Ryanair to increase cost of checking in luggage

Ryanair is increasing its luggage check-in charges from next month, the Guardian reports. The cost of checking in a bag will rise from £20 to £30 for a return flight, while a second bag charge will increase from £40 to £70. Ryanair said the higher fees would reduce the amount of checked-in luggage and cut baggage-handling costs, allowing the airline to cut fares. Seven out of 10 Ryanair passengers now travel with one piece of hand luggage, the budget airline said. It added that a 20% reduction in fares would save passengers €500m (£435m) this year while the bag charges would add just €100m to travellers' costs. (Photo: Flickr)

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Italian airport traffic down less than 1% in July; Bologna and Bergamo up more than 10%

Latest traffic figures for Italian airports show that in July many airports were once again reporting growth. Overall total passenger numbers are down less than 1% in July, with domestic traffic up almost 1% and international traffic down just under 2%. Bologna and Milan Bergamo are the fastest growing of the major airports reporting 14.1% and 16.9% growth respectively. Palermo, Pisa and Rome Ciampino also reported growth in July, but Italy’s two biggest airports at Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa saw demand fall by 7.3% and 2.6% respectively.

Among smaller airports reporting significant growth in July were Trapani (+113.3%), Cuneo (+35.5%), Perugia (+25.0%), Bari (+21.2%), Cagliari (+21.2%) and Alghero (+19.1%).
Year to date traffic down 6.4%
For the period January to July total passenger traffic is down 6.4% compared with 2008, with domestic traffic down 6.5% and international traffic down 6.2%. However, some of the larger airports have reported modest growth such as Bergamo (6.8% growth driven by a 46% increase in domestic traffic as international traffic fell 1.2%), Bologna (+6.5%) and Pisa (+0.9%).

Source: Anna.aereo



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Car hire shortages at all Sardinian airports

Holidaymakers across the UK and Europe are facing bigger bills for hire cars - or risk not getting one at all - due to a shortage of vehicles. All Sardinia airports including Alghero report shortages for August.
Hire firms have not replaced fleets because they expected fewer tourists. They have also had difficulty accessing finance, industry figures say.
One of the few hire brokers still having available cars and cabriolets is the America based car hire company Auto Europe:

Car rental discount rates from Alghero airport (in EUR)
Car Hire at Alghero airport (in GBP)

Ryanair Launches 1 Million €8 Seat Sale: Travel in late Sept, Oct & Nov

Ryanair, the World’s favourite airline, will at midnight tonight (24:00hrs 17th Aug) release 1million seats at an all inclusive price of €8 for travel in late Sept, Oct and Nov. These €8 fares will be available on over 500 of Ryanair’s European routes but must be booked on http://www.ryanair.com/ before midnight (24:00hrs) Thursday (20th Aug).

Ryanair’s €8 tickets include all taxes and charges so passengers who chose to avoid discretionary fees by paying with Visa Electron, travel with carry on luggage only and forego priority boarding can fly for this advertised €8 fare.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said:

“Ryanair provides Europe’s lowest fares and a no fuel surcharge guarantee. We continue to grow traffic rapidly thanks to our low fares and our on-time performance across our 900 routes and we release 1million €8 seats for travel on over 500 European destinations in late September, October and November. These seats can be booked until 24:00hrs this Thursday (20th August) and are sure to be snapped up fast so we urge passengers to book them on http://www.ryanair.com/ today, before they sell out.”

Ryanair News

Ryanair cuts nine out of 10 routes from Manchester Airport. This means routes to and from Cagliari in Sardinia will cease from October.

Ryanair has announced it will cut nine out of 10 routes at Manchester Airport from October creating a loss of 60,000 passengers a year.
The low-cost carrier announced its decision yesterday blaming the airport's refusal to lower its charges for giving them no other option.
A total of 44 weekly Ryanair flights will be lost at Manchester from October 1as well as 600 local jobs.
The airline’s decision comes after cuts to its base at Stansted, as well as Dublin, in favour of cheaper airports elsewhere in the UK and on the Continent.

Ryanair said it had offered Manchester an additional 28 weekly flights and 400,000 new passengers which would have created 400 new jobs if the airport 'reduced its high charges' but airport bosses had rejected this offer.
This means routes to and from Barcelona (Girona), Bremen in Germany, Brussels (Charleroi), Cagliari in Sardinia, Dusseldorf (Weeze), Frankfurt (Hahn), Marseille, Milan (Bergamo) and Shannon will cease from October.
Passengers affected will be provided with a full refund from Ryanair or given the alternative of flying to some destinations from 'competing, lower-cost airports' such as East Midlands, Liverpool or the airline's new base at Leeds Bradford.

Traffic record at Alghero airport

Riviera del Corallo aiport has had record numbers of traffic at the first weekend of August. 300 aircraft movements have moved between 45 and 50.000 passengers this weekend, Unione Sarda reports.

Ryanair cancels flights from Pisa to Alghero and Cagliari

Ryanair regrets that we have been forced to cancel the following flights (detailed below), due to the earlier runway closure at Pisa Airport. This situation is outside of our control and Ryanair sincerely regrets that as a consequence, we have been forced to cancel the following flights:
Customers who were booked to travel on the cancelled flights can rebook their ticket free of charge, subject to availability, by clicking on the web link below. Customers can access this link up to the 25/07/2009 for travel on flights up to the 30/07/2009. However, if you wish to travel to your booked destination by transiting through another Ryanair airport/hub please go to the airport ticket desk where they adding the additional flight sectors free of charge.
https://www.bookryanair.com/SkySales/FRManageBooking.aspx?culture=EN-GB&pos=MYFLIGHT
Alternatively, for customers who are booked on any of the below flights, who wish to cancel and claim a full refund on the unused flight(s) please click on the link below and enter the required details. Due to the holiday period, refunds will be processed in 7-14 working days back to the form of payment used to pay for the booking.
http://schchng.ryanair.com/refweb.asp
Ryanair sincerely apologise for any inconvenience that these cancellations may cause.
23/07/2009

FR9933
Pisa-Cagliari
20:00-21:25

FR9934
Cagliari-Pisa
21:50 - 23:10

FR9928
Pisa-Alghero
20:30-21:40

FR9929
Alghero-Pisa
22:05-23:10

FR9988
Pisa-Trapani
20:30-21:55

FR9989
Trapani-Pisa
22:20-23:35