RYANAIR yesterday announced five new routes from Cork to Poland and Lithuania but denied targeting rival Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air, which operates and enjoys load factors of 90 per cent on four of the five routes.
Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley confirmed the airline will start flying from Cork to Gdansk, Krakow, Warsaw and Wroclaw in Poland and Vilnius in Lithuania from November with flights twice and thrice weekly depending on the destination.
Mr Cawley said Ryanair’s prices would be 50 per cent cheaper than Wizz Air, which currently offers one-way tickets from Cork to Gdansk and Wroclaw from €14.99 and from Cork to Krakow, Warsaw and Vilnius from €19.99. “People here are being ripped off at the moment,” he said.
Asked how he would respond to observers who would say Ryanair is seeking to take out Wizz Air on its routes from Cork to Gdansk, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Katowice and Vilnius, Mr Cawley said “like much of the commentary about Ryanair, they would be wrong”.
Asked if he believed there was sufficient business for both airlines on the routes, Mr Cawley said there was a sufficient market for Ryanair at its prices and, while he could not speak for Wizz Air, Ryanair was committed to the routes.
He explained that Ryanair would switch a 189-seater Boeing 737 aircraft based at Cork Airport during the summer months servicing routes to Bordeaux, Carcassonne, La Rochelle and Pisa to servicing the new destinations in eastern Europe come the winter.
Next summer, the seasonal services to France and Italy would resume from Cork and Ryanair would service the eastern Europe routes with aircraft based at Wroclaw and Warsaw, leading to an increase in Ryanair passenger numbers through Cork to 850,000 per annum, he said.
“Wizz have reduced their frequency on some of these routes. This is going to double the frequency and fares are going to be halved just in time for Christmas,” said Mr Cawley, adding Euro 2012 had increased interest in Ireland among Poland’s growing middle class.
“We expect the market to expand and to be in both directions as is our experience elsewhere – we are going to be bringing tens of thousands of foreigners into this part of the world and not just people going from here to Poland and Lithuania.”
