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Ryanair
Location: Airlines / Ryanair information
Ryanair - airline information
General information
Ryanair is a major low cost carrier based in Dublin, Ireland, founded back in 1985, by Christy Ryan, after whom the company was named. Flying initially between Dublin and London, the carrier became an important budget air transporter and started earning well. The company, flying only a 15-seat Brazilian-made turboprop Embraer airplane had to compete with Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus and the immense British Airways. Ryanair's profit skyrocketed in the late 1990's and now, from several points of view, it can be considered Europe's largest low cost airline. The position is disputed with rival, easyJet.
Fact sheet
Destinations
Ryanair flies to 22 countries, 132 destinations across Europe, it being the continents low cost airline with the most extended network. Deceptive advertising causes chaos among travelers: destinations advertised are not always what they seem to be. The airline flies you to "Copenhagen" and you wake up in Malmö, Sweden. Or when flying to Oslo, you are brought to some faraway secondary airport 130 km from the Norwegian capital. You'd end up paying more to reach the city from the airport, then you did when you have booked your flight. Ryanair has many hubs across Europe, yet, the airports it operates are often too remote to be called the airport of the destination city for which they sell their tickets.
Fleet
Officially, Ryanair's fleet is all Boeing 737-800, but they also operate leased airplanes, occasionally. Among these you will find the popular Airbus A320s.
Activity & market position
Ryanair considers itself Europe's biggest low cost airline. This status is disputed with its biggest rival, the British easyJet. Ryanair's fleet is bigger than easyJet's, it also flies to more destinations, has more hubs and recently it had achieved bigger profit than the English company. But, easyJet has higher popularity, higher profit per passengers, has a wider network of additional services and is more preferred by its clients, as opposed to Ryanair being considered the "most disliked airline" by a survey made by Tripadvisor.com. Nevertheless, Ryanair's deceptive marketing techniques (promoting low fares, while in reality they're much higher) and aggressive advertising (which often offends it's competitors, especially easyJet) earns the company a bad reputation. Ryanair was involved in multiple scandals, like the one about the Charleroi Airport in Belgium, where the airline wanted to create a hub and make the airport pay. Normally airlines pay airports for operating on them, but in this case, Ryanair being a gigantic player, wanted to penetrate the regional market by establishing itself a monopoly. The Irish carrier denied charges, but the scandal has affected its already not too shiny reputation. Ryanair advertises itself as being cheaper than easyJet, fact not proven by their fares when one hits the search for specific flights. This air carrier has been long criticized for its practices, often at the limit of legality.
Last modified/updated: April 13, 2007
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