photograph courtesy of Andrey Terekhov

Here are a few things we’re anticipating excitedly.

1. Maribor. Yesterday Ryanair announced that they’ll begin flying from London Stansted to Slovenia’s second city (see above) in early June. Maribor, which sits on the Austrian border, is a very charming place. Its Old Town is quintessentially Mitteleuropa and it’s a great place to do some serious wine drinking, to boot.

2. Kazakhstan’s stars. Wallpaper’s April issue, out March 15, promises “real” Borats—namely, an overview of Kazakhstan’s domestic celebrities. We can’t wait. We’re anticipating a mix of stern ex-Soviet newscasters and insanely cool architects and graphic designers.

3. Intersky’s Friedrichshafen-Dresden €19.98 fares. Through Sunday, the low-cost carrier with the best brand name around is hawking tax-inclusive fares between their Friedrichshafen base and the Saxon city of Dresden. There are only 999 flights available at this fare, good for travel between March 21 and July 31.

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photograph courtesy of michalp

Last month we reported on SkyEurope’s continuing growth, comparing the Slovak low-cost carrier’s passenger and load factor growth to Ryanair’s. (For the uninitiated, load factor designates the percentage of passengers versus available seats.) In January, SkyEurope increased its passenger numbers by 38.1% and its load factor by 10.3% against January 2006 numbers, while Ryanair managed a 23% passenger increase and a 3% decrease in load factor, also against January 2006.

In February this trend continued. SkyEurope recorded a 39.5% increase in passengers flown and an 11.1% increase in load factor, against February 2006 numbers. Again, these numbers compare favorably to Ryanair’s. The Irish low-cost carrier increased passenger numbers by 24% while experiencing another decrease in load factor: this one by just 1%, an improvement over January’s 3% decrease.

Obviously, Ryanair is flying far more passengers than SkyEurope, but the latter’s growth continues to impress us. We look forward to seeing their route map expand. We’re hoping that the rumors are correct and that we’ll soon be seeing routes from Bratislava and other hubs to destinations in Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

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Ryanair announced today that they will give away one million free flights (not including taxes and charges, obviously!) following an Irish victory over England in the 6 Nations rugby match scheduled at Croke Park in Dublin this coming Saturday.

How fervently is Ryanair hoping for an English win? That’s our question.

The free flights are scheduled to go on sale on Monday, February 26. We’ll make a note to read the sports pages on Sunday.

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Today Ryanair announces four brand-new destinations, 16 new routes, and an official “base” designation for Dusseldorf Weeze.

Gulp. Even by Ryanair’s quasi-colonialist standards, this is a big day.

We’re most excited about the airline’s new destinations: Zadar, Maastricht, Alicante, and Palma. Ryanair will fly to Zadar from Stansted, adding to current low-cost routes to the Adriatic destination from central Europe on SkyEurope and Germanwings. Ryanair will fly between the pleasant southern Dutch city of Maastricht and Barcelona Girona.

The Irish low-cost carrier will enter into direct competition with other low-cost carriers on routes to two other new destinations. Ryanair will compete with Air Berlin on Dusseldorf-Alicante, easyJet on Liverpool-Alicante, and multiple carriers on London-Alicante routes. They’ll compete with Air Berlin on Dusseldorf-Palma and Frankfurt-Palma, easyJet on Liverpool-Palma, and multiple carriers on London-Palma routes.

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