Two Ryanair Press releases:-
No. 1. News Release
22.07.04
RYANAIR ANNOUNCES $240M INVESTMENT IN LUTON BASE
9 NEW EUROPEAN LOW FARE ROUTES WITH 250,000 SEATS FROM JUST £1 !
Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 low fares airline, today (22nd July 2004) announced a major expansion of its London Luton base with an investment of $240 M in 4 new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft and 9 NEW European routes from London Luton to:
BARCELONA (GIRONA) ESBJERG ROME
BARCELONA (REUS) MURCIA STOCKHOLM
DINARD NIMES VENICE
Ryanair, which began services at London Luton in 1986, already operates 14 daily international flights from Luton to Dublin and Milan, and this year will carry 1.6M passengers to/from Luton, saving consumers over £60M on high fares charged by Easyjet. This massive increase in routes, destinations and passenger numbers is also good news for the local economy too, because it will create and sustain over 1000 new jobs in the Luton area
Announcing this expansion of its Luton base today, Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:
"Consumers using London Luton airport now have a real low fares airline offering fares that are half the price of Easyjet, serving 11 destinations throughout Europe and delivering unbeatable punctuality, and that’s Ryanair.
Our message to Easyjet is simple:
Easyjet can’t match Ryanair’s low fares
Easyjet can’t match Ryanair’s punctuality
These new routes, with fares from an incredible £1 (excl. taxes) are available for booking right now, at http://www.ryanair.com, Europe’s biggest travel website.â€
RYANAIR EASYJET
PUNCTUALITY 2003* 81% 68%
AVERAGE FARE** €40 €62
*SOURCE – OFFICIAL CAA STATS FOR 2003
** ANNUAL PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS
No.2
News Release
22.07.04
RYANAIR FILES MONOPOLY ABUSE CASE AGAINST BAA PLC
Ryanair Holdings plc today (22 July 2004) announced that it had filed documents this morning at the High Court in London alleging monopoly abuse of fuel levies by BAA plc, dominant operators of London airports and owners of London Stansted airport.
The BAA at Stansted built a fuel hydrant system in 1991 at an alleged cost of £12.5m. BAA introduced a fuel levy charge, which was designed to recoup this cost. Since then, the BAA has given repeated undertakings in writing that this levy will be eliminated when the capital costs were recovered. BAA have broken these agreements and to date BAA Stansted has, in a 14 year period, recovered over £34m in fuel levies, three times the original cost.
Ryanair has a long history of opposing anti consumer charges by dominant or monopoly airports. If there was competition between the three BAA owned London airports, this fuel levy scam would not exist.
We look forward to the Courts ending this price gouging by a dominant airport operator on both low fare airlines and their passengers.
The company has for the past 12 months sought to negotiate reductions in the fuel levy at London Stansted airport, which has resulted in overcharging for many years.
Commenting on this rip off fuel levy, Howard Millar, Chief Financial Officer of Ryanair said:
“We can no longer allow the BAA to continue to charge £5m per annum in fuel levies to recoup the cost of a fuel hydrant system that was built 14 years ago for £12.5m. The hydrant system has been paid for three times over and accordingly the fuel levy is a rip off overcharge.
Arising from this legal action filed today, we anticipate a substantial reduction in the fuel levy in the order of £4m per annum.
The company’s existing airport charges agreement, which ends in 2007, will not be impacted by this legal action. The company’s payments are current and until the rip off levy has been reduced, we will not agree to any increased charges at London Stansted airport.â€
Intresting news
The question is, if Ryanair lose this case in the high court, will they swap their operations to Luton 
Cheers,
White Cap