Ryanair to start Transatlantic Flights in 3-4 Years

bryanw

Thursday, 12 April 2007, RTE Business News

Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary has said that the airline intends to begin transatlantic flights within three to four years.

In an interview with Flight International, Mr O'Leary said the airline was looking at flying to up to six US cities from European airports where it has bases.

Mr O'Leary said the cheapest flights for US passengers to be around $12, but revenues would be increased by sales of food, duty free goods and inflight entertainment.

He also said the airline would include a premier class on the service.

http://www.rte.ie/business/2007/0412/ryanair.html
EDIT: Flight International (More Info)

Looks like open skies is getting better... or is it? Suppose this will be the end Transatlantic flights being the ones when you can bring lots of stuff with you.

EDIT 2: Apparently from what I've gathered, Ryanair plan to launch and run a separate airline.

Slice

Ryanair are very quick to dismiss Aer Lingus as a small fries yet they consistently respond seriously to competition them that contradicts their public comments. When Aer Lingus first increased low-cost services Ryanair abruptly ended its boycott of Dublin Airport to launch more routes. When Aer Lingus went public Ryanair launches a take-over bid and now that Aer Lingus is clearly going to expand into America with low-cost routes after Open-Skies once again Ryanair is reacting to the competition.

El Stuntman

Slice wrote:

Ryanair are very quick to dismiss Aer Lingus as a small fries yet they consistently respond seriously to competition them that contradicts their public comments. When Aer Lingus first increased low-cost services Ryanair abruptly ended its boycott of Dublin Airport to launch more routes. When Aer Lingus went public Ryanair launches a take-over bid and now that Aer Lingus is clearly going to expand into America with low-cost routes after Open-Skies once again Ryanair is reacting to the competition.

more competition = good news

who cares if it's reactive or not?

testicle

bryanw wrote:

EDIT 2: Apparently from what I've gathered, Ryanair plan to launch and run a separate airline.

Or buy one.

Keyzer

I would imagine Ryanair would have to bump up their current level of comfort on their planes as a result of this.

I can't imagine sitting on the cirrent fleet of buses with wings for 10 hours going transatlantic...

kmick

You can just about put up with Ryanair shorthaul. Imagine the pain of longhaul. Aer Lingus for long haul for me thanks. I recently had to fly to Manchester with them and they charged me 6 Euros for 0 items of luggage (is this a first?).

robinph

kmick wrote:

I recently had to fly to Manchester with them and they charged me 6 Euros for 0 items of luggage (is this a first?).

You should have unselected the priority boarding option that it selcts for you by default on the order form.

Owen

[sarcasm]You'll have to pay for a meal, TV, and all baggage.[/sarcasm]

dmeehan

i am looking forward to see what the prices will really be
and also where they will fly to/from - looks like a lifeline is being hung out in front of shannon airport

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

MrPudding

ned78 wrote:

[sarcasm]You'll have to pay for a meal, TV, and all baggage.[/sarcasm]

Well yeah. He says this in the quoted article.

MrP

drdre

Cant wait, its going to be cheap
More competition is good for us

egan007

You just have to admire this guy love him or hate him

mickoneill30

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

I'd disagree with that. I've on about 10 airlines in the last 2 years and (apart from the Shannon stopover) the flights to / from Boston on Aer Lingus were one of the better flights. (Purely personal opinion though).

Idbatterim

If MOL and Ryanair want to establish themselves, better off to announce their interntions now instead of other carriers establishing themselves. It will no doubt alter others plans if they know they are going to be competing with Ryanair. I would agree that the planes would have to be more comfy than at present, then again Ryanair could probably offer a first class service at a far lower rate than BA or Virgin. Its going to be interesting to see how it pans out. If the rates are as cheap as suggested people will probably head over to the states for the weekend almost! The weak dollar would be a big incentive!

Stimpyone

mickoneill30 wrote:

I'd disagree with that. I've on about 10 airlines in the last 2 years and (apart from the Shannon stopover) the flights to / from Boston on Aer Lingus were one of the better flights. (Purely personal opinion though).

Agreed, I've flown on all of their US routes quite regularly over the last few years ( in both the posh part and the cheap seats )and in my opinion the service is quite satisfactory.

On a side note, if the amount of verbal abuse I have witnessed the Aer Lingus cabin crew enduring from Mr and Mrs Joe public in regards to Ryan Air comparisons, negativity regarding their cost cutting, take over bids etc on these routes I have a feeling that Michael's going to have a hard time selling this to the public.

As one poster put it 10 hours on a Ryan Air flight.... no thanks.

El Stuntman

Stimpyone wrote:

As one poster put it 10 hours on a Ryan Air flight.... no thanks.

or as another poster put it:

"I can put up with discomfort easily enough if it saves enough money"

kmick

robinph wrote:

You should have unselected the priority boarding option that it selcts for you by default on the order form.

There was no deselect as far as I could see.

gilroyb

10 euro transatlantic one way. Flying from the major European hubs, so Dublin (or maybe Shannon according to his interview on Newstalk), London (Stansted), and Frankfurt (Hahn).

He says the way they'll do it is also have a very nice business class on the front which will better serve business class travellers than AerLingus or BA. The economy seats will be cost effective as an addition to this business class section.

It's to be a whole new airline, and wont be starting in the next two years. Could well be just another Ryanair publicity stunt, but will be interesting to watch.

EDIT: Added particular airports

gilroyb

kmick wrote:

There was no deselect as far as I could see.

After you select the priority booking, a 'remove' option appears below the drop down box you just used. This gets rid of the €6 charge

Stimpyone

El Stuntman wrote:

or as another poster put it:

"I can put up with discomfort easily enough if it saves enough money"

Horses for courses I suppose.

Enigma365

After you select the priority booking, a 'remove' option appears below the drop down box you just used. This gets rid of the €6 charge

Yeah, they deliberately hide it, so that some people assume they have to pay the 6 euro.

Flyglobespan is already doing low-cost flights form Ireland/UK to US/Canada. They charge for meals and entertainment. They arn't crazy cheap though.

Enigma365

Actually, just checking their site. Flyglobespan are pretty cheap.

€212 incl taxes Dublin-Toronto return in May.

Don't get much cheaper than that.

talkingclock

robinph wrote:

You should have unselected the priority boarding option that it selcts for you by default on the order form.

How? Where? I just did a test booking and if I don't want to have baggage the dropdown field reads "0 Bags - Online Checkin/Priority Boarding" with no option of "No Priority Boarding". The only thing to tick is the Sports Equipement"

zeusnero

Enigma365 wrote:

Yeah, they deliberately hide it, so that some people assume they have to pay the 6 euro.

It's not hidden - people just need to open their eyes and read what they're agreeing to...

EDIT: http://www.isbts.com/img2006/ryanair.jpg

talkingclock

I call this "hidden".

Enigma365

Its deliberately designed so that its not obvious. I am a software engineer and I am pretty confident in saying that from a usability point of view, the only reason they would have designed the form the way they have, would be to mislead some consumers into thinking that the fee was mandatory.

I don't think its immoral or anyway illegal. Its a clever way of doing business. But it is deliberate.

BTW zeusnero you disproved your own point by adding a red underline to the relevant link. You have shown yourself that it is not easily found in its default design, and has to be highlighted to be easily noticed.

Chris_533976

Thats not hidden at all IMO. Just punishes people who dont read about what they're paying for.

Read the page and you wont have to pay. Simple as that.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Enigma365

Thats not hidden at all IMO. Just punishes people who dont read about what they're paying for

Well in fairness, you're making a judgement based on a screenshot with a bright red line added under the relevant link. That red line is not on the web site.

Anyway, its not exactly hidden. Its just designed so that more people will pay the fee without always noticing the option to disable it. But sure, you're right, thats the customers fault for not reading the fine print.

By the way if they were trying to make it an obvious choice, they would simply have put "0 bags - no priority check in" as an option in the drop down. The fact that they went out of the way to add un-necessary additional functionailty when an extra option in the drop down would have worked fine, shows that they were deliberately trying to make it unclear.

penexpers

Enigma365 wrote:

Actually, just checking their site. Flyglobespan are pretty cheap.

€212 incl taxes Dublin-Toronto return in May.

Don't get much cheaper than that.

It looks like a terrible service though, once a week flights, very limited choice of meals, no mention of what ife is like.

I guess this could be an indication of what Ryanair's service will be like.