Michael O'Leary to begin transatlantic airline?

Dub13

Just listening to the news on Newstalk and apparently this is going to be announced tomorrow.

Budget airline Ryanair plans to offer trans-Atlantic flights as cheap as 10 euros ($12.70) before taxes to several U.S. cities from Britain and Ireland, a company official said, according to a newspaper report Sunday.

The Irish airline wants to offer services from London's Stansted and Dublin airports to New York, Florida, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary was quoted as saying in an interview with Britain's News of the World tabloid.

Ryanair Holdings PLC spokeswoman Pauline McAlester said she could not confirm the plan before an official announcement Monday when the company's half yearly results — expected to show a fall in profits as a result of slowing consumer demand — are announced.

"Economy class will be very cheap — around 10 euros. But our business class will be very expensive. There's always 10-15 percent who'll pay whatever it costs for a wide seat," O'Leary was quoted as saying.

Last month, the airline closed a base in Valencia, ending 70 weekly flights to the city in southern Spain.

But O'Leary hopes Ryanair could snap up aircraft from struggling rivals to create a new trans-Atlantic service, the newspaper said.

"We'll just have to keep flying more aircraft, opening up more routes and offering people more cheap flights," he was quoted as saying.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/02/business/EU-Britain-Ryanair.php

Benedict XVI

It will be interesting how the low fares model will work on long flights

LAX - DUB is a good 8 or more hours, they may just intorduce shorter East cost flight first and see how they do.

helimachoptor

Benedict XVI wrote: »

It will be interesting how the low fares model will work on long flights

LAX - DUB is a good 8 or more hours, they may just intorduce shorter East cost flight first and see how they do.

A lot more! LAX -> LHR I think was 15 though I was asleep for most of it!

I'd say they could well start with NY, Chicago and see how that goes.

Would be on to a winner

KhanTheMan

LAX was 10 hours for me. Ryanair will fill all their seats. They will put anyone who cant compete out of business and the greens will be outraged that we are all flying and lob more tax onto it.

BuffyBot

Despite the reporting, O'Leary has made it clear previously that *if* he does this, it'll be a seperate venture frmn Ryanair. Title change to reflect that.

As for the possibility - it's going to take a while to make it happen. He'll need a fleet for a start, along with the infrastructure that goes with it. And a fleet that would meet his needs will be hard to come by. Newer, fuel efficient planes aren't growing on trees. Older, fuel guzzlers, however are two-a-penny at the moment as other airlines shed them. However, that's not going to sit well with his business model.

This all seems to of come about because News of the World ran the story in the UK as part of an interview. It's nothing he hasn't already said before over the last two years.

The more cynical might even consider it a nice bit of sleight of hand to generate publicity to blur the fact that Ryanair's figures are not going to be good news when announced.

Random

Very interested to see this happening! I wonder how much comfort people will be willing to give up on a 10 hour flight though for the sake of a cheap flight.

I'm talking seat space, leg room, etc .. not the free ice cream and drinks you usually get. In fact I'd be quiet happy if they charged for all food/drink/films and discounted things slightly.

Savman

He's been saying this for years. Any day now...

kaiser soza

Mabey he has bought an island in caribbean and the first plane load will be taken as slaves for the Ryanair corporation.

Benedict XVI

BuffyBot wrote: »

Despite the reporting, O'Leary has made it clear previously that *if* he does this, it'll be a seperate venture frmn Ryanair. Title change to reflect that.

As for the possibility - it's going to take a while to make it happen. He'll need a fleet for a start, along with the infrastructure that goes with it. And a fleet that would meet his needs will be hard to come by. Newer, fuel efficient planes aren't growing on trees. Older, fuel guzzlers, however are two-a-penny at the moment as other airlines shed them. However, that's not going to sit well with his business model.

This all seems to of come about because News of the World ran the story in the UK as part of an interview. It's nothing he hasn't already said before over the last two years.

The more cynical might even consider it a nice bit of sleight of hand to generate publicity to blur the fact that Ryanair's figures are not going to be good news when announced.

His side-kick Michael Cawley (sp) was on Morning Ireland this morning. He said that there is no firm time for a transatlantic venture yet, he said the first thing to was to get a long haul fleet and that will only happen once the price of long haul planes starts to come down, which he sees happening soon due to the current world wide recession

Clearly this was yet another rooooze to gain maximum airtime/free advertising for ryanair with it's results announcement.