MAG / Ryanair 10 year growth agreement at Stansted to increase Ryanair passengers by 50% in 10 years

Manchester Airports Group (MAG) and Ryanair have announced a new long-term growth agreement which will see Ryanair increase its number of passengers at Stansted from just over 13 million a year,  to more than 18 million by 2018 and then to almost 21 million passengers a year by 2023.  In return it wants lower costs and better facilities. MAG bought Stansted from BAA in February 2013. Ryanair is Stansted’s largest airline – with 140 + destinations during the past year; it has now announced 4 new Stansted routes for summer 2014. The new destinations – not currently served from Stansted – are Lisbon, Bordeaux, Dortmund and Rabat. MAG said they are confident Stansted can grow, though it has had consistently declining numbers of passengers for several years. MAG believes it can compete more effectively “to make the most of the airport’s untapped potential and spare capacity.” MAG says “Stansted has a really bright future in providing international connectivity for the UK”  – (which broadly means more holiday destinations for cheap flights, taking more Brits to spend their money abroad.) Ryanair can be very fickle.
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M.A.G and Ryanair sign ten-year growth agreement at London Stansted

M.A.G and Ryanair have signed a ten-year growth agreement at London Stansted.

Manchester Airports Group and Ryanair have today announced a new long-term growth agreement which will see the airline increase the number of passengers it serves at Stansted Airport from just over 13 million a year to more than 18 million by 2018.

The new growth agreement, which will see Ryanair serve almost 21 million passengers a year by 2023, comes just six months after M.A.G completed its acquisition of Stansted .

Ryanair, Stansted’s largest airline serving over 140 destinations during the past 12 months, has also announced four new routes from the airport for summer 2014. The new destinations – not currently served from Stansted – are Lisbon, Bordeaux, Dortmund and Rabat in Morocco.

Ken O’Toole, M.A.G’s Chief Commercial Officer, said: “The new long term agreement between Ryanair and MAG at Stansted shows that competition really does work, and it represents great news for both passengers and UK businesses. The deal secures a new and exciting era for both Ryanair and Stansted, and we’re delighted to be supporting the airline’s growth over the next ten years.

“We acquired Stansted in February this year believing we could significantly expand the services on offer by competing more effectively to make the most of the airport’s untapped potential and spare capacity. We were confident Stansted would grow if we offered great value to airlines, increased passenger choice and better services and facilities.”

He added: “Today’s announcement, coupled with our £80m investment in the terminal, confirms that Ryanair shares our confidence, and shows how we are succeeding in transforming Stansted under new ownership. Stansted has a really bright future in providing international connectivity for the UK.”

“Over the next five years, M.A.G wants to make Stansted the best airport in London so we will continue to compete hard to win business from airlines in our drive for passenger growth and to provide customers with even more choice.”

Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s Chief Executive, said the deal will see Stansted traffic grow by over 50pc, from 13.2m in 2012 to over 20m p.a. in return for lower costs and more efficient facilities.

“This agreement proves how UK airports can flourish when released from the dead hand of the BAA monopoly and is the first dramatic initiative by M.A.G to reverse seven years of decline, during which Stansted’s traffic fell from 23.8m to 17.5m,” he said

“As Stansted’s biggest airline, Ryanair looks forward to a decade of growing traffic, routes and jobs at Stansted. We have also released our Stansted summer 2014 schedule with 120 routes, including 4 new routes to Bordeaux, Dortmund, Lisbon and Rabat, which have gone on sale today on the www.ryanair.com website.”

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/business-news/mag-ryanair-signed-ten-year-growth-6030366

 

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News Release (Ryanair)

16.9.2013

Ryanair Agrees 10 Year Growth Deal At Stansted

TRAFFIC TO GROW BY 50% FROM 13.2M P.A. TO OVER 20M
 
SUMMER 2014 SCHEDULE RELEASED WITH 4 NEW ROUTES
(BORDEAUX, DORTMUND, LISBON & RABAT)

Ryanair and Manchester Airport Group (MAG), today (16 Sep) announced that they had concluded a  10 year growth agreement at London Stansted Airport, which will see Ryanair grow its traffic at Stansted by over 50%, from 13.2m passengers in 2012 to over 20m p.a. in return for a package of lower costs and more efficient facilities at Stansted. This agreement will account for up to 25% of Ryanair’s 5 year growth plans to 2019. Ryanair expects its Stansted traffic in year 1 of this 10-year deal to grow from 13.2m to over 14.5m.

Ryanair has today released its Stansted summer 2014 schedule (at www.ryanair.com), with a total of 120 routes, including 4 new routes to Bordeaux, Dortmund, Lisbon and Rabat, which will feature:

  •     43 based aircraft in Stansted (up from 37)
  •     120 routes (up from 116)
  •     4 new routes to Bordeaux, Dortmund, Lisbon & Rabat
  •     Over 2,000 weekly flights (up from 1,800)
  •     Traffic growth from 13.2m to over 20m p.a.
  •     Up to 7,000* new jobs created at Stansted over a 5 year period

Ryanair celebrated the launch of its Stansted summer 2014 schedule (and 4 new routes) by releasing 100,000 seats at prices from £14.99 for travel in October and November, which are available for booking until midnight (24:00hrs) Thur (19 Sep).

In London, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“Ryanair is pleased to have agreed a new 10 year growth deal at London Stansted with MAG. This deal will see our Stansted traffic grow by over 50%, from 13.2m in 2012 to over 20m p.a. in return for lower costs and more efficient facilities at Stansted. This agreement, which will create over 7000 new jobs in Stansted, proves how UK airports can flourish when released from the dead hand of the BAA monopoly and is the first dramatic initiative by MAG to reverse 7 years of decline, during which Stansted’s traffic fell from 23.8m to 17.5m.

As Stansted’s biggest airline, Ryanair looks forward to a decade of growing traffic, routes and jobs at Stansted. We are also pleased to release our Stansted summer 2014 schedule with 120 routes, including 4 new routes to Bordeaux, Dortmund, Lisbon and Rabat, which have gone on sale today on the www.ryanair.com website.”

MAG’s Chief Commercial Officer, Ken O’Toole said:

 “The new long term agreement between Ryanair and MAG at Stansted shows that competition really does work, and it represents great news for both passengers and UK businesses. The deal secures a new and exciting era for both Ryanair and Stansted, and we’re delighted to be supporting the airline’s growth over the next ten years.
 
Today’s announcement, coupled with our £80m investment in the terminal, confirms that Ryanair shares our confidence, and shows how we are succeeding in transforming Stansted under new ownership. Stansted has a really bright future in providing international connectivity for the UK.”

* ACI research confirms up to 1,000 ‘on-site’ jobs are sustained at international airports for every 1m passengers

http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-agrees-10-year-growth-deal-at-stansted

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UK’s CAA postpones regulatory decision on Stansted airport

Tue Sep 17, 2013 (Reuters)

Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority said on Tuesday it would defer making a judgement on how to regulate London’s Stansted airport in future following the airport’s new 10-year deal with Ryanair which was announced on Monday.

“Following the Ryanair deal and another agreement between (Stansted’s new owner) Manchester Airports Group Plc and easyJet announced earlier this year, the CAA will issue a consultation to invite stakeholders to submit representations on how these agreements may affect the market power assessment,” the regulator said in a statement.

The Civil Aviation Act 2012 sets a market power test as part of the process for periodically deciding whether a UK airport’s user charges need to be regulated in the future. The determination for Stansted was due to be published on October 3, along with the two other main London airports, Gatwick and Heathrow.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/09/17/uk-stansted-regulation-idUKBRE98G0XO20130917

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but a rather different tone from Ryanair 6 months ago:

 

Manchester Airport Group confirms Stansted takeover deal – and Ryanair cuts its Stansted flights

March 1, 2013

The Manchester Airport Group (MAG) has now completed its £1.5bn acquisition of Stansted, from Heathrow Airport Holdings. MAG already owns Manchester, East Midlands and Bournemouth airports. Stansted’s main traffic is budget airlines such as Easyjet and Ryan Air flying to Europe, and Ryanair accounts for around 70% of its traffic. MAG wants to return Stansted’s passenger numbers to what they were 5 years ago by 2018, as it is now 47% below capacity and has been losing passengers for years. MAG wants to improve the shopping experience at the airport to encourage passengers to spend more before they board flights. They also intend to lobby transport chiefs about improving rail links between Stansted and London in the medium-term. On the day of the take-over Ryanair announced that it had been planning to expand its routes from Stansted by 5% from April, but would now cut them instead by some 9% or 1 million passengers per year, allegedly due to a 6% increase in charges (or the recession?)    .

Click here to view full story…

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FERROVIAL/BAA HIKES STANSTED FEES BY 6% FROM APRIL 2013 IN A PARTING GIFT TO MANCHESTER AIRPORT GROUP & A PARTING SLAP TO STANSTED’S AIRLINES & PASSENGERS

RYANAIR TO CUT ITS STANSTED TRAFFIC BY 9% IN RESPONSE TO THESE UNJUSTIFIED & INFLATION-BUSTING INCREASES
28.2.2013  (Ryanair’s website)

Ryanair, Europe’s only ultra-low cost carrier (ULCC), today (28 Feb) announced that it will cut its London Stansted traffic by 9% over the coming year (from 12.5m to 11.4m) after the Ferrovial/BAA Stansted monopoly announced a further unjustified increase of Stansted’s already high charges of 6% from April 2013, despite the fact that Ferrovial/BAA has sold Stansted to Manchester Airport Group (MAG) who will take over the airport sometime before the end of March.

Ryanair has called on Stansted’s regulator, the CAA, to investigate whether this unjustified and unwarranted 6% price hike was a “sweetener” by Ferrovial/BAA’s sale of Stansted, which raised £1.5bn in proceeds for Ferrovial, despite the fact that Stansted’s traffic has declined from 24m p.a. to 17.5m p.a. over the last 6 years.
Ryanair, which had planned to grow its Stansted traffic by 5% from April 2013, will now cut frequencies on 43 of its routes and reduce its weekly operations by over 170 flights, with the loss of 1.1m passengers (-9%) and over 1,100* jobs at Stansted,  in direct response to this unwarranted and unjustified 6% price hike. Ryanair called on the CAA regulator to explain why Ferrovial/BAA is allowed to hike charges by 6% when UK inflation is less than 3% and Stansted’s traffic continues to decline.
Ryanair also called on Ferrovial/BAA to reverse this unjustified and unwarranted price increase before the sale to MAG is concluded and further called on MAG to confirm that it will not permit any further price increases at Stansted unless, or until, the traffic declines of the past 6 years (during which the Ferrovial/BAA monopoly has doubled Stansted’s fees) are reversed.
Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said,
It’s bad enough that Ferrovial/BAA has doubled prices over the past 6 years and presided over record traffic falls at Stansted, but it appears that the CAA now rewards this commercial failure by allowing Ferrovial/BAA to again raise fees in 2013 to compensate for its traffic declines in 2012.
Given that Ferrovial/BAA has now agreed to sell the airport to MAG, it is impossible to understand why the BAA monopoly is again raising Stansted’s prices from April 2013 when it clearly won’t be running the airport from that date. Ryanair and other Stansted airlines now must ask was this surprise price increase part of a “sweetener” package to persuade MAG to pay £1.5bn for Stansted? Are passengers and airlines at Stansted again being hit in order to boost the sales proceeds for the Spanish giant, Ferrovial, from the sale of BAA Stansted?
As the London Times has previously commented, the appropriate response to a traffic decline would be to lower prices and grow volumes. Instead the Ferrovial/BAA monopoly, as it runs down the runway trousering £1.5bn from the sale of Stansted, is imposing a further, unjustified 6% price increase one month in advance of MAG’s takeover of Stansted. There’s something very smelly about the timing and the scale of this price increase, which is more than double the rate of UK inflation.

Ryanair believes that this price increase, which will clearly be of no benefit to Ferrovial/BAA, was part of a “sweetener” to MAG in order to boost the sale price of Stansted Airport. The CAA must now investigate the reasons for this price increase and take action to protect Stansted users from this latest example of price gouging from Ferrovial/BAA. 

* ACI research confirms up to 1,000 ‘on-site’ jobs are sustained at international airports for every 1m passengers  [This really is not true – the figure has been bandied about for years, but the real figure is more like a quarter.  Airlines and airports are cutting jobs to increase profits. The 1,000 figure was an exaggeration even many years ago, and it completely out of date now.  AW]. 

http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ferrovial-baa-hikes-stansted-fees-by-6-percent-from-april-2013-in-a-parting-gift-to-manchester-airport-group-and-a-parting-slap-to-stansted-s-airlines-and-passengers

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