Porter's 5 Forces of Ryanair

Ryanair was established in the year 1985 by the RYAN family and has grown from a small airline flying a short hop from Waterford to London, into one of the Europe’s largest carriers. The company expanded and within 4 years it had 350 employees, 14 aircraft, and carried 600,000 passengers a year. It is currently serving to 26 European Countries with 148 destinations. It operates on 794 different routes daily serving by more than 1050 flights in a day. It has totally 169 aircrafts running for different routes with 5986number of employees working in it However, Ryanair’s costs rose drastically and it recorded losses of £20 Million sover four years despite its growth. Although consumers were continuing to fly Ryanair

As can be understood from the analysis given below, if British Airways can cut it’s staffing by 25%* and increase it’s utilization to 90% from 60%, it shall be able to reduce the prices significantly to I£104, still I£6 more than Ryanair. As British Airways is a renowned market leader, people would be inclined to travel by British Airways by paying the I£6 extra than by a relatively unknown carrier Ryanair. Also, such a reduction in tariff on all of BA’s routes might not be necessary. It can very well position separate flights/routes for this rate so as to offset any reduction in utilization through profits in other routes.

In order to determine whether the Five Forces are still applicable, this part will analyse Industry in general concerning structural changes due to Digitalization. Because of Digitalization, another two forces significantly affect the competition which are Globalization and Deregulation. The impact of Globalization on the Industry structure is the customers gain benefit as comparing global prices become much easier and faster in from the Globalization process (Dalken, 2014).

This section will examine each of the five competitive forces that are active in the European Airline Industry. In this instance the buyers in the industry will be taken as passengers. Fuel companies, aircraft manufacturers and employees are the suppliers. Substitutes stem from modes of transport that fall under land and sea transit. Potential entrants are any airlines based outside of Europe or newly founded airlines based in Europe.

The strategic plan of Ryanair has been to establish itself as Europe’s leading low-fares airline.” Ryanair aims to offer low fares that generate increased passenger traffic while maintaining a continuous focus on cost-containment and operating efficiencies.” (www.ryanair.com)

Since Ryanair is looming their highest return-on-capital route, it was expected that, not to lose the passengers volumes, both airlines will start to offer lower fares and greater frequency of flights. It is not likely that BA and AL will try to match the exact prices of Ryanair because they have other factors that would influence their customer base to remain loyal. Also, the majority of their costs are fixed, making it difficult for them to quickly reduce their operating expenses without significant financial losses. Not only will BA and AL have to figure out ways to lower their costs, they will also need to reassess the limitations they have on their tickets. Ryanair is offering tickets without any restrictions, so even if BA and AL came close to their price, the customer may still choose Ryanair if the others do not make policy changes. They offer a variety of classes of service, from first to economy, while Ryanair has less complicated offer - one class on one type of plane. BA and AL were assuming that the deregulation of the airline industry, particularly in the United Kingdom, will allow them to expand their routes and cover more of their significant overhead. Some expected

In 2013, Ryanair was both the largest European airline for the numbers of passengers carried, and the busiest international airline by passenger numbers. They are calling themselves, “Europe’s only ultra low-cost

Ryanair, originally an Irish low-cost airline and established by the Ryan family in the year of 1984 starting off with only 25 members of staff. Replicating the American Southwest airline business model and then officially relaunched in the year 1990. It has vastly grown from being a single-aircraft family operation into one of the world’s top leading airlines. Now Ryanair has reached 11,458 employees. The airline carries over 131 million passengers per annum on over 2,000 flights daily, from 86 different routes, flying to more than 205 destinations in 33 countries.

Prior to 1991, Ryanair had suffered from continuous losses from 1985 to 1989. The first reason that put it into this situation was that it tried to position itself as a low fare airline with the first rate services. It tried to keep low and unrestricted fare, while keep focusing on the best customer service and relationship. This mixed model was proven inefficiency. The low price could lure number of

Ryanair is Europe’s largest low-fares, no-frills short-haul carrier. The organisation was founded in 1985 as a conventional airline but re-launched itself in 1990/1991 as a low-cost carrier, replicating American Southwest Airlines’ business model. Since then Ryanair has grown

Substitutes to air travel pose a significant threat to the profits of the entire airline industry. It is advantageous to be in an industry with few or no substitutes as they diminish profitability for the industry as a whole. There are many alternative ways in which a person can travel long distances. Therefore, the airline industry is threatened by many substitutes. Trains are the primary substitute to air travel in that they provide long distance travel at marginally lower expense to the buyer. Train stations are also generally more accessible to the public than an airport, which adds further appeal to the substitute of traveling by rail. An advantage held by airlines is the fact that air travel is widely known to be a much faster mode of transportation, yet more and more buyers are choosing train travel over air travel strictly slight for the price advantage.

1. In-depth environmental analysis of the European Airline industry and discuss the implications for the budget sector and especially for Ryanair. 2. An integrated understanding of the functioning of a company – its human and technical operations, leadership, customer relationships and financial structure. 3. Implications of the internal functioning to create viable strategic positioning and discuss any changes to Ryanair’s approach to ensure an improved sustainability 4. Evaluate the strategic leadership style of Michael O’Leary

In the airline markets, SIA has strong competition from not only Asia areas, airlines but also many international brand airlines such as United Airlines and American airlines (best airlines in American for 2012). Although SIA has a great brand reputation with global markets, but it also continually develops the new equipment in the busy airline industry to provide the new attractive point for increasing the customer satisfaction.

The objective of this report is to appraise and evaluate the external environment, internal capabilities of Ryanair and assess the competitive environment. This project report also evaluates the marketing focus deployed by Ryanair in the year 2009 when the airline achieved a benchmark by being Europe’s largest carrier by passenger numbers and market capitalisation.

The industry analysis can be performed by evaluating the ability of all firms to operate profitably within the airline industry. Porter’s five forces of competition model is a perfect tool to perform such analysis. The threat of new entrants is moderately high since President Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, removing U.S Federal Government control over fares, routes and market entry. Therefore, the industry has become less regulated and allowed many new firms to enter the market. Thus, the airline industry requires a lot of capital investments which can disinterest some investors. The bargaining power of buyers rests in the hands of the customers by reducing the price or by asking greater levels of service. It is highly powerful because customers can easily switch to another airline or even another transportation method. They also have the option to deal with a travel agencies that will recommend the best airline according to their needs. The bargaining power of suppliers is high because it is dominated by few large companies. Airbus and Boeing are two manufacturers that have both created a duopoly for the past 15 years in the supply of aircraft (business insider, 2017). The threat of substitute is very high, especially in short haul. There are many alternatives to air travel such as driving, taking the train or the bus. The intensity of rivalry among competitors is also high because there are numerous competitors selling a