.”
The higher fares helped Ryanair absorb a 24% hike in fuel costs compared with the same quarter last year. Fuel cost inflation is expected to ease to 5% in the year to March 2014 from 14% in the current financial year.
Excluding fuel, unit costs rose by 4% in the quarter due to increases in Italian air traffic control costs, Spanish airport charges and the strength of sterling against the euro, Ryanair said.