A changing scenario in Italy
It seems there is no stopping Ryanair which is aiming for 60 million passengers in Italy. The airline is having to adjust its pawns on a chessboard inevitably influenced by delays in Boeing deliveries and by changed market scenarios, from the ITA Airways-Lufthansa agreement to the closure of easyJet’s base in Venice.
“We aim to transport 4.5 million passengers at Malpensa”
For the coming winter, the low-cost airline has therefore decided to transfer “four of the 24 aircraft based in Milan Bergamo, with a consequent 5% cut in the 20 million seats offered and five routes, to airports with lower costs and where greater growth potential is expected,” said the group's CEO Michael O'Leary. “Malpensa will therefore receive its eighth based aircraft and we will add ten new routes, for a total of 42, with the aim of transporting 4.5 million passengers (+7%).” The new entries to Malpensa will take off from Athens, Budapest, Paris, Fuerteventura, Krakow, Majorca, Marrakech, Reggio Calabria, Rzeszow and Tallinn with the “new spaces and potential opening-up linked to the finalization of the ITA-Lufthansa agreement.”
10 new Boeing 737 Max aircraft by end 2024
Globally, the low-cost airline expects to transport 200 million passengers this year, +35% compared to 2019 and +8% compared to last year, said O'Leary, who reiterated how forecasts have improved, with fares “still falling, although less than initially expected.” This sore point is confirmed by the delays in aircraft deliveries by Boeing, “which are weighing on our growth, and the strike announcement will lead to a further delay.” By the end of the year the carrier expects to receive 10 new Boeing 737 Max aircraft.
More growth at Venice Marco Polo Airport
Ryanair is also interested in Venice, where easyJet recently announced the closure of its base. “In Veneto we have a base in Treviso and one in Venice: we were already negotiating with Marco Polo for further development and, after easyJet's announcement, these talks have accelerated. I am reasonably optimistic about our growth in Venice from April 2025, even if, once again, everything is subject to the arrival of new aircraft.”
