Ryanair, Europe’s largest low cost airline headquartered in Dublin and well known for its cheap fares within Europe, is planning to launch a transatlantic “budget” airline between US and Europe in less than 3 years time. The airline will be operating a fleet of new aircrafts by picking up cancelled aircraft orders at Airbus and Boeing. Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, mentioned that the airline launch can be expedited if the there is a sharp fall in aircraft price due to a possible global aviation industry crisis.
O’Leary added, “The business plan is done . . . but it has been parked until there is a
big downturn in the industry and Boeing and Airbus are parking
long-haul aircraft, so we can get a deal on prices” (from here)
This might be an interesting market (low cost transatlantic airline), becase a lot of airlines offer very cheap economy seats. The real pofit is in premium seats (business, first, envoy, etc.) where the customer who buys the seat expects an “all-frills” service. Currently every airline seems to be investing the most in upgrading this service or even increasing the number of these seats to maximize profits.
From The Guardian -
He added Ryanair would be “distinctly separate” from the new carrier,
which will attempt to make a better fist of the low-cost transatlantic
market than Zoom, the Canadian-British carrier that fell into
administration in August. O’Leary also ruled himself out of running the
new business, but said he might join other Ryanair investors such as
Prudential and private equity firm TPG in backing the venture.O’Leary is also expected to offer a business-class cabin with flat beds
at a lower cost than BA or Virgin Atlantic. The Ryanair boss added that
he expected at least one British airline and two continental carriers
to go bust within weeks as any benefit from falling fuel costs will
come too late to save the least profitable businesses.
