Ryanair

Ryanair (ISEQ: RYA) LSE: RYA (NASDAQ: RYAAY) is an airline based in Ireland. It is Europe's largest low-cost carrier, operating 209 low-fare routes to 94 destinations across 17 European countries. Over the years it has evolved into the world's most profitable airline [1], running at remarkable margins by relentlessly driving costs down. Ryanair has been characterised by rapid and continuing expansion, enabled by the deregulation of the air industry in Europe in 1997.

Ryanair is one of Europe's most controversial companies, praised and criticised in equal measure [2]. Its supporters praise its commitment to exceptionally low fares, its radical management, its populism, and its willingness to challenge what Ryanair calls the 'establishment' within the airline industry (similar to its American counterpart, Southwest Airlines). Critics, meanwhile, have attacked its trade union policies [3], and have charged that it practises deceptive advertising [4].

Code Data
IATA Code: FR
ICAO Code: RYR
Callsign: Ryanair

History

Early years
Ryanair was founded in 1985 by Irish businessman Tony Ryan. The airline began with a 15 seat turboprop aircraft flying between Waterford and London Gatwick with the aim of breaking the duopoly on London-Ireland flights at that time held by British Airways and Aer Lingus. In 1986 the company added a second route - flying Dublin-London Luton in competition to the BA/Aer Lingus duopoly for the first time. With two routes and two planes, they carried 82,000 passengers in one year.

Passenger numbers continued to increase, but the airline generally ran at a loss, and by 1991 was in need of restructuring. Michael O'Leary was charged with the task of making the airline profitable. He negotiated significant bonuses and profit-sharing deals for himself, conditional upon bringing the airline into profit. Ryan encouraged him to visit the USA to study the 'low fares/no frills' model being used by Southwest Airlines. O'Leary quickly learnt that the key to low fares was a quick turn-around time, no frills, and no business class, as well as operating only one model of aircraft.

Ryanair Boeing 737-200.O'Leary returned convinced that Ryanair could make huge inroads into the European air market, at that time dominated by national carriers which were subsidised to various degrees by their parent countries. He competed with the major airlines by providing a no-frills, low cost, flexible and reliable service. Flights were scheduled into smaller airports, closer and more convenient for customers. He adopted a hands-on style of management, becoming well known for the fact that despite being Chief Executive, he regularly helped out with baggage handling on Ryanair flights at Dublin airport.

He is said to have a pugnacious and aggressive management style, using a flat management hierarchy whose ethos is to provide a low cost, reliable and competitive service. By 1995, thanks to the consistent pursuit of this business model, Ryanair celebrated its 10th birthday by carrying 2.25 million passengers. It had become the largest carrier on all its routes.

Deregulation and flotation
After EU deregulation of the air industry in Europe in 1997, Ryanair was ready to take on the continent. After a highly successful flotation of Ryanair on the Dublin Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Stock exchanges, the airline launched services to Stockholm, Oslo, Paris and Charleroi near Brussels. Flush with new capital, the airline placed a massive US$2 billion order for 45 new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft in 1998. The airline was voted Airline of the Year by the Irish Transport Users Committee and voted Best Managed National Airline by International Aviation Week magazine.

The airline launched its website in 2000, with on line booking said to be a small and unimportant part of the software supporting the site. Some senior management saw the potential of online booking, but kept it low profile to avoid its elimination by the Chief Executive. Increasingly the online booking contributed to the aim of cutting flight prices by selling direct to passengers and excluding the costs imposed by travel agents. Within a year the website was handling three quarters of all bookings, and now accounts for 95% of the total. Michael O'Leary claimed that it was his idea from the start.

Continental Europe
Ryanair launched a new hub of operation in Brussels Charleroi in 2001. Later that year, the airline ordered 155 new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft from Boeing at what was believed to be a substantial discount, (taking advantage of the downturn in plane orders after the slump in air travel following the September 2001 terrorist attacks) to be delivered over eight years from 2002 to 2010. 100 of these aircraft will have been delivered by the end of 2005. In 2002 Ryanair launched 26 new routes and established a base in Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, its European expansion firmly on track. In 2003, Ryanair announced the order of a further 100 new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft from Boeing, and in February a third continental base was opened at Milan-Bergamo in Italy.

In April Ryanair acquired its ailing competitor Buzz from KLM, at a knock-down price. Expansion continued apace with the launch of a base at Stockholm (Skavsta), Sweden. By the end of 2003, the airline flew 127 routes, of which 60 had opened in the previous 12 months. The airline launched two more bases in the first half of 2004, at Rome (Ciampino) and Barcelona (Girona), increasing the total to 11 hubs.

Recent history
During 2004, Michael O'Leary warned of a 'bloodbath' during the winter from which only two or three low-cost airlines would emerge, the expectation being that these would be Ryanair and easyJet. A modest loss of € 3.3 million in the second quarter of 2004 was the airline's first recorded loss for 15 years, indicating turbulent times in the low fares market. However, the enlargement of the European Union in 2004 is expected to lead to more new routes as Ryanair and other budget airlines tap the markets of the EU accession countries. Since the accession countries joined the EU on 1 May 2004, Ryanair has opened new routes to three of the ten new EU member states.

In February 2005 Ryanair announced an order for 70 further Boeing 737-800 aircraft with an option for a further 70. This is expected to allow Ryanair to increase passenger numbers from the 34 million expected in 2005 to 70 million in 2011 and creating 2,500 new jobs. Some of these aircraft would be deployed at Ryanair's 12 European bases, others to 10 new bases they intend to establish over the next seven years. The aircraft will be delivered without window shades, seat back recline and seat back pockets, which result in savings of several hundred thousand dollars per aircraft and give continued savings through reduced cleaning and repair costs.

Growth and expansion
Ryanair has grown massively since its creation in 1985, from a small airline flying the short hop to London from Ireland into one of Europe's largest carriers. The driver of the growth has been Ryanair's CEO, Michael O'Leary. After taking the rapidly growing airline public in 1997 he used the money raised to expand the airline into a pan-European carrier. Revenues have risen from € 231 million in 1998 to some € 843 million in 2003, and net profits have increased from € 48 million to € 239 million over the same period. In an industry where the survival rate is 1 in 10 and where even the giants such as American Airlines and Delta struggle to keep in the black, Ryanair's success has confounded many industry analysts. However, it has been consistent with the growth of other no-frills airlines, such as Southwest and JetBlue, since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Ryanair's passenger numbers have grown by up to 25% every year for the best part of the last decade. Carrying under 0.7 million annually in its early years, passenger figures grew to 21.4 million in 2003. The rapid addition of new routes and new hubs has enabled this growth in passenger numbers, and Ryanair is now among the largest carriers on European routes. In August 2004, the airline carried 20% more passengers within Europe than British Airways did.

Criticisms
Ryanair has been heavily criticised for many of its practices in the past. In a number of incidents it has responded stubbornly to relatively trivial matters, often to make a point about the constant need to avoid adding "frills" to its service.

Critics have accused Ryanair of poor treatment of customers whose flights have been cancelled [5]. The airline refuses to provide accommodation or meal vouchers when flights are cancelled or delayed.

Ryanair is often accused of flying to airports which, while cheap, are too far away from the cities they say they are serving. For example, the airline used to advertise a service to "Copenhagen", Denmark which actually flew to Malmö, in Sweden. This service is now advertised as Malmö. Legal actions forced name changes on routes previously referred to as "Düsseldorf (Niederrhein)" and "St. Etienne (Lyons)", but in other cases court actions have upheld the designated name of the route — this was the case for Frankfurt Hahn, over 100 km from central Frankfurt.

Ryanair Boeing 737-200 landingAlso criticised are what are seen as vitriolic attacks on opponents, notably former Irish Minister for Transport Mary O'Rourke (1997-2002), who was personally ridiculed in a series of controversial newspaper advertisements when she refused to break up the state monopoly which then ran Irish airports, Aer Rianta (now largely restructured). (The break-up of Aer Rianta remains a high profile demand for Michael O'Leary. It is due to be implemented during 2005 under the State Airports Act 2004).

Ryanair does not employ an advertising agency, instead producing all its advertising material in-house. Michael O'Leary often states that the airline goes to extremes to make a point, an approach which has resulted in Ryanair's advertising occasionally being considered offensive [6] [7].

The airline has been criticised for the age of its elderly Boeing 737-200 aircraft, which were bought second hand from Lufthansa and Britannia Airways. These aircraft date from the early 1980s and some industry observers believe that Ryanair has pushed them beyond their usable service life. Ryanair argues that the planes are well maintained, but has already scrapped a number of them for technical reasons. The airline announced in October 2004 that the remaining -200s will be disposed of by November 2005. Two of them are now in storage, and two have been sold off to other operators.

Ryanair receives subsidies from some European airports, a situation which has been investigated by the European Commission. The EC believes that subsidies from state-owned airports are a breach of European Union competition rules. In February 2004 the European Commission ruled that Charleroi airport gave Ryanair illegal subsidies and ordered the airline to repay roughly € 4 million of subsidies. Walloon authorities who offered the subsidies were considering appealing against the ruling because of the roughly € 45 million that the airline route brings to the area every year.

Ryanair has also come under fire from unions representing workers in the airline industry for refusing to recognise trade unions, and allegations of poor working conditions. Staff are banned from charging their own mobile phones at work to reduce the company's electricity bill [8], even though the cost savings by such measures are insignificant.

Several successful actions have been brought against the company: On 25 January 2005 the Irish Labour Court guaranteed an investigation into allegations of victimisation of staff who wished to join a trade union [9]. In March of the same year, a Belgian court ruled that two sacked Belgian cabin staff who had been working out of the airport of Charleroi were entitled to protection under Belgian law, not Irish law as Ryanair had claimed [10].

The airline has come under heavy criticism in the past for its poor treatment of disabled passengers. In 2002 it refused to provide wheelchairs for disabled passengers at Stansted Airport, hugely angering disabled rights groups [11]. However, the airline argued that this provision was the responsibility of the airport authority stating that wheelchairs were provided by 87 of the 93 Ryanair destination airports. A court ruling in 2004 judged that the responsibility should be shared by the airline and the airport owners [12].

In 2002 Ryanair reneged on a promise of free flights given as a prize to the airline's one millionth passenger, Jane O'Keeffe. She received the prize in 1988, but the airline refused to carry her free of charge on a flight in 2002. The woman eventually went to court and won an award of £43,098. [13] [14]

Accidents and Incidents
Ryanair Flight 296 (Boeing 737-800) from Dublin to London Stansted caught fire shortly after landing on February 27, 2002. Subsequent investigations found that the air crew struggled to open the emergency doors, and some passengers were evacuated towards the fire. The UK Air Accident Investigation Board recommended changes to training procedures for air-crew to allow better handling of similar situations in future.
Ryanair Flight 685 from Stockholm's Vasteras airport to London Stansted in September 1, 2002 was delayed by several hours after a Swedish man of Arabic origin was detained after attempting to board the aircraft with a loaded gun. Subsequent media reports suggested that the man was going to hijack the aircraft and fly it into the United States Embassy in London. [15]

Competitors
Among Ryanair's main low-cost competitors are easyJet, Air Berlin, Germanwings and Transavia. In 2004 approximately 60 new low-cost airlines were formed. Despite traditionally being a full-service airline, Aer Lingus began to adopt a low-fares strategy in 2002, leading to much more intense competition with Ryanair on Irish routes – Ryanair's most profitable.

In September 2004, Ryanair's biggest competitor, easyJet, announced routes to the Republic of Ireland for the first time, begining with the Cork to London Gatwick route – until then easyJet had never competed directly with Ryanair on its home ground. easyJet does fly from Aldergrove in Northern Ireland, but Ryanair does not operate there. The last low-cost airline to compete directly with Ryanair on the UK/Ireland routes was Go Fly – which had to pull out due to mounting losses.

Services

Destinations of Ryanair, hubs indicated in redMain article: Ryanair destinations

Ryanair currently serves about 200 routes between 104 airports in 18 European countries. Its main hub is London Stansted Airport. Ryanair has other bases throughout Europe, at Brussels, Barcelona Girona, Dublin (DUB), Frankfurt am Main (HHN), London Luton Airport, Liverpool, Milan (BGY), Prestwick (PIK), Rome (CIA), Shannon International Airport and Stockholm Skavsta Airport.

Most smaller airports Ryanair operates to are located farther from the city centres than their main airports. One exception is Gothenburg, Sweden, where Ryanair flies to the town's City Airport, 14 km from city centre. That's 11 km closer than the main Landvetter Airport.

Of all Ryanair's routes, the Dublin-London route remains both the busiest and the most profitable. This is largely due to the number of Irish people who live in the UK – the amount of business and money traded between the two cities – and increasingly the number of Irish who use the route to make connecting flights to other places in Europe. The London-Dublin route is the busiest international route in the world after Hong Kong-Taipai.

Ryanair's interactive destination map

Fleet
The Ryanair fleet consists of the following aircraft (at April 2005):

7 Boeing 737-200
1 Boeing 737-400
76 Boeing 737-800 (further 6 on order)
It currently has firm orders for an additional 225 Boeing 737-800 aircraft by 2010, with options on a further 193.

On 13 June 2005 Ryanair confirmed a $286 million order for 5 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which is a conversion of five existing options from an order in 2002. Ryanair's total firm orders stand at 230 and the newly ordered aircraft will be delivered in spring 2007 (ref: Air International, July 2005).

Ryanair (ISEQ: RYA) LSE: RYA (NASDAQ: RYAAY) is an airline based ryanair o'leary in Ireland. It
is Europe's largest low-cost carrier, operating 209
low-fare routes to 94 destinations across 17 European countries. Over the years it minute has evolved into the future world's most profitable airline [1], running at remarkable margins by relentlessly driving costs down. Ryanair has been characterised by rapid and continuing in expansion, enabled by the deregulation of the air industry in Europe in 1997.

Ryanair is one of Europe's most controversial companies, praised and criticised in equal measure [2]. Its supporters praise its message commitment to exceptionally low fares, its radical management, its populism, and its willingness to challenge what Ryanair calls the 'establishment' within the airline industry (similar ryanair to its American counterpart, Southwest Airlines). Critics, meanwhile, have attacked its trade union flights policies
[3], and have charged shannon that it practises deceptive advertising [4].

ryanair travel insurance

ryanair Code Data
IATA Code: FR
ICAO Code: RYR
Callsign: Ryanair

leary History

Early years
Ryanair was founded in 1985 by Irish businessman notes Tony Ryan. The airline began with a 15 seat turboprop airways hotels.com aircraft flying between homepage Waterford and London Gatwick with the aim of breaking the duopoly on London-Ireland flights at that time held by British Airways and Aer
Lingus. In 1986 global the company added a second route - flying Dublin-
London Luton in competition to the BA/Aer Lingus duopoly for the first time. With two routes and two planes, they carried 82,000 passengers in one year.

ryanair Passenger numbers continued
to increase, but the airline ryanair generally ran at a loss,
and by 1991 was in ryanair need of restructuring. Michael O'Leary was charged
with the task audit of making the last airline profitable. He negotiated significant bonuses and profit-sharing deals for himself, conditional upon bringing the airline into profit. Ryan encouraged by him to visit the ryanair USA to study the for 'low fares/no frills' model being used by Southwest Airlines. O'Leary quickly learnt that the key to low fares was a quick turn-porter's around time, no frills, and no business class, as well as operating only one model of aircraft.

Ryanair Boeing
cheap 737-200.O'Leary returned convinced that Ryanair could make buy huge inroads into
the European air market, at that time dominated by ireland national carriers which were subsidised to various degrees
by their parent countries. He competed
with the major airlines by providing a no-frills, low cost, flexible carhire and reliable service. Flights were scheduled into smaller airports, closer and more convenient for customers. He adopted uk a hands-on style of management, becoming well known
for the fact that despite being Chief Executive, he regularly helped out with baggage handling news on Ryanair flights at Dublin airport.

ryanair He
is said to have a pugnacious and aggressive management style, using a flat management hierarchy whose ethos is to provide a low cost, reliable and competitive service. By 1995, thanks to the ryanair consistent pursuit of this business model,
Ryanair celebrated its 10th birthday by carrying ryanair 2.25 million passengers. It had become the largest carrier written on all its routes.

Deregulation and flotation
ryanair flights After EU deregulation of the air industry in Europe in 1997, Ryanair was ready address to take on the continent. After a highly successful flotation of ryanair Ryanair on the Dublin Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Stock exchanges, the airline launched services to Stockholm, Oslo, Paris and
Charleroi near Brussels. Flush with new capital, the airline placed a massive US$2 billion order for 45 new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft corporate in of 1998.
The airline was voted Airline of the Year
by the Irish Transport Users Committee and voted blackpool discount Best Managed National Airline by International Aviation Week magazine.

The flight airline launched its website in 2000, with on line booking said to be strategy a small and unimportant part of the
software supporting the site. Some senior management saw the potential of online booking, but kept it low profile to avoid its ryanair elimination by the Chief Executive. Increasingly the online booking contributed to the aim ryanair porter's of cutting flight prices by selling direct to passengers and excluding the
airline costs imposed by travel agents. Within a year the website was handling three quarters of all bookings, and now accounts for 95% of the total. Michael O'Leary claimed that it was his idea from the start.

Continental of Europe
market Ryanair launched a new hub of operation in Brussels Charleroi in 2001. Later that year, the airline ordered 155 new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft from Boeing at what was believed to be a substantial discount, (taking advantage of
the downturn in plane orders after the norway slump ryanair in air travel following ryanair the September 2001 terrorist attacks) to be delivered over eight years from 2002 to 2010. 100 of involvement these aircraft will planning have travel been delivered by the end of 2005. of In 2002 Ryanair .com launched 26 new analysis routes and established a base in Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, its European expansion firmly on track. In 2003, Ryanair announced the order of a further 100 new Boeing 737-800 yield series aircraft from
Boeing, and in February a third ryanairs continental base was opened at Milan-Bergamo force in Italy.

In April Ryanair acquired ryanair its ailing ryanair competitor Buzz from KLM, at a knock-down price. Expansion continued apace teaching with the launch of a base at Stockholm (Skavsta), Sweden. By fares the end of 2003, the airline flew 127 routes, of which 60 cheap had opened in the is previous 12 months. The airline launched two more bases in the first half of 2004, at Rome (Ciampino) and Barcelona (Girona), increasing the total to homepage 11 hubs.

ryanair Recent history
During 2004, Michael O'Leary warned of
a 'bloodbath' during their the ryanair winter from which only two or three low-cost airlines would emerge, the expectation being that these would be Ryanair and contact easyJet. A modest loss of € ryanair 3.3 million in the second ryanair quarter of 2004 was the airline's first recorded loss for 15 years, staff indicating turbulent times in the low fares market. However, the enlargement of the European Union in 2004 is expected to tivat flights lead to lowest ryanair more new routes as Ryanair and other budget airlines for tap the markets of the EU accession countries. Since the flights accession countries joined the cheap EU on 1 May 2004, Ryanair has opened new routes to three of the ten new EU member states.

In February ryanairs 2005 Ryanair announced an order for 70 further Boeing 737-800 aircraft with ryanair an option for line
ryanair a further 70. This is expected to allow Ryanair to increase passenger numbers from the 34 million
expected in 2005 to ryanair 70 million in 2011 and creating 2,500 new jobs. Some of these
aircraft would be deployed at Ryanair's 12 European bases, others to 10 new bases they intend to establish over the next seven years. The aircraft will be delivered without window shades, seat back recline and seat back pockets, which result in savings of several

hundred thousand dollars per aircraft and ryanair give continued savings through force reduced cleaning and repair costs.

Growth and expansion
Ryanair ryanair has grown massively since its creation in 1985, from
a small airline ryanair flying the short hop to London from Ireland into one of Europe's largest carriers. The driver of the growth michael has been Ryanair's CEO, Michael O'Leary. After taking the rapidly growing airline public in 1997 he ryanair used the money raised to expand the airline into a pan-European michael carrier. Revenues have risen from € 231 million in 1998 to some € 843 million in 2003, and net profits have increased from € 48 million to € 239 dublin million over the same period. In ryanair an industry where the survival rate is 1 in 10 and where even the giants such as American Airlines and operational Delta ryanair struggle to keep in the black, Ryanair's success has confounded many insurance industry analysts. However, it has been consistent with the growth of other no- frills airlines, such as Southwest and JetBlue, since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Ryanair's passenger numbers have grown by up to 25% every year for the how best part of the last decade. Carrying under 0.7 million annually in do its early years, passenger figures
grew to 21.4 flights million in 2003. The
review rapid addition ryanair of new routes and easyjet new hubs has enabled this growth in passenger numbers, and Ryanair
is now among the largest carriers on European routes. In ryanair August 2004, the airline carried 20% more passengers
within Europe than British Airways did.

Criticisms
Ryanair has been heavily criticised for many of its practices in the past. In a number of incidents cheap it has responded
stubbornly to relatively trivial matters, often to make
a point about the ryanair constant need to avoid at adding "frills" to its service.

Critics have accused Ryanair of poor treatment of customers whose flights
have been cancelled [5]. The airline refuses to provide accommodation or meal vouchers when flights are cancelled or delayed.

Ryanair is often accused of flying to airports which, while
cheap, are too far away from the cities they environmental say they are serving. For example, the airline used to advertise a service to "Copenhagen", Denmark which actually flew to Malmö, in Sweden. This service is now advertised ryanair as Malmö. Legal actions forced name changes on routes previously referred timetable to as "Düsseldorf (Niederrhein)" photo and "St. ryanair Etienne (Lyons)", ryanair but in other cases court
actions have upheld the designated name of the route —

this was the case for Frankfurt Hahn, over 100 km from central Frankfurt.

Ryanair Boeing 737-200 airlines landingAlso criticised are what are
seen as
vitriolic attacks on opponents, notably former Irish Minister for Transport Mary O'Rourke (1997-2002), who was personally ridiculed in a series of controversial newspaper advertisements when she refused to break up the state monopoly which phone then ran Irish airports, Aer Rianta ( now largely restructured). (The
break-up of to Aer Rianta remains a high profile demand staff pay for Michael O'Leary. It is due to flights be implemented during 2005 under the ryanair State ryanair Airports low
Act 2004).

Ryanair does not employ an ireland advertising analysis agency, instead producing all its advertising ryanair material in-house. Michael O'Leary often states that the airline goes to extremes to make ryanair a point, an five approach which has
resulted schedules in Ryanair's advertising occasionally forums being considered offensive [6] [7].

The airline free has ryanair been criticised for the age of its elderly Boeing 737-200 from aircraft, which were bought second hand from Lufthansa and Britannia Airways. These airline, aircraft date from the early 1980s and some industry observers believe that Ryanair has pushed them beyond their usable service life. Ryanair argues that the planes are well maintained, but has already scrapped a number of them for technical reasons. The airline announced in October 2004 that the remaining -200s will be disposed of by analysis November 2005. Two of them are now analysis in storage, and two have been and sold off to boards other operators.

Ryanair receives subsidies from some European airports, a situation which has been investigated by the European Commission. The EC believes that subsidies from state-owned airports are a breach of European Union competition rules. In February 2004 the European Commission ruled that Charleroi airport gave Ryanair illegal subsidies and ordered the airline to repay airline roughly € 4 million of subsidies. Walloon authorities who o offered the subsidies were considering appealing against the ruling because of in ryanair the roughly € 45 million that the airline route brings to the area every year.

Ryanair has also come hotel under fire from unions representing
workers in the airline industry for refusing to recognise trade unions, and allegations of poor working conditions. Staff are banned girona from charging their own mobile cheaper phones at work to reduce the
company's electricity bill [8], even though the cost savings by such measures are insignificant.

Several successful actions have been brought against the company: On 25 January 2005 ryanair the Irish Labour Court
guaranteed an investigation into allegations of victimisation of airlines staff who scale wished ryanair to
join a trade union [9]. In March of the same year, a Belgian court
ruled that two sacked it Belgian cabin staff who had been working out
of to the airport of Charleroi were
entitled
to protection under Belgian law, not prices, Irish law as Ryanair had success ryanair claimed [10].

The
airline
has come under heavy criticism in to the for past for its poor treatment of disabled passengers. In 2002 it refused to provide wheelchairs for disabled passengers at Stansted Airport, diary hugely angering disabled rights groups [11]. However, the airline argued that this provision was for the responsibility of the airport authority stating that wheelchairs were provided by 87 of the 93 Ryanair destination airports. A court ryanair ruling in 2004 judged that the responsibility should be shared by the airline and the airport owners [12].

In 2002 Ryanair reneged on a promise of free flights given as a prize to
the airline's one millionth passenger, Jane O'Keeffe. She
received the i
prize in 1988, but the airline five refused to carry her free point of charge on a flight in 2002. The woman eventually went to court ryanair and won an award of £43,098. [13] [14]

Accidents and Incidents
Ryanair Flight 296 (Boeing 737-800) from Dublin to London Stansted caught fire shortly after economies landing strategy on February 27, 2002. Subsequent investigations found for that the
air crew struggled to open the emergency doors, travel and some passengers were evacuated towards the fire. The UK Air Accident Investigation Board recommended changes to training procedures for air-crew to allow better handling of similar situations - in future.
Ryanair Flight 685 from Stockholm's Vasteras airport to London Stansted in September 1, 2002 was delayed by several hours after a Swedish man stanstead of Arabic origin was detained after attempting to board the aircraft with a loaded gun. Subsequent media reports suggested that the booking man was going to hijack
the aircraft and fly it into the on United States Embassy in London.
[15]

Competitors
Among ryanair Ryanair's main low-ryanair cost competitors are easyJet,
Air Berlin, Germanwings and Transavia. In 2004 approximately 60 new low-cost airlines tickets were formed. number Despite five traditionally being a for full-service airline, Aer Lingus began to adopt a low-fares strategy in 2002, leading to ryanair much more intense ryanair competition with Ryanair
on Irish
routes – Ryanair's most profitable.

In September 2004, Ryanair's biggest ryanair competitor, easyJet, announced routes ryanair to the Republic of Ireland for the first time, begining with the Cork to London Gatwick route – until airlines then easyJet had never competed directly with Ryanair ryanair on its home ground. easyJet does fly from Aldergrove in Northern Ireland, but Ryanair does not operate there. The last low-cost airline to compete directly with Ryanair on the UK/Ireland ryanair routes was Go Fly flights – which had to pull out due to mounting losses.

Services

Destinations of Ryanair, hubs indicated in flights redMain article: Ryanair destinations

Ryanair currently serves - about 200 routes between 104 airports in 18 European countries. Its main hub is London Stansted Airport. milan Ryanair ryanair has other bases throughout Europe, at Brussels, Barcelona Girona, Dublin (DUB), Frankfurt am Main (HHN), London Luton Airport, Liverpool, Milan (BGY), austria Prestwick (PIK), Rome (CIA), Shannon International Airport and Stockholm Skavsta Airport.

Most smaller airports Ryanair operates to swot are located
farther from the city centres timetables than their main airports. One exception is Gothenburg, easyjet Sweden, where Ryanair ryanair flies to the town's City Airport, 14 km from city centre. That's 11 km closer than the main Landvetter Airport.

Of all Ryanair's routes, the Dublin-London route remains both the busiest and the most profitable. This is largely due to the churchill number of staff Irish people who live in the UK ryanair – the capabilities amount of business and money traded between the two cities – and case increasingly . the number of Irish who use the route to make connecting business flights to other places in Europe. discount The London-Dublin route is the busiest international management route in the world after Hong Kong-Taipai.

Ryanair's interactive destination ryanair map

Fleet
The Ryanair fleet consists of the following aircraft (at April 2005):

7 Boeing 737-200
1 Boeing 737-400
76 Boeing 737-800 (further 6 on order)
It currently has firm orders for an additional 225 Boeing 737-limited. 800 aircraft by 2010, with options on a further 193.

On 13 June 2005 Ryanair confirmed a $286 million order for + 5 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which is a conversion
of five existing options from an ryanair order in 2002. Ryanair's total firm orders stand at 230 and the to newly ordered ryanair aircraft will be delivered in spring 2007 (flight ref: Air International, July staff 2005).

Information provided by Wikipedia.