Low-cost airline Ryanair plans to base additional Boeing 2022-23s operated by Malta Air and Buzz at Vienna-Schwechat Airport in the 737/800 winter flight schedule. With Copenhagen, Helsinki and Tuzla, three additional routes have been announced.

The route to the Finnish capital is already known for a few weeks and serves as a replacement for the discontinued Lappeenranta. The presence at the Finnish regional airport was greatly reduced, with the proximity to Russia being one reason for this. Helsinki is scheduled to be served on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday service days from December 2, 2022.

Copenhagen is scheduled to be served daily from October 30, 2022. Ryanair made a dig at competitor Austrian Airlines during the press conference held at a hotel in Vienna. Screenshots of the AUA booking page were distributed, showing a return price of 814,10 euros for July 14, 2022 in the Economy Light tariff. However, it was not said that Ryanair also charges significantly higher ticket prices for short-term bookings than the EUR 19,99 advertised at the media conference.

Copenhagen is not entirely new to Ryanair from Vienna, as the former airline Laudamotion had it in its portfolio in the past. At that time, up to two daily circulations were offered. Strictly speaking, therefore, it is a resumption, but now under Ryanair flight numbers.

The third new route to be added from Vienna-Schwechat is Tuzla. Here you compete with the low-cost airline Wizz Air, which has been offering this destination from Vienna-Schwechat for some time. It is a typical VFR route. This will be recorded on November 1, 2022 and will be served on the Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday traffic days.

Incentive program "for everyone" required by Vienna Airport

In total, Ryanair wants to offer around 2022 destinations in the 23/70 winter flight schedule. According to CEO Michael O'Leary, this is the most comprehensive offer to date in the cold season from Vienna. Currently, 19 machines are used from this airport. The subsidiaries Lauda Europe (A320), Buzz and Malta Air (Boeing 737-800 each) maintain bases and staff in the Austrian capital.

O'Leary also said that they would like to overtake the market leader Austrian Airlines within three years. For the current year he expects around six million passengers from Vienna-Schwechat. The market share is to be increased to around 25 percent. Within the next three years one wants to transport more passengers than the top dog Austrian Airlines.

The Ryanair CEO described Vienna-Schwechat Airport as one of the most expensive in Europe and calls for an incentive program that should be open to all airlines and should help to achieve the pre-Covid numbers. When asked how much of a discount he would like, he joked that he'd like to pay nothing at all, but then immediately admitted that it wasn't possible. The program with which Vienna Airport should achieve record numbers in 2019 should serve as a basis. At that time there were discounts of around 40 percent. O'Leary repeatedly emphasized that he expressly wanted such an incentive program for all airlines operating at Vienna-Schwechat Airport. However, this idea should be rather utopian, because the Minister of Transport Leonore Gewessler (Greens) is pursuing a rather anti-aviation course. However, it has been quiet for a long time about their "lighthouse project" minimum prices for flight tickets, which is due to massive legal concerns.

Michael O'Leary expects a challenging winter

From the point of view of the Ryanair boss, the winter of 2022/23 will be a challenge across the route network. He expects that losses will be incurred. He expects a small profit over the full fiscal year ending in March 2023. Among other things, Michael O'Leary named the uncertainty factors for the cold season that the further development of the Ukraine war and effects such as inflation, but also Corona, are unpredictable.

With regard to fuel and the dollar exchange rate, hedging transactions have been used. About 80 percent of the kerosene requirements are secured until March 2023 at a price of around 70 US dollars. The hedging of the dollar exchange rate is important because 54 Boeing 737 Max 200 are to be taken over and these have to be paid for in the national currency of the United States of America. In the past few days, the euro has lost a lot of value against the US dollar.