Ryanair challenges competition with new Brussels base

Irish low-cost pioneer Ryanair upped the ante on its competitors Wednesday, announcing 10 new routes from Brussels’ main airport aimed at tourists and business passengers.

“Ryanair is delighted to announce Brussels Zaventem as our second base in Belgium in addition to Brussels Charleroi,” Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary told a press conference.

Daily flights to Alicante, Barcelona, Ibiza, Lisbon, Malaga, Palma, Porto, Rome, Valencia and Venice “are ideal for business passengers or families … who can also enjoy Ryanair’s recently announced customer service improvements,” O’Leary said.

He stressed that most of the new routes were from a main city airport to main city airport, with fares “half the price” of Brussels Airlines, the largest national operator at Zaventum.

If Brussels Airlines “scrabble around to lower their fares, then we will lower ours’,” he added.

Famous for relentless cost-cutting, Ryanair has up to now operated from Charleroi in Belgium’s southwest to avoid the higher charges at Zaventem airport.

That is in line with a business model based on flying from cheaper secondary airports but the drawback is a long journey and extra cost, which holidaymakers may not mind but business passengers do.

Last week, great rival Easyjet announced much higher earnings, in marked contrast to Ryanair’s recent profit warnings which badly spooked investor confidence.

After the warnings, Ryanair was “forced to concede that their willing portrayal as the sector villain has to be addressed, vowing to cut extraneous fees and improve customer service,” Toby Morris of CMC Markets said at the time.

In the face of intense competition and needing to fill its fast growing fleet of aircraft, Ryanair has softened its aggressive stance, putting a new focus on business traffic and relaxing some of its notoriously tough penalty charges.

“We are actively listening to and responding to our customers,” O’Leary said Wednesday, highlighting some of the changes.

The new flights will begin in February, aiming to carry 1.5 million passengers in the first year, Ryanair said, adding it would create 1,500 jobs at Zaventem.

The move will not affect operations at Charleroi, O’Leary said, where the airline plans to “continue to grow strongly,” with new aircraft from September next year.

On Tuesday, Ryanair announced a major increase in the domestic flights it offers in Italy, including launching a hub at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, and offered to work closely with struggling Alitalia.

Ryanair said it would continue to develop domestic and international flights from Ciampino, the mostly international airport.

O’Leary may have mellowed somewhat but he has not lost all his sting, taking the opportunity Wednesday to have a joke at the expense of his competitors.

“As you know … I’m a peacemaker. I bring peace wherever I go all around Europe,” he said.

“We take a little piece of Spain, a little piece of Italy, a little piece of Germany.

“So we want to peacefully co-exist with our high fares competitors. Frankly they’re very good for our business; they just make us look good.”