Ryanair may cut under-used routes

Irish low fares airline Ryanair today threatened to cut some under-performing new routes, leaving uncertainty hanging over holidays and second home owners in France.

The airline said some of its new routes from Stansted launched this summer, particularly “one or two French destinations” and routes to the Netherlands and Belgium, are not attracting enough passengers.

It said it would replace a small number with alternative services and destinations if passenger numbers do not pick up significantly in the winter.

Ryanair did not name the routes under threat.

It flies to 19 destinations in France, two in Belgium and three in Holland.

The growth of low fares services to previously little known French destinations such as Pau, Clermont-Ferrand and Brest has sparked a surge in people buying holiday homes.

The airline also said it was in talks with partners at Stockholm Skavsta airport in Sweden to try to raise the performance of three routes operated from there to other destinations in Scandinavia.

Ryanair said it would replace the services with new international routes from Skavsta if it cannot raise passenger numbers to satisfactory levels.

The airline today unveiled record net profit growth of 16% to €175.5m.

It said traffic in the six months to September 30 rose by 45% to 11.3 million and revenues were up 28% to €596.4m.

The group added, however, that operating costs rose 32% and after-tax margins were down as expected to 29% from 32%.

But it said it continued to grow profitably in the face of adverse market conditions across Europe.

Chief executive Michael O’Leary said: “The strength of our traffic and profit growth, as well as the exceptional margins, once again proves our doubters wrong.”

Ryanair has 136 low fare routes across 16 countries, operating 68 aircraft and employing 2,200 people.

It has increased capacity this summer by more than 50%, launched more than 50 new routes and opened two new bases, at Skavsta and Milan.

Ryanair said most of the company’s new services had performed extremely well and it was now running slightly ahead of an expected 5% decline for the year in load factors, which measure the proportion of seats it has filled.

It is launching 13 new routes this winter, including two from Birmingham, one from Bournemouth, three from Glasgow, four from London, two from Frankfurt and one from Stockholm.

To celebrate the “excellent results”, it is offering one million seats at €1 each plus taxes and charges until midnight on Thursday on many of its routes.