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History of Ryanair

Ryanair was established in 1984 and is headquartered on Dublin Airport in Ireland. Ryanair began flight operations in 1985 with a single 15 seat Embraer turboprop aircraft flying a short route between Waterford and London, England. The airline was founded by three businessmen with the intent to break up the duopoly of British Airways and Aer Lingus conducting flights between London and Ireland (Ryanair, n. d.).

In 1986, Ryanair was able to add an additional route which operated in direct competition with the two airlines they were seeking to dethrone from duopoly. During this time, Europe was deregulating the airlines and the opportunity to add an international flight to Ryanair’s flight schedule became available. Ryanair was able to receive approval from Great Britain for a flight route between Ireland and London. Ryanair began operating two airplanes on two routes and carried 82,000 passengers in the first year. Even with the large number of passengers, Ryanair operated at an annual loss from inception until a complete restructuring was begun in 1991(Ryanair, n. d.).

Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary was charged by the Ryan family with making the changes necessary to begin profitable operations. O’Leary visited Southwest Airlines headquarters in the US and returned home convinced the airline could make a substantial impact in the European market by utilizing the ‘low cost’ model of operations currently utilized by Southwest Airlines.. According to O’Leary, the key to profitability was low fares, quick turn-around times for aircraft, "no frills", no business class while operating a single model of aircraft (Ryanair, n. d.). Ryanair celebrated their 10th birthday by carrying 2.25 mi...

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...ternet accounts for a majority of the ticket sales. Ticket purchases made by any means other than the internet website incur additional fees to cover costs (Ryanair, 2013).

International Operations

Ryanair began operations in 1985 with a single aircraft on a single route between Ireland and London. Since that time, the airline has grown to 51 bases operating on1600 air routes throughout Europe, Morocco and most recently, Canary Islands (see figure 5). Ryanair has consistently provided lower cost service to customers which have helped to continue growth in the international airline arena. In 2014, Ryanair plans to begin operations from Europe to the east coast of the United States (About us, n.d.).

Figure 5

Ryanair Flight Routes for 2013

Note. Currently flights are originating from 51 bases, with number of route from each base shown.