Ryanair and easyJet, the big two no-frills airlines, have become increasingly dominant in the UK low-cost flights market, with many smaller players either cutting back or squeezed out entirely. That has led to fears that reduced competition could eventually lead to much higher fares.

So it’s good to hear that Bmibaby, now owned by Lufthansa, has announced seven new holiday destinations as part of its summer 2012 schedule. The additional routes are from Birmingham to Barcelona, Lisbon and Rome (Fiumicino), and from East Midlands to Corfu, Gibraltar, Murcia and Naples.

Bmibaby is increasingly focusing on the Midlands, with the new routes bringing the airline’s tally of destinations served to 31 from East Midlands and 14 from Birmingham. The new flights will start in April 2012.

A similar strategy of regional specialisation has seen healthy growth from Jet2, which concentraties on the North of England. Exeter-based Flybe, on the other hand, has carved out a different niche by using its fleet of smaller planes to serve routes between regional airports with insufficient traffic to fill the larger jets used by the big two.

Irish low cost airline Ryanair plans to increase the number of passengers it flies to the Canary islands from just 300,000 in 2009 to 4.5 million.

In February the airline will open new bases in Lanzarote, Tenerife and Gran Canaria (pictured above), with two aircraft based at each airport during the summer season. Thirty-five new routes will be added, bring the total to 112, and frequencies on existing routes (including Fuerteventura) will be increased.

The move marks the apparent victory of Ryanair in a battle of wills with the Canary Islands regional government; the tough-nosed airline previously withdrew some flights (notably to Fuerteventura) when it was dissatisfied with the landing charges and marketing support on offer.

It seems the tourism-dependent islands have now accepted that they need Ryanair more than the airline needs them. Airport charges in the islands have been reduced and a Regional Marketing Fund to support continued air traffic growth, will operate from 2013-2015.

Ryanair says the expansion reflects an investment of £400 million, though whether all of this comes from the airline isn’t clear. It also claims the move will sustain over 4,500 local jobs including 350 Ryanair pilots, cabin crew and engineers. Again, the exact nature of the claim is opaque as sustain isn’t the same as create.

The new routes “will be phased in from February 2011 to deliver more low fares and high spending visitors to Fuerteventura and our new bases in Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Tenerife,” said Ryanair’s Michael Cawley. He paid tribute to the “visionary initiatives of the Canary Islands Government who, in recent years, have identified low fare access as being critical, and have worked with Ryanair to reduce airport costs in order to return tourism to its previous 2007 record levels.”

Most of the new routes are to destinations in mainland Europe, but three are from Britain. Birmingham gets a new flight to Fuerteventura; Leeds Bradford connects with Lanzarote and Doncaster to Tenerife. New Irish routes are Shannon-Fuerteventura, Cork to Gran Canaria and Tenerife, and Knock to Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Tenerife.

Ryanair has stopped all flights from Bournemouth during the winter months of November, December and January, blaming the government’s £11 air passenger duty (APD).

Ryanair says its decision to suspend winter flights from Bournemouth will be reviewed next summer when, based on market conditions and UK APD costs, it may return to a 12 month base operation at the airport.

However, the airline has launched four new routes from London Stansted, to Faro and Porto in Portugal and to Bologna and Milan Bergamo in Italy. The flights start on 31 October.

BMI Baby flight from Manchester to Malaga. Photo by Terry Wha

The drastic downsizing of low cost airline bmibaby shows the fierce competition smaller operators are facing from the big two of the no-frills airline world, Ryanair and Easyjet.

The bmibaby fleet will be cut from 17 to 12 planes, leading to the likely loss of around 160 pilots and cabin crew based at Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester. Management and support staff jobs are also at risk.

Bmibaby has blamed the recession for its problems, but it looks as if new owner Lufthansa has decided bmibaby cannot compete head on with the big two, who have been muscling in on previously profitable holiday routes like Alicante and Málaga. Instead, it will focus on less competitive routes with growth potential.

The move is the latest step in a long process of consolidation amongst budget airlines. Players that have fallen by the wayside include early front runners Go (set up by BA and later sold to Easyjet) and KLM subsidiary Buzz (sold to Ryanair). MyTravelLite stopped independent operations in 2005 and Thomsonfly has effectively given up scheduled flights. The two remaining significant UK-based operators are Flybe and Jet2. Both have tried to develop as regional airlines avoiding direct competition, but that strategy is likely to come under increasing pressure as the big two add ever more routes. Monarch also offers scheduled services on some holiday routes.

Charter airlines are also suffering, as flight-only passengers increasingly prefer the lower costs and greater flexibility of budget airlines. In October, the number of charter airline passengers passing through BAA’s seven UK airports fell by 12.4 per cent compared with a year earlier (scheduled traffic rose by 1.1 per cent), while Manchester airport saw a 12.7 per cent fall in charter passengers.

RyanAir will abolish its physical check-in desks by the
end of 2009, BBC News reports… It’s a logical progression. Checking in to the airport online already makes sense, and saves travellers money (the online check-in is free, whereas there’s a charge if you just turn up on the day and check in at a physical desk…)