| Ryanair (ISEQ: RYA, LSE: RYA, NASDAQ: RYAAY) is an Irish low cost airline with its head office at Dublin Airport, Ireland, and with primary operational bases at Dublin Airport and London Stansted Airport. Ryanair operates almost 250 Boeing 737-800 aircraft on over 1100 routes across Europe and Morocco from over 43 bases. The airline has been characterised by rapid expansion, a result of the deregulation of the air industry in Europe in 1997 and the success of its low cost business model. Ryanair is Europe's largest low-cost carrier, the 3rd largest airline in Europe in terms of passenger numbers and the largest in the world in terms of international passenger numbers. Ryanair now has a number of low-cost competitors. In 2004, approximately 60 new low-cost airlines were formed. Although traditionally a full-service airline, Aer Lingus moved to a low-fares strategy from 2002, leading to a much more intense competition with Ryanair on Irish routes.[citation needed] Airlines which attempt to compete directly with Ryanair are treated competitively, with Ryanair being accused by some of reducing fares to significantly undercut their competitors. In response to MyTravelLite, who started to compete with Ryanair on the Birmingham to Dublin route in 2003, Ryanair set up competing flights on some of MyTravelLite's routes until they pulled out. Go was another airline which attempted to offer services from Ryanair's hub at Dublin to Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland. A fierce battle ... |
