Ryanair

Ryanair is Europe's largest low-cost carrier, operating 172 low-fare routes to 15 countries throughout Europe. Ireland-based Ryanair operates with a fleet of 74 Boeing 737s. It has plans to buy an additional 150 Boeing 737-800 airplanes by 2010. The company is listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.

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History

Founded in 1985 by Irish businessman Dr Tony Ryan and now run by Michael O'Leary, Ryanair is one of Europe's most controversial airlines, praised and criticised in equal measure by differing groups. 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.

The airline began with a small propeller-engine plane 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 its first few years of operation it managed respectable passenger numbers but generally ran at a loss.

In 1990 the airline was re-launched as a no-frills airline, closely following the model of Southwest Airlines in the USA. Since that time it has evolved into the world's most profitable airline, running at remarkable margins by relentlessly driving costs down. A modest loss of 3.3 million Euros in the second quarter of 2004 was the airline's first recorded loss for 15 years.

In recent years Ryanair has been characterised by rapid and continuing expansion, enabled by the deregulation of the air industry in Europe in 1997. The enlargement of the European Union in 2004 is expected to lead to more new routes as Ryanair and other budget airlines tap the new markets of the EU accession countries.

Amongst Ryanair's main low-cost competitors are easyJet, Air Berlin, Germanwings, Volare and BasiqAir.

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Criticisms

Its critics accuse Ryanair of poor treatment of customers whose flights have been cancelled; of flying to airports which, while cheap, are too far away from the cities they say they are flying to. For example, Ryanair used to advertise a service to "Copenhagen", Denmark, but actually flew to Malmö in Sweden. This service is now correctly advertised as Malmö, but other examples would be Girona, advertised as Barcelona; Charleroi, advertised as Brussels; Prestwick, advertised as Glasgow or Beauvais, which is about 45 miles from the advertised city Paris.

Also critised are its banning of trade unions; and in particular, what are seen as vitriolic attacks on opponents, notably Irish Minister for Transport Mary O'Rourke (1997-2002), who was personally ridiculed in a series of newspaper advertisements when she refused to break up the state monopoly, Aer Rianta, which runs Irish airports. (The break-up of Aer Rianta remains a high profile demand of Michael O'Leary.)

The airline has also been criticised for the age of its elderly Boeing 737-200 aircraft, which were bought second hand from Lufthansa and Britannia Airlines. These aircraft are now over 22 years old and many industry insiders believe that Ryanair has pushed them well beyond their useable (and by definition, safe) service life. Ryanair argues that the planes are well maintained, but has already grounded a number of them after discovering scratches in their fuselages. In 2003, Boeing began to ramp up delivery of the newly ordered 737-800s to quicken the retiral of these ageing aircraft.

Ryanair receives subsidies from some European airports which has been investigated by the European Commission. The EC believes that subsidies from state-owned airports is 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 euros of subsidies. Walloon authorities who offered the subsidies were considering appealing the ruling because of the roughly £30 million that the airline route brings to the area every year.

An investigation into a fire onboard RyanAir Flight 296 between Dublin Airport and London Stansted Airport saw the airline critised for failures in the training of staff to cope with emergency situations, such as the opening of emergency doors. Also critised was RyanAir's training staff in Eastern European countries, making staff pay for their own training, and also charging staff for uniforms and airport security badges.

In August 2004 the airline was the subject of severe media and public criticism when the Evening Herald Irish newspaper revealed evidence of apparently deliberate damage being caused to a passenger's luggage by baggage handlers who had also opened the customer's luggage. The fact was only discovered when the customer, on developing film from a camera that had been in the baggage, found pictures taken by Ryanair staff of a smiling baggage handler throwing his bag around the baggage area.

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