Ryanair boss O’Leary looks to low cost transatlantic carrier

[sn26567]

Michael O’Leary, ceo of Ryanair, is considering launching a low cost transatlantic carrier in the next three years.

He told a press conference in London that with the demise of airlines in the current economic gloom, cheap aircraft might become available. Aircraft ordered by carriers which had subsequently gone out of business could be delivered in 18 months.

He said the new airline would be separate from Ryanair, but it would probably use Ryanair European hubs like Stansted, Frankfurt-Hahn and Rome-Fiumicino.

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[Stij]

He said the new airline would be separate from Ryanair, but it would probably use Ryanair European hubs like Stansted, Frankfurt-Hahn and Rome-Fiumicino.

I guess they refer to Roma Ciampino instead of Rome Fiumicino...

Cheers,

Stij

[sn26567]

I guess they refer to Roma Ciampino instead of Rome Fiumicino...

You are right. ABTN refers to Fiumicino, but Ryanair only flies to Ciampino.

[beaucaire]

But the runway is only 2200 meters in Ciampino-too short for a transatlantic fully loaded..

[Depretair]

Hello,


Any idea of the type aircraft they will use for those transatlantic crossings ?

tx

Oli

[saratoga]

I think the B787.

[tsnamm]

This subject has been brought up a number of times in the past few years(by O'leary himself)...often in conjunction with an interline agreement with WN...possible US destimations mentioned were BDL,BWI,ISP & MHT...who knows if this will ever come to fruition.

[beaucaire]

I doubt Ryanair would buy the 787- if he has a project he'd rather wants it implemented within the next years -and not decades..The 787 has not even rolled yet -not to speak about flying ..
If FR wanted 787's they'd have to wait until 2014..much to far away to plan anything in aviation today.

[regi]

Yes, he has to wait for it so long, except if, what Ryanair is hoping for, some companies go bust, cancel orders or resell their modern airplanes.
Look how they started Ryanair, it was also with second hand material.
Ryanair does not have the attitude to stand in line waiting to be served. It is one of the reasons of their succes that they go to the sellers with "a take it or leave it" proposal.
Ryanair knows that they are not welcome at the large airports. So they hang out the sausage in front of small airport responsables and in many cases they bit in it.

[NCB]

I also doubt that it 'd be a B787 operation.

I think that they will start their longhaul operation with refurbished B767's from airlines that are receiving their B787's or if a major US airline folds down, they'd buy out their B777's.

MOL has come up with this idea about 2 years ago for the first time.

[nightflyer1980]

I wonder if Ryanair could offer us in the future a price lower than the actual offers, e.g. United from Brussels
to philadelphia: 53,- plux tax (=Total 320,89 Euro) or
to los angeles: 87,- plus tax (=Total 354,89 Euro)



May it go lower?

[regi]

imagine: a B777 all economy . How many seats?

[Conti764]

imagine: a B777 all economy . How many seats?

Well, I asume an LC all economy B777-300ER would have the KLM seating with 3-4-3 in economy. If I replace KL's 35 C seats with up to 80 (seemingly the equivalent of 35 C seats) more Y seats, I come up to a capacity of 470 economy passengers.

[LX-LGX]

Last year, the main Low Cost Long Haul carriers were Oasis, EOS, SilverJet (not the one with the mountain gorilla on its tail...), Zoom and MaxJet (offering cheap Business Class). Trust we all know what happened with all of these airlines.

Anyway : these are the challenges for Ryanair's long haul:

- there's no big advantage in fleet use, as legacy carriers use their wide bodies quite well;
- cost calculation shows that airport costs - Ryanair's biggest savings - are only a small part of long haul flight costs;
- same applies for aircraft costs: for long haul flights, fuel costs and staff costs are higher then aircraft costs;
- seat pitch has to be normal, giving Ryanair no benefit towards competition (Ryanair will have to avoid DVT - a fear for every long haul crew);
- if long haul flights are offered as no frills, the crew will have to act more as waitress / barman / restaurant staff then as flight attendants;
- quick turnarounds are impossible;
- legacy carriers have more access to backup aircraft (example: Kinshasa, Brussels Airlines: if a 333 is unavailable, there's a 319 ready within few hours);
- Ryanair's policy for cancelled, overbooked and delayed flights will be countered by European legislation. Compensation is 250 euro per pax plus hotel plus meals plus flight; passengers will join forces if Ryanair just tells them flight is cancelled;
- if a legacy airline overbooks, a competitor will accept the passengers. But if Ryanair overbooks, nobody wil help them at a competitive fare;
- legacy carriers have a high yield in Business and First, and can offer cheap Y-fares to compete with Ryanair;
- luggage policy from passengers for long haul is totally different from the one for short haul;
- starting up a route is expensive;
- if the route fails, it's a huge loss;
- most passengers for long haul book early, and it's difficult to sell the last seats on short notice;
- many long haul passengers need more then point to point (example add on flight, example other route for return flight);
- many passengers book long haul through a travel agency and/or tour operator; Ryanair has refused access for them.

It's no problem to add 20 more reasons why Ryanair will not start up Long Haul...

[NCB]

Last rumours are that the US Air Force is phasing out the KC-135's
Cheap low time machines, easy to refurbish and delivered with a full tank of gas.

imagine: a B777 all economy . How many seats?

Ole O'Leary has been very clear: there will be a business class.

As LX said, MOL might just be doing too crazy.
If you're good at running the 100m, it doesn't necessarily make you a good marathon runner.

LX has laid down many hurdles of the concept.
Let's see what markets we can find
-Last minute cheap fares (legacy airlines will charge more for last minutes nowadays)
-The creation of new A to B markets
-If that new airline can operate in the same way as Ryanair does, ie, making interests on hotel and car rentals, on top of selling alot of merchandise on board this might make sense.

Let's consider one of the bases that has been brought up...Rome. Very nice if true as many Americans would easily buy a 500$ return ticket to spend a week in Rome, in one of the Ryanair hotels and renting a Hertz rental through Ryanair. Rome is about to become kind of desperate as New AZ will reduce it to a focus city/mini-hub.
Why spend 1000$ for a return ticket to Honolulu when you can get a return to Rome, 10 day hotel and even car rental at the same price?

[regi]

O'Learry is a book keeper and used to nibble away a % here, and another penny there. I may assume that his big examples are the Aldi-brothers who are the richest Germans. ( Aldi makes in general 1% profit on turnover compared with a normal supermarket where the profit is just 0.5 % )

No extra thrills, food on demand, pay for luggage etcetera.
It is still a company and the only reason of existance of a company is to make profit, nothing else. Employment, reputation, working conditions, seat pitch, he doesn't care at all. It's all about the money.

Accidentally O'Learry is leading Ryanair. But imagine he would be boss of Carrefour, GM, Shell or ...Fortis.
If you would ask share holders of Fortis if they would have liked an O'Learry clone to be CEO of Fortis or Lippens, I know what they will scream out.

By the way, my question about a full B777 only economy was not that strange in the view what Corsair does with its B744.