I can’t believe nobody has mentioned this….
Ryanair plans launch of transatlantic no-frills airline with fleet of 50 A350s or 787s
murdo morison, Dublin (11Apr07, 19:33 GMT, 405 words)Ryanair intends to launch a no-frills long-haul airline around the turn of the decade serving five or six US cities from its 23 European bases and offering fares as low as $12.
The no-frills carrier will operate independently of Ryanair and buy a fleet of up to 50 Airbus A350s or Boeing 787s at a time when chief executive Michael O’Leary expects prices to dip following the current surge in orders.
There has long been speculation that Ryanair will enter the long-haul market, but this is the first time O’Leary has outlined concrete plans. In an exclusive interview to be published in next week’s Flight International magazine, he says the recent open skies agreement, which allows airlines to operate transatlantic flights without individual national bilateral deals from 2008, has made it possible.
With “the cheapest fare €10 ($12)”, O’Leary expects the services, to secondary airports such as Baltimore, Providence in Rhode Island and New York Long Island Islip Macarthur “to be full”. He expects sales of food, drink, duty-free goods and in-flight entertainment to be a major revenue earner.
However, the new airline will have a “premium class” pitched against “the best in the business” such as Virgin Atlantic.
O’Leary says he has already had speculative approaches from US airports and is confident the venture will succeed despite the failure of several transatlantic low-fare airlines over the years.
“By mid 2009, we will be carrying 70 million passengers at 23 bases across Europe,” he says. “It will be relatively straightforward for us to do a deal for 40 to 50 long-haul aircraft and connect these bases transatlantically. There would be no one to touch us.”
The new airline will be run entirely separately from Ryanair with its own executives and board and a different name, says O’Leary. There would be no cross-ticketing or connecting luggage. Running the long-haul operation as a subsidiary “would be a distraction for Ryanair”, he says. “The minute you put a long-haul business on top of a short-haul operation you kill it.”
The venture is being pursued independently of attempts to take over fellow Irish carrier Aer Lingus, something O’Leary says could still happen. However, Ryanair is not interested in the recently-privatised flag-carrier’s Airbus A330-based long-haul operation and would sell or close that to focus on Aer Lingus’s “mid-price, mid-frills” services from Dublin to major European airports such as London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle, running them separately from Ryanair.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
By: alangirvan01 - 12th April 2007 at 23:56
My prediction is that one of the first destinations in the USA will be a Florida point. Not one of the well known airports, but perhaps Melbourne, FL, which is about an hour in a bus north of Orlando. Ryan Atlantic can fly direct from UK airports like Prestwick, Stansted, NEMA – no need to worry about connecting flights.
12 pounds will be the lead in price – you will have to be quick to get the cheapest fares.
Ryan Atlantic will be totally different on long haul, just as BA has different service and seat pitch on long haul and short haul flights.
It will be easy to pre purchase meals and entertainment at the time of booking. By the time Ryan Atlantic is in the air IFE will be better than it is now – live internet connections will be standard at every seat.
The best thing is that Ryan Atlantic should be uncomplicated.
By: PMN - 12th April 2007 at 22:58
And where does that idiot think he’s going to get 787s or A350s from, for the turn of the decade??? :confused: Lets see, turn of the decade is 2010, 787 production sold out until 2012, A350 EIS 2013… :rolleyes:
Mind you, I don’t really care. I wouldn’t give O’Leary my money if he ran the last airline on the planet. I’m more interested in the likes of Silverjet and Maxjet than Ryanair-longhaul – these will offer the real competition to the established Trans-Atlantic carriers if they grow and prosper, whereas all Ryanair will do is take away the real low-fare end of the market that the likes of BA don’t make money on and with a bit of capacity downsizing could do with less of anyway.
Andy
I thought you loved Ryanair and O’Leary, Andy? :diablo:
Paul
By: Skymonster - 12th April 2007 at 22:31
And where does that idiot think he’s going to get 787s or A350s from, for the turn of the decade??? :confused: Lets see, turn of the decade is 2010, 787 production sold out until 2012, A350 EIS 2013… :rolleyes:
Mind you, I don’t really care. I wouldn’t give O’Leary my money if he ran the last airline on the planet. I’m more interested in the likes of Silverjet and Maxjet than Ryanair-longhaul – these will offer the real competition to the established Trans-Atlantic carriers if they grow and prosper, whereas all Ryanair will do is take away the real low-fare end of the market that the likes of BA don’t make money on and with a bit of capacity downsizing could do with less of anyway.
Andy
By: Manston Airport - 12th April 2007 at 21:53
Cant I ever have a dream:D Yeah they probly will order the 787-8
James
By: Oasis747 - 12th April 2007 at 21:30
But I like to see what aircraft they get hope its a A330:D
Well the A330 isnt an option. the source indicates A350 OR 787. I personally think they will choose the 787 due to ryanair being an all boeing fleet
Josh
By: Manston Airport - 12th April 2007 at 19:46
Well i dont think it has been mentioned because i dont think people really want to think of the torture they would go through if this did happen.:cool:
Well I am one for sure that would not like to fly Medium haul on Ryanair :diablo:But I like to see what aircraft they get hope its a A330:D
James
By: MapleLeafYYZ - 12th April 2007 at 17:22
This announcement is good business, pure and simple.
Ryanair has gone about setting up bases throughout Europe and they’ve set up an huge network from which to feed one of the most lucritive markets in the world. Whether or not you agree their tactics or business philosophy, there is a market for this product.
From Canada, speaking from our market, charter flights on Air Transat, Zoom, and so on, are always full – though low frills is a down grade from charter.
People will pay for little extras like entertainment and so on. It still comes out to less than what the majors would charge. And the fact that they will have a premium product will generate income. A lot of major business persons travel to smaller fields already for private jets, so I think they’ll go for this as well – obviously not in as large of numbers as they do to the majors.
One more point. With 23 bases to fly to, this strategy also eliminates a whole whack of transiting through major hubs and added travel time, something a lot of travellers deplore.
By: cloud_9 - 12th April 2007 at 14:37
To be honest I think this will work and will appeal to alot of people, because a flight to New York for just $12 does sound great! Having said this, I think it is a mistake for them not to include a baggage transfer policy between the short and long-haul sectors. How hard can it be to move a bag from one aircraft to another? They could even charge an extra ten quid for the privelige, which would be yet another revenue generating scheme but one that i think would be quite popular with pax that decide to book ‘through’ tickets.
At this stage though, I personally do not see myself using this service, although I am not in a position to comment fully because I have never had the experience of flying on a ‘low-cost’ airline before, although I am due to fly with FR for the first time to Dublin on 27th June, so you can expect my first impressions to be expressed to the full in my trip report when I get home…:D
By: tomfellows - 12th April 2007 at 13:42
I would love to see this happen, and I’m sure it will.
Paul – totally agree with everything you said in your post. MP3 player and a newspaper all I need. 🙂
By: PMN - 12th April 2007 at 13:08
I read about this yesterday and it certainly is quite interesting. I’ve heard it said many times a low cost transatlantic service would be doomed from the start to always operate empty, but I still don’t fully understand why. People talk about IFE as though it would be the end of the world if they were to do a flight longer than 2 hours without it, but there are many people (me included) for whom an iPod and a window is the only IFE I really need. I don’t see any reason if no frills transatlantic services were introduced, why they shouldn’t attract a good number of passengers.
I guess it’s all personal though. In the last 10 years of touring I’ve travelled 600 miles in a day crammed into a little 3.5 ton van three or four times a week, done many thousands of miles around the UK and Europe on absolute luxury tour buses (the coach equivalent of a bizjet basically), flown with FR many times and done a good few business class flights with various airlines, and after all that not having IFE or full service just doesn’t bother me that much anymore, and neither does the ‘status’ some people strangely attach to flying full service airlines all the time! Just my opinion though. 🙂
Paul
By: Oasis747 - 12th April 2007 at 12:53
Well i dont think it has been mentioned because i dont think people really want to think of the torture they would go through if this did happen.:cool:
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April 12, 2007 at 12:23 pm