"If making the runway longer meant more money for Ryanair, we would stop flying (to Lanzarote)." David O'Brien, commercial director general of the low-cost airline, said this forcefully on Tuesday in Arrecife, regarding the expansion of the Guacimeta runway demanded by local institutions, which has been at the center of the island's political debate again since last week.
O'Brien believes that "if AENA has to extend the runway", they will "charge us more". "A longer runway would certainly bring more traffic to Lanzarote, but at what cost?" the airline's commercial director rhetorically asked. One of the members of Ryanair's commercial team in Spain added immediately that "any expansion affects airport users", given that "AENA is financed by what it charges the companies, not with public money". Therefore, he believes that Ryanair would partially bear the cost of financing a possible expansion of the airport, and O'Brien has stated that, if this happens, "some of the flights" that Ryanair operates on the island "would be compromised."
In this sense, he has been especially critical of the "growing privatization" of AENA. For the company's commercial director, it is negative to "go from a public monopoly to a private monopoly". "The former cheat you slowly, the latter do it efficiently," he said, in a clear criticism of the costs that the company must pay to the public entity. For this reason, he is in favor of airports competing with each other, being able to offer better conditions to airlines.
They hope to open new routes with Lanzarote next winter
During the press conference, which was held on the occasion of the presentation of Lanzarote's flight schedule for this summer, Ryanair announced that it intends to carry out a slight increase in the flight frequencies to East Midlands and Shannon from Guacimeta during the summer. With a total of 28 routes open on the island, the company hopes to "transport 1.25 million passengers this summer 2015" from Lanzarote.
On this issue, O'Brien, who has stressed that the company "has invested more than 500 million euros only in Lanzarote", has assured that the airline began to "sell tickets to Lanzarote for this summer in September 2014, and it is working very well".
On the other hand, Ryanair's commercial director has stated that the company has started operating in 3 new bases in Azores, Bratislava and Copenhagen in 2015. Asked about the possibility of connecting these destinations with the island of Lanzarote, O'Brien has confirmed that they are "in negotiations" and that they hope to "return to Lanzarote to announce new routes in the winter of 2015".