Airline Profile: Ryanair
Ryanair is one of Europe's largest low-fares airlines, operating over 600 routes, from 25 European bases to over 26 European countries.
Established by the late Dr.Tony Ryan and his family in 1985, Ryanair launched services with a flight between Waterford and London Gatwick, operated by a 15-seat Bandeirante twin-turboprop and launched services to Dublin from London Luton in May 1986.
BAC 1-11-500s were wet-leased from Tarom in 1987 to expand the UK and Irish network to 15 destinations while regional routes were also introduced, using ATR-42 turboprops.
By 1990 and despite three years of rapid growth in both fleet and routes, the company had accumulated losses of GB £20 million. After a substantial restructuring, Ryanair was re-launched under new management in 1991, adopting the low-fares business model which had proved so successful in the US for Southwest Airlines.
Regional routes were discontinued in 1991 and the by following year the route networked had been reduced from 19 to six, while frequencies on the remaining routes had been significantly increased. European services were launched in 1997, with services from London Stansted to Stockholm Skavsta and Oslo Torp, and from Dublin to Paris Beauvais and Brussels Charleroi.
The airline was floated on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1991 and valued at US $500 Million.
In early 2001 the airline invested US $100 million to establish its first European ‘mini-hub’ at Brussels Charleroi Airport, from which to operate services to French, Italian, Irish and UK destinations with a based fleet of four Boeing 737s. In early 2003, Ryanair acquired London Stansted-based low-fare operator buzz from KLM and integrated buzz services into its own.
In May 2007 the company won the tender to operate the Dublin-Kerry PSO route from the Irish Government..
Fleet
- 164x Boeing 737
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