What Is Ryanair Competitive Advantage

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 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)

During the initial phase of the airline, the flights will originate from OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and fly to Bloemfontein, Kimberley, and Nelspruit. According to the airline's details, flights will go to Bloemfontein five times a day during the week‚ twice on Saturdays, and three times on Sundays. Kimberley will be served three times a day during the week, once on Saturdays, and twice on Sundays. Flights to Nelspruit will leave twice daily Monday to Friday‚ with one flight on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Generally speaking, the launch strategy of Ryanair was not the best one for that moment in time. They began operations between Dublin and London, in a very saturated market, which was already served by two competing and very experienced companies owned by the governments:

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

Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s charismatic boss and one of the most successful business man in the world. Starting from a single plane company, in about 30 years he has made Ryanair the largest airline in Europe. With turnover of €5 billion and a profit of €591.4 million in 2014 (Ryanair on top1000.). He achieved this through his masterful leadership and with an attractive business model with central focus on cheap costs. So how did Michael O’Leary

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

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

For many years up to 1990, the financial performance of the company which was negative, dramatically changed with the appointing of the new Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary. The new management vision was to restructure the company based on the Southwest Airlines prototype business model with a culture of low-cost / low fare. Thanks to the European Union deregulation air transport in …, the company opened new routes and bases, increase its market share and became the first airline in Europe to carry over 100 Million international customers in a calendar year (Ryanair,2016) due to its low cost competitive advantage.

Ryan air, an Irish airline started in 1985 by Ryan family with a capital share of £1 and a staff of 25. Over the past few years the company has shown tremendous ontogeny. Indeed it is Europe's largest low cost carrier and fastest growing airlines. Currently it’s operating more than 1,500 flights every day from over 50 bases and around 1400 low fare routes across 28 countries which connect 165 destinations.

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