Ryanair considers eastern expansion

NO-FRILLS airline Ryanair said yesterday that it was considering expanding to the former Soviet bloc, as it extended a deadline for staff at newly-acquired Buzz to accept a job offer or face closure.

“We’ve talked to airports in just about every former Soviet bloc country (in eastern Europe),” Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O’Leary told a news conference in London. “If one of these eastern European airports comes up with an exceptional offer in terms of facilities and costs next summer, we may stick something there.”

Ryanair, which competes with EasyJet for the title of Europe’s biggest budget airline, has become one of the fastest growing airlines in Europe by cutting fares and flying to secondary airports with an all-Boeing 737 fleet.

O’Leary also said Ryanair would be sending out letters to the 600 staff at the loss-making Buzz unit it is buying from KLM later on Thursday or Friday, informing them who would be staying on.

Last week, Ryanair grounded Buzz for a month and said it would cut staff by up to two-thirds in a bid to stem losses of 1m a week. The deadline for Buzz staff to accept the offer or face closure of the airline would be extended by two days to March 14 to give them time to respond.

“It won’t be us that closes the airline down, it will be the staff and, again, there is a feeling out there in some of the more cynical sections of the media that we have a hidden agenda to close down Buzz,” O’Leary added.

“The decision on closing down Buzz will not be within our control, it will be entirely within the control of the 200 or so people who are offered jobs. All they have to do is call our bluff, sign the contract and take more money.”

Although Ryanair has come under fire from unions for its aggressive handling of the purchase of Buzz, O’Leary defended his actions: “Our fundamental objective here is to rescue Buzz in as short as possible space and time, and that means surgery and it needs to be radical and it needs to be quick.”

Earlier, Ryanair unveiled seven new routes from London’s Stansted Airport, serving Ostend in Belgium, Groningen in Holland, Leipzig in Germany and Palermo in Italy, Bergerac and Rodez in France and also Blackpool in England.