Ryanair - no more Santiago to Liverpool

[sillydoll]

It would appear that RyanAir are going to suspend their Liverpool to Santiago de Compostela flight schedule indefinitely.
Since opening this route RyanAir have “rested” the schedule over winter (i.e. October to April), but it would appear that they have no current plans to start it up again in 2009.

 

[Red Kite]

Now that really is bad news...I'm gonna have to look at my options for getting home next year. Phooey. :cry:

 

[Peter Robins]

according to whom? I did see some speculation on this in the Galician press a couple of weeks ago, but then they said the same last year. It's still listed on Ryanair's website.

 

[sillydoll]

Peter - I read about it on a blog: http://noia-galicia-spain.blogspot.com/ ... go-de.html
Then I went onto the Ryaniar website and tried to book a flight from Santiago in December returning February. It came up with a no flights on that day result or the next, and the next.
I clicked on:
The route selected has not yet commenced operation, please click here to view our new route start dates http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/newroutes.php and found that were no routes to Santiago from Liverpool or vice versa.

Perhaps the original source was incorrect?

 

[Peter Robins]

there are no winter flights; they also cut the Stansted frequency over the winter, replacing them with flights to ski resorts and the like (Lourdes counts as a ski resort for Ryanair). That's not to say that Ryanair won't cut this service - they quickly chop routes if they're not worthwhile - but I've seen nothing from Ryanair to say it won't start up again in April/Eastertime.

 

[sillydoll]

The doubt persists - this from:
http://www.anna.aero/2008/11/21/new-rou ... -november/

Ryanair started five new routes this week. Despite grounding many of its London Stansted (STN) based aircraft over the winter period it is still starting a new twice-weekly service to Agadir (AGA), a destination previously only served by Ryanair from Marseille. The remaining new routes are all from Madrid (MAD) where four domestic services have been started to Alicante (ALC), Palma de Mallorca (PMI), Santiago de Compostela (SCQ) and Valencia (VLC). All of these routes will be served twice daily, yes daily. Competition on these routes will come from Air Berlin (Palma), Air Europa (Palma), Iberia (all routes) and Spanair (all routes). This brings to 18 the number of destinations served by Ryanair from the busiest airport on its network. Routes to Billund, East Midlands, Gothenburg, Liverpool and Oslo Torp that operated from Madrid during the summer are not on sale for the winter period. Whether they have been dropped or will re-appear as seasonal summer-only routes remains unclear at present.

 

[Peter Robins]

it's now disappeared from Ryanair's website. We will have to see whether it reappears for the summer or not. They may well be waiting to see what happens in the wider economy to decide how many routes to restart/axe.

 

[nidarosa]

Hi, it looks as if I should have paid more attention - I was going to get a flight home from Santiago and straight to Liverpool after my Camino Portugues in March, which I thought would be so easy I didn't even check for tickets! Poo ... My second choice was to go back to Porto by train and fly home from there, but those flights only start on the 29th, a bit late for me. There are no flights from Madrid to Liverpool either yet! At the moment it looks as if I am going to have to get the train to Lisbon and go from there or fly to Stansted and get the train home. Unless anyone has heard or thought of some cheap and cheerful Santiago-Liverpool/Manchester route I haven't? I really need to get home as cheaply as possible, and would rather spend time than cash getting there. (Don't we all ...)

Grateful for any tips,
LM

 

[Peter Robins]

Chester, eh?

easyJet fly daily Madrid-LPL, or you could try Ryanair Porto-Birmingham - BHX is easy to access by train.

 

[nidarosa]

Chester indeed - snap!

Cheers for that, Peter! I think I had a look at Ryanair flights from Porto, and it's only twice a week, so maybe the best thing would be to get the train to Madrid with my walking buddy and fly home from there if there are flights every day. Not sure when we'll get to Santiago yet - it takes the time it takes and then it looks like it'll take the time it takes to get home as well ... :wink:

Can I get a credencial from Chester, by the way?

All the best,
LM