Massive Ryanair expansion at Hahn

Ryanair is saying they are going to invest 1 billion euros in Frankfurt Hahn with 18 aircraft 50 new routes and a new terminal. The airport is in the middle of nowhere! wheres the workforce/ passengers going to come from? Frankfurt main is having a new runway and terminal built which will take it to 80 million passengers a year by 2015 ( Heathrow is now 60 million and Atlanta the worlds busiest airport is at 80 million now!) Things are going to get noisey round Frankie!

http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/news.php?yr...y=gen-en-111105

Theyd better invest in a high-speed rail connection as well then. Hahn is currently a good hour or more from FFM or so I hear.

There is an article on Frankfurt Hahn in my other half's "Airport Monthly" magazine (or whatever it is called). Apparently they are building rail links to Hahn from Frankfurt.

However, I also read that Air Berlin are going to start flying from Frankfurt to Stansted, which would be great for me, as I have to fly to Stansted when I go to the UK but at the moment, my nearest airport for this is Hahn.

Oops - typed my reply before I read rick de's post!

Ryanair only flies to airports in the middle of nowhere - it seems to be company policy.

of course it is company policy.
If they flew to proper airports they'd have to pay more airport tax (or whatever it's called) and would therefore have to charge their customers more.

A waste of time and money... it costs much more to get to the airports and back, than to fly! Add the total costs of buses, trains or hire cars to the flight, and quite often you find it's easier to pay a few Euros more to go from a decent airport, than to waste half a day travelling to and from airports in the sticks.

Ryan Air flies from the middle of nowhere, over an hour's drive from Hamburg (they even have the cheek to call it Hamburg), to the middle of nowhere on a difficult side of London. It used to annoy me a great deal, until German Wings did the right thing and started flying from Hamburg to Gatwick!!! Now it's possible to get back home for visits without problems. The next visit costed me EUR 0.00, as mentioned in an earlier post!

They are supposedly building a rail link to Hahn which will make a great difference. I don't know if any of you have flown out of there but for a pretty small airport, the 6 car parks are mostly full and the terminal is always packed. I don't use them anymore because of their ridiculous luggage allowance policy. 15 kilos fo a week away is ridiculous and it is much more strictly enforced by the German Ryanair check in staff. At Stansted I have been 10 kilos over and they don't bat an eyelid. 200 grammes over, and the Germans are getting excited at having caught another one with excess baggage and that will be 4 Euros per kilo thank you!!!

Most of the cabin crew at Ryanair pay for their own training, and then work for ridiculously low salaries of about 400 Euros a month. They tend to recruit in Eastern Europe because the salary is high for those areas. Check into their recruitment pages, it is quite laughable that you will apply for a job, pay for the training and your accommodation while doing so, yourself and then still not be guaranteed a job at the end of it, you go onto a roster and if they need staff, they'll call you. Still Ryanair have made millions so who am I to judge??

I have done it in just over an hour on a good run!!

I used to use Ryanair quite a lot but to be honest I have stopped as I find them no cheaper for me. By the time I have driven and parked in Hahn and got myself from Stanstead to Wales I am much better off just going with BA to Heathrow or Bristol. I have heard rumours that Ryanir are opening a route from Hahn to Cardiff. If they do this I might start using them again as Cardiff airport is just around the corner from home!!

I have a million stories I could tell on their 'policies' all scams to get more money out of you so I avoid them unless it really is considerably cheaper!!

If they were to do that, it'd be great for me too!

Currently? Are they intending to move it? How far away will it be in the future?

Was in Düsseldorf "Nieder Hein" yesterday .. that is currently about 35 mins from Düsseldorf. Should have seen the look on some peoples faces when they realise how inthe sticks it really is!!

I've heard of people missing their plane because they thought the airport was Düsseldorf International Airport and Weeze is not just round the corner from there...

I can never understand people who feel that the 15kilo weight limit with Ryanair is not enough. I just travelled halfway around the world and had a month in OZ and my case weighed 14.8kilo and I still took things with me I didn´t wear. I can´t stand lugging a heavy suicase on and off trains, planes etc. I travel as light as possible.

Me too! I will never understand why people take so much stuff on holiday! I just plan what I am going to wear every day and pack just that! It is half of the fun of the holiday!

Must admit though when I go home for Christmas my bag weighs usually 10kg but when I come back I am always closer to 20! I guess it is the yearly supply of marmite I stash in there

english lesson wanted or is it physics/maths? Whatever?

Is it BUZZ that dropped luggage restrictions last year?

I also had problems with Ryan Air in Stansted. I was over the luggage weight (20Kg) and they charged much more than the flight had cost! I'd been given birthday presents and that had upped the weight.

When I went to Toulouse, I used a Ryan Air airport about an hours drive away. I was overweight by a couple of Kilos and I had no credit card with me. I had cash and offered to pay, but they refused and told me I could not take my flight! After creating merry hell in the airport, they eventually gave in and let me on board without having to pay the extra luggage fee, but only 5 minutes before I was supposed to board the plane. The girl in charge was very rude and really bitchy.

Even better, a man who had been in front of me in the queue in Ryan Air's Lübeck airport, discovered on board the plane that he had forgotten to take his large red penknife out of his rucksack. It got through all security checks! He kept quiet about it!

Penknife: Thats happend to me once before, When I noticed it in the plane, I nearly had a heart attack !!

Easyjet no longer have a weight restriction on hand luggage. As long as the bag is the normal cabin luggage size and you can lift it into the overhead luggage compartment unaided.

I used to pack loads in my rucksack (laptop, cameras etc), smile nicely and pretend it was not heavy. They often weighed just the case I had with me. Sadly they cottened on to that one!

AFAIK, A Laptop does not count as Luggage. A Lady is allowed to take a Handbag aswell as a Cabin bag. I have never had any trouble before. And I always seem to get away with "Heavy" bags. A nice smile has always worked wonders for me !! Never had to pay extra at all.

QUOTE I've heard of people missing their plane because they thought the airport was Düsseldorf International Airport and Weeze is not just round the corner from there...

Believe it or not, I once nearly missed a Berlin -> Frankfurt flight because I went to Tempelhof instead of Tegel. Not so difficult to do - it was a return ticket and oddly enough the return leg started from the other airport, I had forgotten that, easy to do.

QUOTE Most of the cabin crew at Ryanair pay for their own training, and then work for ridiculously low salaries of about 400 Euros a month. They tend to recruit in Eastern Europe because the salary is high for those areas. Check into their recruitment pages, it is quite laughable that you will apply for a job, pay for the training and your accommodation while doing so, yourself and then still not be guaranteed a job at the end of it, you go onto a roster and if they need staff, they'll call you. Still Ryanair have made millions so who am I to judge??

Thats appalling and of course explains why their fares are so low, that and the secondary airport locations they only fly between.

I also dont like the idea of the no-reservation free for all grab a seat as you board that they are said to use, sounds too much like the average german bus to me!

went with easyjet once from Amsterdam to Liverpool. I got a plastic boarding pass thing with a number. The earlier you came the earlier you could go on the plane and grab a seat. The boarding went much faster than with the seat reservations.

That boarding with the earlier number dosen't really work though - when the lower numbers are called everyone queues up just the same, & the numbers aren't checked

ON the plane. Ppl dont block the aisles looking for their row and seat number but just sit down on their bums

But they do block the aisles, while taking coats off to place in overhead baggage
bins or they take their bags down to find a book/magazine while a load of people are standing around waiting to find seats.
Another thing with the carriers who do not offer seat assignment is that the first to check are the first to get on doesn´t work at airports where you have to be bussed out to the plane. They call numbers 1-30, plus families with children, oaps etc., first, which means they get to board the bus first so the last on the bus get on to the plane first and get the pick of the seats.
I travel on a regular basis from Munich to Stansted with Easyjet. I wait till almost the last minute to get on the bus, I stand near the door get on the front of the plane and as I only have hand luggage i´m on my way within minutes of landing.

Ryanair is scum. There, I've said it and I feel better. I will avoid it at all costs. They don't feel they have any responsibilty to the customer and the "service" reflects that.
They charge disabled people for help to the plane. Truly, Tony Ryan is a bastard. Even his mum hates him.
It isn't even cheap. BA to Heathrow return costs less than 100 quid these days and at least you can call that an airline.

Gotta agree with you Whizz. Ryan Air wanted €400 return (each) for a trip to see my mother at Easter and for that, you don't even get a seat reservation or a cuppa! I ended up going Frankfurt-Amsterdam-Norwich with KLM as it was cheaper and nicer. I often notice that flying BA or Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Heathrow is cheaper than flying with Ryan Air. If Heathrow was more convenient for my mother, then there is no way I would ever fly Ryan Air!

Oh and they told my boyfriend that his handluggage (a solid briefcase) was too heavy so he put it all in his suitcase and they were happy with that. Didn't understand the logic on that!

RYANAIR SUCK!!

Will always avoid them if I can. I find EasyJet/HLX much better.

My sister brings her two sons out here regularly on Ryannair and rarely gets a seat together. They call out for passengers with families but then everyone gets on the bus/terminal together and unaccompanied adults run to the plane. It's pointless.

When the boys were 2 and nearly 4 the stewards could see nothing wrong in seating the three of them all around the plane in odd seats. They told her she should have walked faster as the seats are on a first come, first served basis! If anyone has tried walking with toddlers/buggies, racing other passengers is just not possible!

After being refused help, she had to beg other passengers to get three seats together on a Sunday night flight out of Niederrhein airport, which was no mean feat. Many refused to move.

I avoid them like the plague and always try to use EJ or Germanwings but you can't deny that they have better prices and more availabilty, especially if you book just before your departure date. Can't live with them, can't live without them, I guess.

It's true the service (or rather the lack of it) sucks, but they are hard to beat price-wise
I always compare Germanwings and Ryanair when looking for flights back to Scotland
and German wings (which is incidently a subsiduary of Lufthansa) can't come close on
price, so if I'm only paying 19€ return I guess I can put up with it.
I'm booked to go back in mid December and the comparision looked like this :

Germanwings Cologne - Edinburgh 112€
Ryanair Niederrhein - Glasgow 36€

Both airports are an hour's driver from here and in Scotland likewise
so I'm afraid there isn't much competion, although if the price wasn't
the deciding factor I'd choose Germanwings every time.

In Stansted we lined up according to the number on our tickets. Two queues. All people with disabilities and families with children boarded first.

One trick is to watch which door is being used on the plane. Quite often everyone rushes to the front of the plane and up the steps (when on it's on the tarmac), but often forget the back door is open, where there is another set of steps. This often means you can be one of the first and can choose your seat without being pushed etc.

Never had any problems, bvut I suppose I do always have a " Ticket to the front of the Que with me " ( My son ) And even though you have to get on a bus and the old families with kids lark is not much use, you will always get seats together, as the second but waits for the first to leave.

If you arrive late - even with kids, then it is your own fault.

I can't complain about Ryanairat all. I have never been late, never been separated from my kid, and they have always been helpful. Well, except one of the Girls in Karlsruhe / Baden Airpark. She wouldn't let me take 3 pieces of Hand Luggage ( Laptop, Sports Bag and a carrier Bag ) . So I empited my carrier Bag with the magazines into my Laptop Bag, and she couldn't do anything about it.She had to agree. She was a bitch though. A Fat cow that was out to get people into the same bad mood she was in.

Germanwings are better, but also more expensive.

You always get what you pay for. O'Reilly has really changed the way we travel, and he is doing a bloody good job of it. He has proved, that air travel is not an expensive way of travel.

Book early, get cheap tickets, book late, and you'll pay for it. Look out for the special offers, and that is all that matters.

I have never flown Easyjet of HLX, as they don't fly to/from any airport that is in my reach. Shame really.

This isn't quite PC...would you have said 'A slim cow'?

No, because she looked something like this:

A cross between a fat cow and a fat pig !

Oh, and she was Ugly too !! So there !!

If she hadn't been so unfriendly, I probably would not have noticed.

And there is nothing wrong with being fat ! Just to take all of the wind out of your sails !!

That's not very PC, everyone is beautiful in someone's eyes!

thumbs up. And don't you Brits ever say again, germans were complaining about everything

She was not beautiful in my eyes, rather a sore... A painful one !!

Hannah, We brits don't seem to complain as much as the germans.
That is the difference...

When travelling from Karlsruhe, I always go to the front with my kid. I never hear any brits complaining, they probably see that I am with a Kid, and accept the fact.

But the amount of times I get to hear:

Guck mal, der drängelt sich ganz nach vorne, nur weil er ein Kind hat...

But I just ignore them.

Not being against anyone here, I am just mentioning my own experiance.

But I have heard the the austrians are even worse !!

@F-L: HLX fly from Stutty!

I have no complaints with them... when I first flew out from Manchester I was quite a bit over my luggage allowance but she let me off - mind you I did look a complete stressed out wreck so she might have been worried about sending me over the edge

Loopy, Manchester is a pain in the arse from Bristol.

I am looking for a different way to get there. Maybe heathrow or gatwick

But Stanstead is not an option any more. It takes too long to drive to bristol.

Last Xmas a girl who was working for me was booked to travel Ryanair Weeze to Stansted. As they had all their presents etc to take back with them they worked out that the excess would have cost them a fortune. After a flash of inspiration they phoned Robbingair and asked if it would be possible to book extra seats purely to use the additional luggage allowance, "No problem" was the response.

Unfortunately the check in people had a different viewpoint and despite having booked four seats for the two of them they had to pay excess baggage as well! Not only that but ten minutes later another girl turned up who had done the same and booked two extra seats, but she had no means of paying the excess and had to go back home!!