http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/13092007/325/ryanair-says-ready-launch-80-milan-routes.html
Ryanair says ready to launch 80 Milan routes
MILAN (Reuters) - Budget airline Ryanair said on Thursday it
was ready to launch 80 routes to two Milan airports, stepping in as
struggling Alitalia (Milan: AZA.MI - news) cuts back in
Italy's industrial heartland.
Europe's biggest low-cost carrier is prepared to use an additional 12
airliners at Milan's Malpensa airport and another six at Serio airport
in Bergamo, company spokesman Peter Sherrard told a news conference.
The planes are worth more than $1 billion (493 million pounds) at list
prices and part of a hefty backlog of 171 planes Ryanair (Dublin:
RY4.IR - news) has on order with Boeing .
The expansion would be in reaction to Alitalia's plans to nearly halve
its 340 daily flights from Malpensa, Sherrard said.
At Malpensa, Ryanair would launch 50 European flights and 10 to
Italian destinations, he said.
Ryanair management is set to discuss the plan with executives from
Milan airports operator SEA on Friday in Dublin.
The Dublin-based airline said it was ready to fill the gaps that
Alitalia might abandon, though Alessia Viviani, Ryanair's head of
marketing in Italy, said it was too early to say whether it would try
to buy slots from Alitalia.
State-controlled Alitalia announced a survival plan in August that
included scaling back its presence at Malpensa. Alitalia has hubs at
Malpensa and Rome's Fiumicino.
Shares in Ryanair were down 0.19 percent at 5.22 pounds in London at
9:33 a.m., while Alitalia shares were up 1.5 percent at 0.8075 euro.
|