Ryanair Launches Brescia-London Route as Bookings Hit 30,000
Ten thousand immediately after the announcement. Twenty thousand just two weeks ago. Now, the number has risen to thirty thousand today, on the day before Ryanair’s debut flight from Montichiari airport to London Stansted scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. This is the approximate number of bookings already collected by the independent Irish airline, which has been operating for 15 years, and has chosen to focus entirely on the Brescia area for its expansion in Northern Italy.
Two flights per day – At full capacity, meaning from Saturday, there will be two flights a day from Brescia to London – except on Saturdays, when there will be only one. One in the morning at 10:30 AM, and the other in the early evening at 7:50 PM. On Saturdays, as mentioned, there is only one departure at 10:30 AM, while on Sundays, the afternoon flight is moved earlier to 3:45 PM.
For the inaugural flights tomorrow and Friday, both departing at 2:35 PM (a schedule that will no longer be available starting July 1st at full capacity), Ryanair confirmed yesterday that 93% of the available seats have already been booked, a record considered highly positive by the company’s executives.
New aircraft and competitive prices
To support the strong commitment to Brescia, Ryanair confirmed that new aircraft will be used on the Montichiari-London route, the Boeing 737-800, with 189 seats available. This means approximately 380 people can be transported to London daily; as many will arrive from the UK capital back to Brescia.
According to the company’s commercial managers, many of these travelers will be British citizens taking advantage of this service to reach the heart of Northern Italy, the most significant industrial districts of the country, as well as holiday destinations like Lake Garda and the nearby mountains.
Prices – A major factor attracting a large number of passengers and exponentially increasing bookings is definitely Ryanair’s low-cost pricing policy across all markets. Just a few figures are enough to illustrate this. The base fare for a round-trip flight from Brescia to London Stansted starts at 99,000 lire, with airport taxes adding up to 64,000 lire in total.
Thus, the cost of the Montichiari-London trip begins at 163,000 lire. 60% of the available seats are sold at this fare, while another 10% are sold at 132,000 lire (which becomes 196,000 including taxes). The remaining 30% are sold according to a pricing scheme that does not significantly alter the final price.
Essentially, early bookers (including via the Internet, www.ryanair.com) will pay the lowest fare, while others will have to settle for a less favorable but still very affordable fare.
Transportation services and connections
A bus from Brescia – Anticipating a high influx of tourists, including those arriving from London, Catullo, which also manages Montichiari airport, is finalizing an agreement for a bus service connecting the Brescia bus station with the airport, timed with departures and arrivals from England. The one-way ticket will cost 7,000 lire, and a round-trip ticket 12,000 lire.
A similar service will be available connecting to Verona.
A train to central London – Stansted Airport is just over an hour from central London, and Ryanair has negotiated a deal with the company operating the rail link to London, offering tickets at half price.
The round-trip ticket, which can be bought directly on the plane, costs 13 pounds, less than 40,000 lire.