Ryanair routes to Alicante

Ryanair has announced four new routes from Alicante

Ryanair has announced that it will be operating four new routes from El Altet airport in Alicante starting in the summer. The new routes from Alicante will be to Bristol (UK), Derry and Knock (Ireland) and Breslavia (Poland). The Irish lowcost airline also announced the incorporation of a new plane in its base in the airport which will continue with a total of three Boeing 737-800NG.

The flights to Bristol will operate on a daily basis and there will be two flights to Derry Knock and Breslavia every week.

Luis Fernández-Mellado, who is in charge of Marketing and Sales for Ryanair in Spain said that figures for passengers travelling to and from El Altet airport in Alicante had increased considerably thanks to Ryanair. With this new announcement Ryanair will operate a total of 32 routes from Alicante. He said that the new routes together with current routes to London Gatwick, Palma de Mallorca and Madrid show the commitment that Ryanair has to El Altet airport and mean that it will carry around 200,000 passengers to and from Alicante annually.

According to Fernández-Mellado, Ryanair intends to improve passenger figures for 2008 and continue increasing its routes to Alicante offering the lowest fares. He also said that the addition of another aircraft to the company’s base in Alicante would mean that the number of its permanent staff in Alicante would go up.
Fernández-Mellado said that Ryanair’s commitment to Alicante was very positive for the whole region and would help promote it as a top tourist destination.

Ryanair has decided to celebrate the opening of new routes by offering 1 million tickets for just 1 euro each. Tickets can be reserved until midnight on 19th January 2009 and are for travel between 27th January and 12th March. Tickets cannot be bought for travel between 12th and 23rd February to or from the UK or Ireland. Tickets must also be bought at least 14 days in advance and are subject to availability.

Ministry of Transport to investigate Iberia's treatment of passangers

Ministry of Transport to take action against Iberia for its treatment of passengers
The Ministry of Transport has announced that it intends to carry out an investigation into how far Iberia had fulfilled its commitments under the law to passengers. After three days of chaos with thousands of passengers affected, cancellations and delays to flights operated by Iberia look set to continue.

The Minister for Transport, Magdalena Álvarez, announced the measure yesterday during a press conference in Madrid-Barajas airport. She said that Iberia’s behaviour towards it passengers had been inexcusable referring to three flights to Buenos Aires, Lima and Montevideo. On these flights passengers had already boarded the plane when they were informed by the pilot that he had gone over the permitted time for flying and were forced to get off again.

Yesterday the company cancelled 56 flights and the rest of its flights were subject to delays.

A spokesperson for Iberia said that the company would provide all the information required and insisted that it had kept the Ministry of Transport fully informed at all times.

When action is taken against a company the first step is to ask for information on the situation followed by justification of its actions. The next step is to decide on sanctions if it is found to have acted incorrectly. According to the law on air safety the fine for a serious breach of the law is between 450,000 and 4.5 million euros.

Delays in Iberia flights

Iberia cancels 41 flights and accumulates delays in 62% of its operations

A spokesperson for Iberia said that Iberia cancelled 41 flights and accumulated delays to 62% of its flights yesterday. Furthermore, the company admitted that these figures could rise even further.

Most of the flights affected were either to or from Madrid-Barajas airport although Barcelona-El Prat, Bilbao, Vigo, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and La Coruña airports were also affected. Flights to London, Brussels, Paris and Lisbon were subject to cancellations.

In order to alleviate the effects of these cancellations Iberia contracted flights from other companies that operate between London and Madrid, Madrid and Brussels and Madrid and Las Palmas.

One of the worst delays was to a flight between Madrid and Buenos Aires, which at 18.00 hours yesterday afternoon registered a delay of 13 hours.

Since the beginning of last month Iberia has accumulated 600 cancellations and more than 6000 delays to flights which has affected more than a million passengers and has caused serious economic losses to the airline which had to pay for hotel accommodation, meals and transfers.

Iberia has repeated on various occasions that alterations to flights are due to a strike by the trade union Sepla. The strike coincides with the breakdown of negotiations for the renewal of the collective agreement governing pilots although this Selpa says that the situation has been caused by lack of personnel.
Iberia has taken action against 41 pilots which have supported the strike which could result in them being suspended, having their pay suspended and even being sacked.

Despite two meetings between Iberia and Sepla this week no agreement between the two sides has been reached. Another meeting is planned for today in order to try and break the deadlock in negotiations.