Spring has not even arrived yet, it begins on Monday, but Scottish travellers and Majorca homeowners have already been hit with an unexpected blow. Ryanair announced this week that it is going to cancel its direct flights from Edinburgh to Palma this winter from 26 October; people who have already booked flights will be reimbursed.
This will mean that there will be no direct flights from Scotland to Majorca this coming winter.
What will come as another bitter pill to swallow is that Ryanair have also announced a winter programme to include two new Aberdeen routes to Alicante and Malaga, three new Glasgow routes to Krakow, Madrid and Frankfurt, 13 new Edinburgh routes to Budapest, Baden-Baden, Carcassonne, Hamburg, Eindhoven, Katowice, Nantes, Prague, Szczecin, Toulouse, Treviso, Valencia and Wroclaw - but nothing to Majorca. The low-cost carrier did operate a winter schedule this winter but it would appear that the service was not financially viable.
The only Ryanair flight to Majorca will be from Stansted- no Edinburgh nor Manchester winter flights this year - which will mean catching connecting flights.
But it is not just the Scots who are facing problems. Monarch, for the first time in years, will not be operating winter flights from Manchester to Palma. Regular users of the flight have already begun contacting the Bulletin to raise the issue and complain.
16 comments
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We used Birmingham last winter as there were three flights a week to Mallorca, just checked their schedule and nothing is showing for Mallorca flights for this coming winter !! Looks like we'll all be off to the worst airport ever, Stanstead
Most people are under the impression that it is not profitable to fly ! With the cost of keeping an aircraft on the ground as opposed to being in the air it is only sensible to keep it flying the costs involved in mothballing an aircraft for the winter doesn't bare thinking about ? With the amount of aircraft they have you wouldn't have enough winter passengers to put them on other routes , there is more to this tan they are letting on ?
Maybe the flights dont make money because the tight fisted Scots dont buy any food or drink on the plane. Ive been on a flight from Glasgow, they all bring their home made sandwiches. No one hss factored this into the profitability argument!
I have flights booked into Palma from Manchester next December and January 2018 so confused by your report. The flights this winter have all been full and well used so can't really see why Ryanair would want to stop the flights!
You have to assume that the airlines see it as unprofitable. With winter return flights for as little as £30, and only flying 3 days a week you can see why. We need the hotels to be open to increase the demand, end of story I think.
Well, evidence seems to be that EDI service was well used. If it was unprofitable, why. Ryanair set the fare levels. Is it a case that Mr O'Leary isn't getting the cheaper winter landing slots he wantef at Palma?
Steve there's nothing wrong with northerners, honest friendly and perhaps the bit you dont like is they know the value of a pound regardless of their wealth. if you get ripped off in Mallorca you can bet they have a certain accent
I flew from Edinburgh to Mallorca in December and the flight was full but most people had paid about £30 return so I dont think it was profitable for ryanair. Maybe if they had chosen Newcastle to fly out to Mallorca in the winter they would have had a larger catchment area.
Peculiar that there is more demand seen for flights to Carcassonne ,Nantes and Toulouse from Edinburgh non of which are a million miles apart.is it more to do with Palma airport?
We flew in November, December, January and February to Palma from Edinburgh and each flight was full!