Strategic Management of Ryan Air

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

Cathal Ryan and Declan Ryan have started Ryanair since 1985. For nearly a year, Ryanair had operated a 14-seat turboprop between Waterford and Gatwick Airport on the outskirts of London. The airline targeted low-fare segment market. It initiated service from London’s secondary airports. In terms of competition, Waterford and Gatwick didn’t pose any challenges.

Ryanair was founded in 1985 by Tony Ryan who already died in 2007. It was originally a full service airline and turned into a low-cost carrier in 1990s. Ryanair used a series of cost-cutting policies to attain to the target as its mission statement (Ryanair Annual Report, 1999):

The case study which I have decided to choose is Ryanair. The company began in 1985 by Christopher Ryan, Liam Lonergan and Tony Ryan the airline started with just 25 employees and 15 aircraft. In 1987 Ryanair purchased their first jet and began to fly to various destinations throughout Europe. In 1990 Ryanair accumulated losses of £20 Million and Michael O Leary was made Chief Executive of Ryanair. Michael O Leary wanted to make Ryanair a low cost airline which would provide cheap flights throughout Europe and use a low cost leadership strategy.

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)

Summary: Ryanair was founded in 1985 by the Ryan family to provide scheduled passenger airline services between Ireland and the UK, as an alternative to the then state monopoly carrier, Aer Lingus. It started out a full service conventional airline, with two classes of seating and leasing three different types of aircraft. However, despite growth in the passenger volumes financial problems were of a growing concern.

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.

The airline industry has always been a fiercely competitive sector. Since the invention of low-cost carriers, also known as no-frills or

Ryanair is an Irish based airline company, headquartered in Dublin airport, Ireland. It was established in 1985, and since Ryanair has expanded from a small airline to serving 90.6 million passengers. It operates 1,800 flights a day connecting 200 destinations. (Ryanair Annual Report, 2015; (Ryanair)).

The first successful low-cost carrier was Pacific Southwest Airlines in the United States, which pioneered the concept when their first flight took place on May 6, 1949. However, Southwest Airlines that began service in 1971 and has been profitable every year since 1973. With the advent of aviation deregulation, the model spread to Europe as well, the most notable successes being Ireland 's Ryanair, which began low-fares operations in 1991, and easyJet, formed in 1995. Low cost carriers developed in Asia and Oceania from 2000 led by operators such as Malaysia 's AirAsia, and Australia 's Virgin Blue. The low-cost carrier model is applicable worldwide, although deregulated markets are most suited for its rapid spread. In 2006, new low-cost carriers were announced in Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

Set up in the year 1985 at a capital of 1 pound with a staff strength of 25, Ryanair is today the World’s favourite and most commonly used airline which operates more than 1,400 flights per day from 44 bases and 1100+ low fare routes across 27 countries, connecting 160 destinations. Ryanair operates a fleet of 250 new Boeing 737-800 aircraft and is expected to increase it by another 64 in 2 years. Ryanair currently has staff strength of more than 8,000 people. Its passenger base has been increasing

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

first it should be underlined, that in the airline industry, there are two types of buyers (Hartley, 2013). The first type is the individual buyers, who buy tickets for personal or business reasons, related to their own individual well beings. This type of buyers is extremely diverse and there is barely someone who had never bought a ticket, especially in the developed countries. A plane ticked could be purchased directly from the airline company’s ticket offices or from the second group of buyers, e.g. travel agencies and online portals. This buyer group works as a middle man between airlines and flyers. They work with many airline companies to give consumers the best possible flight. Between these two groups there is definitely a large amount of buyers compared to the number of firms. There is low cost shifting between companies because many people choose flights based on where they are going and costs at the time. This is a loyalty to the companies, but not enough high switching costs. Each client needs a lot of important information. They need

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

We will see how Ryanair was successful as world’s one of the most favoured low-fare airline and how did it apply each of this mix by putting in the