Ryanair Flights

Ryanair - Who are they?
Ryanair is an Irish airline based in Dublin and founded in 1985. It is Europe's largest low-cost carrier and one of the world's largest and most successful airlines. Since the deregulation of the air industry in 1997, Ryanair has gone from strength to strength and evolved into one of the world's most profitable airlines. Ryanair is now the third largest airline in Europe in terms of passenger numbers and in June 2007, reported record financial results, whilst also announcing forecasts of carrying 52 million passengers in 2008. In March 2007 the IATA confirmed that Ryanair has become the world’s largest international airline. In May 2007 Ryanair launched the world's first free seat giveaway, offering 1 million passengers the chance to get free flights. Also in May, Ryanair launched its price guarantee that no other airline can match their fares. According to reports by the Association of European Airlines and Ryanair's own published statistics, Ryanair has achieved better punctuality, fewer lost bags and fewer cancellations than all of the rest of its peer grouping in Europe.

Ryanair Flights - Why are they so cheap
Ryanair flights are offered a low price because the company operates at very low margins. Ryanair management believes that their operating costs are among the lowest of any European scheduled passenger airline. Ryanair also sells seats on a one-way basis, thus eliminating minimum stay requirements from all travel on Ryanair scheduled services, regardless of fare. Ryanair strives to reduce or control some of the main expenses involved in running a major scheduled airline:

• Aircraft equipment costs
• Personnel productivity
• Customer service costs
• Airport access and handling costs

Ryanair Flights - Where do they go?
Ryanair currently operates 516 routes across 26 countries from 23 bases. Ryanair’s Dublin to London Stansted route is its largest route in terms of passenger volume. Ryanair flights are offered on short-haul routes to secondary and regional airports in and around major cities and holiday destinations. Ryanair favours secondary airports as a pose to major airports as they are generally less congested and, as a result, can provide higher rates of ontime departures, faster turnaround times, fewer terminal delays and more competitive airport access and handling costs.

Ryanair Routes - New routes
In October 2007, Ryanair announced the launch of 70 new routes as part of a "massive expansion across Europe” and during 2007, Ryanair inaugurated services to many airports, including:

Croatia: Dalmatia, Pula
France: Nice
Hungary: Budapest
Italy: Rimini
Poland: Warsaw
Poland: Katowice
Slovenia: Maribor
Spain: Madrid

Ryanair Fleet
The Ryanair fleet consists of 120 Boeing 737-800 which can carry up to 189 passengers at a time.

Ryanair - Competitors
In 2004 approximately 60 new low-cost airlines were formed. Ryanair's main low-cost competitors are easyJet, Monarch Airlines, bmibaby,Centralwings, Air Berlin, Germanwings, Transavia, Jet2, SkyEurope, Vueling, Wizz Air, Flybe, Thomsonfly and TUIfly. Ryanair is often praised by some and criticised by others. Its supporters praise its commitment to low fares and radical management, whilst its critics point to its controversial advertising strategy and the way it deals with competing airlines. In August 2007 the UK's Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint that Ryanair was misleading the public with an advert that compared its service from London Stansted to Brussels with that of Eurostar. The advert claimed Ryanair was quicker and cheaper but the ASA ruled that Ryanair had not included the time and costs of travel to and from the airports in question within its comparison.

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