RyanAir to Valencia: “Suck it!”
Written by mpowellValencia has called RyanAir’s bluff and, as a result, the World’s Most Obnoxious Airline* is closing its base in the city. 70 weekly flights will be cut, and thousands of penny-pinching tourists will no longer make a trip to the most beautiful city in Southern Spain.
It seems pretty clear that RyanAir has been trying to leverage its popularity in order to demand favorable airport rates. When Valencia’s city council refused to be bullied, RyanAir pulled out. Of course, most media reports seem to come straight off RyanAir press releases, faulting the city for refusing “to engage in constructive discussions”. Sure. Constructive for whom, exactly?!
RyanAir, as everyone knows, is a company that does anything for profit, and whose business practices have long raised eyebrows. They were fine with the city’s airport rates, until having built enough of a profile to demand special privilege. Good on Valencia for not caving.
We really do love low-cost carriers, and RyanAir’s existence has probably made the world a better place, overall. But that doesn’t excuse the airline’s aggressiveness towards cities and its passengers. Check-in fees, luggage allowances, on-board lottery pushes, “city” airports that are an hour outside the city (“Frankfurt”-Hahn?! “Hamburg”-Lubeck?! Ha!), free-for-all seat grabbing… it may be cheap (if you’re careful!), but adds up to the most obnoxious way to travel.
So fine. RyanAir doesn’t fly from Valencia anymore, and if we want a weekend away, we’ll have to shell out a bit more. But you know what? It feels like a blessing.
*Not an official title
Check out other airlines in our previous post about Valencia’s Aiport. Hey Vueling! You’re looking a lot better all of a sudden!
(disclaimer: Our opinion on this is conjecture, so if you have extra information, please comment. In our short time here, we’ve come to love Valencia, and feel the need to defend it. And, a lot of our vitriol toward RyanAir probably stems from the extended time we spent in Ireland.)
Valencia
20°
AJS wrote,
Say what you really think Mike.
Ryan Air is annoying and dehumanizing but the loss of those flights is going to hurt. Of course they are doing it in a down time for tourism anyway, but I have already seen a big drop off in business compared to last November and it is only going to get worse with the economic situation.
Aside from big events the main tourist activity in Valencia city are short trips in the spring and fall. Pricing is key, these are the definition of discretionary spending, without Ryanair there will be many less visitors and Valencia will hurt.
I have heard rumors Air Berlin will take up the gates. Hope that is true
Link | October 26th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Jeremy wrote,
I think you will find that ryanair are still flying to valencia from all its original airports starting 29th March 2009 and have a couple of new routes too. Yes i agree the winter trade would be nice but, as i thought ryanair would never give up the money it gets from 750000 passengers it brought to Valencia this year and I suspect it was just a puplicity stunt to make more people aware of Valencia city to boost the people traveling with them as they have already said they expect 1.5 million to travel with them to valencia next year, so they had to get some adverts out somehow and worldwide news converage for free is typical ryanair.
P.s Mike Valencia is on the east coast and is not southern spain when i looked on the map last haha
Link | November 3rd, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Fly Valencia to NYC Direct with Delta | Hola Valencia Blog wrote,
[...] is great news for the region and the airport, especially after the pullout of Ryan Air. Although Delta isn’t our favorite airline, they are one of the cheaper American companies, [...]
Link | November 12th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
boby wrote,
Go to Alicante. RyanAir is building a new terminal there.
Link | November 23rd, 2008 at 1:17 pm