Ryanair Adds Services at Gatwick Airport After easyJet Boardroom Discontent

On Tuesday, Ryanair capitalized on the easyJet boardroom bust-up as they announced that they were adding two new routes from the Gatwick Airport. Michael O’Leary, the Chief Executive of Ryanair, was anticipated to announce a new route to Alicante twice a day, along with a Barcelona-Girona daily service.

The services are the first two for Ryanair from the Gatwick Airport, which is where easyJet has based 35 of their aircrafts, that are outside of their three Ireland routes, Shannon, Dublin, and Cork. Ryanair will begin the service on December 18^th, and those will give the carrier 5 routes from the Gatwick Airport. Ryanair also announced that they will be giving out 500,000 free flights for European travel from December to February.

O’Learly, who is to host a press conference in London as a spoiler to the full-year results from easyJet, is expected to portray these new services as an increase of competitive heat, right when the board of easyJet is split up by a brawl over strategy. He said that they are happy to be announcing the two new routes from the Gatwick Airport in London. Next year, the airline will bring their lowest prices guaranteed, with no surcharges on fuel to their 65 million passengers, he added.

In more news from easyJet, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the airline’s founder, has refused to sign off the carrier’s annual accounts. One of his criticisms of the accounting policies of the board centers around the decision from the other directors to regard the airline as a single money generating unit instead of a series of companies, like Ryanair does.

Go to www.ryanair.com for more information about the airline.