Following on from the cancellation of all UK Ryanair services from Granada last year along with the daily Granada-Madrid flight, with effect from 22nd May the surviving Bologna service is pulled and from the 29th May the Milan service also terminates resulting in M.O'Ls complete abandonment of Granada.
I don't believe for one minute that he ever got the load factors he was hoping for on the Italian services; he has systematically reduced them from a daily to a once weekly service. I believe his intention was to just to make damn certain no-one else moved in to interfere with his monopoly.
I'll glad to see the back of this vaquero, he has effectively stripped the guts out of the market here by keeping the opposition out.
A very good airport will be reduced to just 4 return flights a day to Madrid, 3 to Barcelona and one to Palma Mallorca.
Bloody typical given that as a result of the arrival of many Brits in the area since 2006, many of whom relied upon the lo-co's, the airport doubled the car parking availabilty.
I would like to think that following his departure, maybe Easyjet or Flybe would consider Granada as a viable destination; cant see it happening though. I don't agree with the business ethics of Ryan or Easyjet but Flybe covering Manchester to Southampton to Granada could be a 'good little earner' if flown maybe three times a week. It would be of great benefit to us 'Inlanders' and in covering both Manchester and Southampton would provide a a good link for folks in the Northwest and a viable alternative for people living south of the Thames instead of Gatwick and Malaga.
Despite the new facilities at Malaga it is still a cattle-market just as Gatwick has been since the mid eighties... at the moment for eleven months of the year we have Southampton to Malaga which goes someway towards our ideal but it still involves driving that god-awful stretch from Malaga Airport to the point at which the A45 swings inland.
We can but dream I suppose.
fb