Ryanair threaten to move to Gatwick
03.02.10
Ryanair could move its flights from Stansted - its biggest base - to Gatwick if the new owner of London’s second busiest airport lives up to promises to improve its facilities and keep charges down, the budget airline's chief operating officer, Michael Cawley, said.
In an interview this week Gatwick’s chief executive Stewart Wingate vowed to compete against London’s other main airports - as did his Stansted counterpart in an interview last week. Mr Wingate was in charge at Stansted until he was poached by Gatwick's new owners, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), two months ago.
Ryanair's Mr Cawley said it was great that the boss of a London airport finally talking about improving services and lowering prices. He said: ‘We haven't seen this kind of talk since the early 80s when the BAA was formed creating a monopoly. Certainly we are up for talking with Stewart - after all, Gatwick has had virtually zero growth for the last few years.’
Ryanair currently flies 109 routes from Stansted, 20 from Luton and just eight from Gatwick. Rival easyJet is Gatwick's biggest airline customer, and the airport is reported to be virtually slot bound (full up) at peak periods, so it is hard to see where this growth will come from.
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg it | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
To book stansted airport hotel or stansted airport car park at the lowest price, click on these links to two great stansted airport car parking and stansted airport hotel price comparison pages.
