Ryanair's Girona route.

In todays there is an article about how M.O'L is threatening to pull out of Girona unless airport fees are greatly reduced, and that he has the upper hand as Girona is almost entirely dependent on him.
 
Thanks for that Nick. Maybe they should be renamed as the "Hello Money or else Airline". I see that the main Barcelona Airport has built a new Terminal and Ryanair are moving in to the old terminal. No matter what he says he loves when airports build new terminals because he gets the old one.
 
Big debate in catalania travel circles at present about whether to give in to M. o'L. who is also making same threat to pull out of Reus. Ryanair controls a large chunk of the overseas tourist market into Catalonia, and pulling out of Girona and Reus so late in the day could have devastating effect on on tourism ,like all areas ,is already down. ( He's not as important further south in Reus which has big charter market, but still big. C.Brava will be badly affected.

Whlst MOL has stopped and started routes willy-nill before ,mainly based on what he can get from the local, national and supra-national govnts like EU, the recent strenghening of his muscles in this example, also recently in France -and now Ireland - is actually quite scarey.

Very difficult to make holiday plans or whether to buy an overseas property in a certain area (not that anyone is at present) if he can stop and start routes like this.

Its great that he broke the rip-off monopoly of national airlines.
Its great when he opens new routes and offers cheap fares..... but one starts getting uneasy at his actions.

As much as I'd like to see cheap girona flights part of me wants the Catalonian govnt ton say " F.off! you already could millions in subsidies .No more demands"

(This post has been written as an escape from our present national issue....)
 
I see that Ryanair have also increased their on line check in fee from €5 to €6, Yet they moan about the government's travel tax etc. I am going to make a conscious effort to fly with a different airline in place of Ryanair next year on at least one trip as my little protest.
They remind me of those companies of old that undercut everyone in order to wipe out the opposition. Then when the competition was gone they increased their prices.
 
They seem to be more interested in selling their 2011 calendar than keeping their customers updated on routes, timetables, increased charges etc
 
Now that the travel tax has been reduced to €3 in the budget with added incentives from the DAA will M O'L increase his routes in and out of Ireland from the continent and will we see a decent "sale" from him?
 
The following link may provide some explanation - the local chamber of commerce is not able to support Ryanair's flights to Girona in the future. But apparantly they provide only 6% of the support that Ryanair receives. I have tried e-mailing Stephen Mcnamarra at Ryanair and various Aena e-mails at Girona but of course no reply. I know staff at Girona are getting concerned too.


europapress.es/catalunya/noticia-camara-comercio-girona-estudia-dejar-participar-economicamente-convenio-ryanair-20101203181801.html
 
Now that the travel tax has been reduced to €3 in the budget with added incentives from the DAA will M O'L increase his routes in and out of Ireland from the continent and will we see a decent "sale" from him?

Not sure about that. See here
 
The following link may provide some explanation - the local chamber of commerce is not able to support Ryanair's flights to Girona in the future. But apparantly they provide only 6% of the support that Ryanair receives. I have tried e-mailing Stephen Mcnamarra at Ryanair and various Aena e-mails at Girona but of course no reply. I know staff at Girona are getting concerned too.
That's at least some information BristonGiron, thanks for that.

I have tried to contact them as well and only managed to get their customer service, which I had to pay extra for 1550 number :rolleyes:. I was told that the dates would be loaded last week.

I'm hoping to travel at Easter and as it's a very busy time, I usually book well in advance. I don't want to book with Aer Lingus to Barcelona and then Ryanair opens the Girona route again. I just wish they would tell us what the likelyhood is of the route being operational in April.
 
Further news in the Spanish press. According to this the Generalitat is saying that a deal is imminent, certainly should be before Christmas. As it stands the deal that Ryanair has with the government runs until the end of 2011, but that is presumably being renegotiated??

20minutos.es/noticia/896992/0/

Quite a lot comes up on google.es if you search for "Ryanair Girona Verano 2011"
 
That's great info, thanks for that! Looking forward to a bit of sunshine after the cold weather here! :)
 
Going to Argeles sur Mer in France. About 1 hour 15 mins drive north of Girona. Barcelona would be an extra hour.

Could also fly into Carcasonne, but it's between 1 1/2 - 2 hours away and the car hire is a fair bit more expensive than Spain.
 
Wouldnt perpignan be better? though I suppose its just as big a drag to change at stansted or brussels as it is to drive from BCN and your point on car hire is welltaken.
However, it does seem likes there movement on the Ryanair-Catalonia govnt discussions over Girona(i.e. Ryanair will continue to get millions in subsidies)
 
Perpignan would be great 1/2 hour from Argeles, but as you say I would have to fly to Stansted and then on. Did this with Salzburg and it took practically the whole day to get there.

Fingers crossed that Michael will get what he wants and will keep flying to Girona.
 
Go to Argeles sur Mer quite frequently, and to be honest, Carcassonne is only about 15 mins more of a drive than Girona, and i have noticed recently that the difference in the cost of car hire between Spain and France has narrowed, particularly when you add in the cross border insurance required when hiring in Spain. Also flight times to Carcassonne are usually better than the Girona route.
 
Yes, let's hope that they do something about the dreadful flight times to Girona. It is expensive to overnight there after a late arrival.
 
Go to Argeles sur Mer quite frequently, and to be honest, Carcassonne is only about 15 mins more of a drive than Girona, and i have noticed recently that the difference in the cost of car hire between Spain and France has narrowed, particularly when you add in the cross border insurance required when hiring in Spain. Also flight times to Carcassonne are usually better than the Girona route.
Can't wait for Girona, have booked to Carcassonne and with moving dates around a bit, have got a reasonable deal.

Great to have something to look forward to amidst all the doom and gloom! :)
 
Back
Top