Airlines ready for battle on the route to Madrid

Aug 17 2007 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

BUDGET airline Ryanair is going head-to-head with rival easyJet with a new route from Liverpool John Lennon Airport to Madrid.

Ryanair announced yesterday it is to start flights to the Spanish capital three times a week from October 30, operating every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

The firm says its commitment to Liverpool has grown “at an incredible rate”.

In June, the carrier announced a new link to Stockholm, and three weeks ago a further six new routes to Belfast, Budapest, Bydgoszcz, Fuerteventura, Lodz and Tenerife, as well as two returning ski routes to Grenoble and Salzburg.

The Madrid route, part of Ryanair’s expansion at its base there, comes a week after it announced a new link between Liverpool and Valencia, totalling 43 destinations from JLA.

However, last month, it axed three other JLA routes – to Inverness, Aberdeen, and Kuanas in Lithuania – due to lack of demand.

At the time, both airport and airline were philosophical that some routes do not always work out.

The three cancellations had quickly followed the collapse of two of JLAs most high profile routes. In July, its VLM link to London and the beleaguered Flyglobespan link to New York were scrapped within days of each other, although the airport says it is fighting to restore them.

Last night, Vic Brodrick, group commercial director for Peel Airports, said: “For Ryanair to add yet another route from its Liverpool base is fantastic news for JLA and the North West region.

“Madrid is a cosmopolitan capital and like all other Spanish destinations now available from JLA, it will no doubt prove to be extremely popular.”

Elaine Duff, Ryanair's deputy UK marketing manager, added: “With the new Madrid route, we expect to carry an additional 40,000 passengers through Liverpool Airport per annum.”

Rival low-cost carrier easyJet has been operating daily flights to Madrid from JLA since 1999, carrying more than 100,000 passengers on this route in the last 12 months.

However, it is not the first time they have gone head-to-head, as the two firms both run parallel links to the Spanish city of Palma from JLA.

A spokesperson for easyJet said: “The fact that Ryanair has begun flying to Madrid shows there is strong demand for the route and competition is always good for the consumer.”

vickyanderson