Ryanair takes the lead as Europe’s most popular airline
Low-cost carrier Ryanair has taken the top spot as Europe’s most popular airline for the first time from British Airways after the Dublin-based airline carried 3.3 million passengers last month.
The statistics for August published by both Ryanair and BA show that Ryanair carried 156,000 more passengers than BA’s entire network figure.
“Ryanair’s passenger volumes are growing rapidly thanks to new destinations, lowest ever fares, industry leading punctuality and customer service and Ryanair’s guarantee of no fuel surcharges, not today, not tomorrow, not ever,” Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary said.
“BA keeps turning passengers away with fuel surcharge after fuel surcharge, high fares, poor punctuality, flight cancellations and no catering. At least on Ryanair, customers can buy a sandwich with £100 they have saved over BA’s high fares.”
“We carry our passengers much further than Ryanair does and if you measure it in terms of revenues per kilometer then we are a considerably larger airline,” rebutted a spokesman from BA.
BA’s traffic in August fell by 3.9 percent year-on-year, as in the aftermath of the walk-out by baggage-handlers who acted in sympathy with Gate Gourmet catering. Revenue per passenger kilometer also fell by 0.7 percent in August, compared with the previous year.
Ryanair currently operates 250 routes across 21 European countries.
LONDON (eTurboNews) —
September 7, 2005
Posted in: Airlines & Railways