News: Ryanair confirm plans for base at Madrid Barajas Airport
Flights > News > # 1026 (10/10/2006)
Ryanair’s rapid expansion is set to continue with the opening of its 18th European base next month. The Irish no-frills giant is launching cheap flights to 14 destinations from Madrid Barajas from November 22, including a daily service to Dublin, four flights a week to Nottingham East Midlands, and three flights a week to both Bournemouth and Shannon.
Ryanair’s deputy chief executive, Michael Cawley, said: “We welcome the development of facilities in Madrid Barajas airport to encourage low fares and competition. This will transform the market in Madrid by allowing passengers to fly for a fraction of the high fares charged by Iberia.”
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After months of rumours within the aviation industry, Ryanair and Easyjet have now both established low-cost bases at Madrid’s Barajas international airport.
Both no-frills carriers have filled the gap left in terminal one after the traditional network airlines moved to Richard Rogers’ impressive new terminal four.
Although Easyjet and Ryanair appear to be fiercely competitive against each other, they rarely match each other on a direct route to route basis, with Easyjet having chosen to concentrate most of their new Madrid flights on nearby destinations in France and Morocco, in addition to two domestic Spanish routes. Ryanair's choice of new Madrid flights is little bit more diverse, reaching as far north as Oslo Torp in Norway, as well as a local focus on two new routes into Portugal.
So what benefits does Madrid's new budget terminal offer to UK passengers? Easyjet has not delivered any new routes to the Spanish capital from its UK bases, although they already have well-established cheap flights to Madrid from Liverpool and Bristol, as well as from London. Interestingly, Ryanair has chosen not to compete against Easyjet on any of their UK to Madrid flights, even though there is no airline currently operating flights to Madrid from Stansted. This is not to suggest that Ryanair are shy of the competition, merely that they do not feel the opportunity is there at the moment to open up a profitable link between London and Madrid. Outside the capital, Bournemouth and Nottingham East Midlands get their first regular scheduled flights to Madrid, with a further link being provided to Shannon in Ireland.
East Midlands airport is an important base for Easyjet too, but the airline has been slow to develop there in recent years, leaving Ryanair to exploit numerous opportunities which Easyjet has ignored. Two corners of the UK which remain notably underserved in terms of links to the Spanish capital are Scotland and Northern Ireland. Whilst the catchment area around Belfast might not be sufficient to support a high frequency service, there has to be an opportunity for one of the Scottish airports to open up flights to Madrid. Easyjet have finally got round to opening up some decent international routes from Glasgow this year, so perhaps they will be eyeing up the Spanish capital closely, although Ryanair will have no doubt given plenty of consideration to starting Glasgow Prestwick to Madrid flights. With Ryanair's ongoing aim to keep their flights as short as possible, this particular route might not be their highest priority, but both airlines must be in a much stronger position to develop more Madrid links than smaller rivals such as Flyglobespan or Jet2.
