In message , at 10:54:24 on Thu, 4 Feb 2021,
Recliner remarked:
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 08:26:10 on Thu, 4 Feb 2021,
Recliner remarked:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...lans-axe-domes
tic-routes/

Ryanair's spat with the Civil Aviation Authority escalated on Wednesday
night as plans emerged to axe all domestic routes and all services from
Britain to non-EU countries.

The budget carrier will only operate out of London Stansted airport and
will cull 13 routes to Morocco, Ukraine, Montenegro, and Norway.

A row erupted in December between Ryanair and the CAA over pre-Brexit rule
changes. At the centre of the dispute is Ryanair’s use of so-called
“wet-leasing�, where airlines hire aircraft and crew to operate
services on
their behalf.

Ryanair only has one UK-registered aircraft. The CAA wanted less than half
of Ryanair’s UK services to be run by “wet leased� aircraft.

Ryanair is believed to have planned to increase its number of UK registered
aircraft to three by April 2021 and offered a pool of aircraft under a
“white list� approach. This was rejected by the CAA on Jan 22,
according to
industry sources.

Ryanair and CAA did not comment on Wednesday night.

The CAA’s Paul Smith said at the time: “A UK airline with a significant
presence in the UK, should not rely heavily on using wet-leased,
foreign-registered aircraft.�

Is the wet-leasing something to do with delays in delivery of 737Max, of
which they've reportedly got 210 on order?

I suspect FR-UK is wet-leasing 738s from FR-Ireland. The CAA wants at least
half of FR-UK's non-EU flights to be on UK-registered planes. I don't think
it's anything to do with 737 MAX delays, as FR has plenty of 738s, more
than enough to meet current demand.

It's all a bit opaque to the traveller, who might assume that the only
airport "Ryanair" is operating from in the UK is Stansted.

But yes, Ryanair-Ireland is flying from Dublin to all their traditional
destinations in the UK on at least some days of the week, some months in
their schedule.

Meanwhile, is this actually a symptom of a rift in the Open Skies
arrangements, because what they are left with is *all* flights having at
least one end in the EU, and no 3rd-country to 3rd-country flights?

I'm not sure that EU airlines are still free to fly from the UK to non-EU
countries.

Yes, that's a possible candidate for the 'rift' (being 3rd-country to
3rd-country).

Of course, an Irish airline is still able to fly from the UK to
any of the 27 EU countries.

But how does one know when booking at Ryanair.com, which airline that
is?

[Ryanair's website is still offering flights to the listed countries,
though, eg Oslo £14.99 in October; but nothing internal - I must have
missed them scrapping those]

Maybe they were suspended due to lack of demand during the lockdown?

Probably, as are many of the Dublin-UK routes very patchy.
--
Roland Perry