Ryanair passenger numbers to top BA

ANNUAL passenger numbers at Ryanair look set to overtake British Airways (BA), as they soar ahead for the second time this year.

Last month overall passenger numbers for BA were 2.732 million, slightly behind Ryanair’s 2.748 million.

The figures, however, show a 1.1% decrease in British and European passenger numbers for BA, as Ryanair reported a 25% increase in traffic growth during the same month.

Ryanair surpassed BA for the first time in August as the largest carrier in Europe by passenger numbers.

Ryanair is expected to carry nearly 35 million passengers in the 12 months to March 2006, nearly 30% more than it did in the previous year.

Bleak times now beckon for BA as further downsizing is forecast. This comes just one week after the airline announced plans to cut nearly 600 management posts by March 2008.

BA are expected to downsize their Citiexpress service, which economists believe is not generating a positive return.

The Citiexpress handles most of British Airways’ domestic and European services that do not serve London Heathrow or Gatwick airports. Citiexpress has hubs in Birmingham, Bristol, London City, Manchester and Southampton.

In total, Citiexpress flies from 17 airports in Ireland and Britain on over 60 routes to major or central regional airports.

Davy economist Stephen Furlong said downsizing at BA with their Citiexpress service will probably happen in January of next year. He said this is part of BA’s effort to increase their margins towards 10%.

“A review will probably focus on regional hubs such as Gatwick, Birmingham and Edinburgh but I would point out that BA citiexpress by seat kilometre presents less than 10% of BA’s overall business and it will probably get even smaller since it is not generating a positive return.”

It wasn’t all bad news for BA, however, as overall passenger numbers increased by 1.7% on November last year.

Meanwhile, November figures showed the percentage of empty seats on Ryanair rose slightly on the same month last year but the number of people using its services overall stood at 32.7 million over the last year, an increase of 27%.

Ryanair now operate on 249 routes, compared to 152 in November last year. They have a fleet of 94 planes, which is due to reach 104 by the end of March next year when it should be flying 274 routes.

Ryanair planes were 81% full in November, down from 82% last November. They also said that 98% of their tickets were bought on-line.

Weekend reports suggest Ryanair is bidding to operate as anchor tenant for a low-cost terminal in Lyon, although Goodbody economist Joe Gill said easyJet had bid too. He said this could underline Ryanair’s ambition to establish a presence in France.