Zero Flights on Christmas Day

BALI, BTNp: THE PAN– European ultra-low-cost carrier Ryanair is usually the world’s fifth-largest airline by flights. Yet, as is traditional, there are zero flights planned for Christmas Day.

Adapted from Simpleflying.com, Wizz Air has 495 movements (take-offs and landings) touching Europe (-38% versus the previous week), while easyJet has 542 (-57%). Along with cuts by many other operators, it is unsurprising that Europe has the most significant drop in services on Christmas Day.

Ryanair on Christmas Eve

Analysis of the ULCC’s full schedule using Cirium shows that it plans 1,674 movements on Sunday, December 24th. All are within Europe and between Europe and North Africa. No Europe-Middle East service is planned that day.

Source: Cirium. Figure: James Pearson

With 1,674 movements, Ryanair is the world’s eighth-largest operator on the 24th. However, services have fallen by about 40% compared to the prior Sunday, showing how much it gears up for the festive day.

Interestingly, Cirium shows that movements are up by 13% versus Christmas Eve 2019, the last before everything temporarily changed. It also reflects its big growth since then. But more tellingly, they have risen by just 1% versus last year amid the pandemic. Falling on different days of the week partly explains this.

December 26th

Ryanair is back in the air on Tuesday, the 26th. Scheduled 793 routes and 2,021 movements. Flights are more than a fifth lower than the prior week (-22%) but quickly ramp up again.

The day will begin with three departures at 05:45: London Luton to Malaga; Katowice to Athens; and Sofia to Birmingham. The 26th will end with two services leaving at 23:50: Brindisi to Rome Fiumicino and Sofia to Nuremberg.

While Ryanair will still be ‘only’ the world’s eighth-largest carrier on December 26th, it will return to being number five on the 27th. As you would expect, all flights will then be fully operational, marking the end of the Christmas festivities. *BTNewspaper