You may recall that LBA said fairly recently that at the present time, the focus is on increased operations by existing carriers such as Jet2 and Ryanair. There seemed to be an unspoken acceptance that the current situation and impact on aviation, together with UK passenger tax, means attracting new carriers is going to be difficult in the short term at least, but there is clear growth potential with existing carriers through the addition of more based aircraft, more routes, additional frequency, and larger capacity aircraft. We have already seen an additional 5 or 6 routes next year by Jet2 although the question is, will other routes such as to Turkey see cuts? We have already got a 9.5% increase in Ryanair capacity this year, and despite the loss of Sun Express, passenger throughput this year is expected to increase to just short of 5m, another record. And that is despite half the terminal being a building site.
I know it isn't what any of us want. Eggs in too few baskets etc. But the industry in the UK isn't too clever right now, with airlines concentrating on their bases to minimise costs, and airlines such as Wizz questioning if the UK market is even where they want to be - so it could get worse before it gets better.
The fact is though, that the industry is always impacted by what is going on in the world and has ups and downs all the time. We are currently heading into a 'down' but at least when things improve again, LBA will be in a better position to benefit and maybe attract more business. In the meantime, we will need to rely on growing what we have already and hope for maybe the odd additional airline. Let’s hope the influence of AENA makes a difference, particularly with Spanish carriers such as Vueling or Iberia Express. Time will tell.
