Ryanair announces flights from Palma to Nuremberg - but is the blue ocean really beginning to turn red?
This week Ryanair announced it will increase peak season flights from Germany to Palma for summer 2018. Nuremberg is one of four new German airports from which Ryanair will fly to PMI.
For several years, Nuremberg Airport has pursued a strategy of targeting “blue oceans”, untapped new markets that differentiate themselves from existing “red oceans”, in which competitors battle each other head on. This maritime metaphor is particularly suitable for describing Mallorca, Germany’s most popular island destination. Given this popularity and Ryanair’s recent announcement of additional flights, it might initially appear that Nuremberg - Palma is no longer a blue ocean route – but is it really turning red?
“In the past, the Palma route was firmly airberlin territory”, explains Christian Käser, Head of Aviation Marketing & Business Development at NUE. “For a long period this market was essentially an airberlin monopoly.”
Summer 2018 will mark the first season with real competition in the Nuremberg-Palma market. There will be head-to-head competition between Eurowings and Germania, with each carrier flying twice daily from Nuremberg. However, the market is unlikely to grow at such a high rate now that Ryanair has announced peak operation with four weekly flights.
Käser remains positive about the situation: “Competition is usually a crucial factor in driving market growth”, he says. “In terms of capacity development, there were four more weekly flights in summer 2016 than in summer 2018, which represents 42,000 more seats." Käser identifies this statistics as a poitive indicator: "It suggests that in spite of the additional competition, the market still demonstrates blue ocean conditions.”, he concludes. "Airlines can rest assured that the Palma market still offers significant opportunities for profitable growth."