Ryanair

Introduction

Ryanair Company is an Irish low-cost airline with its headquarters at Dublin Airport, Ireland. It has also a base in London Stansted, Airport.  Ryanair operates more than 200 Boeing 737-800 aircraft on over 1000 routes across Europe and Morocco from its 40 bases. The airline experienced rapid expansion because of its low-cost business model. Ryanair is the largest airline in terms of passenger numbers.

Ryanair is one of the most successful businesses in Europe over the past decade. The company has developed an effective communication strategy. It used media and advertising. Ryanair revolutionized European air travel. Ryanair was Europe’s original low-fares airline and it is still Europe’s largest low-fares carrier. Ryanair targets in the first instance, as the largest and most successful of Europe’s low fare airlines, leisure travellers and the visiting friends and relatives segment of the market. Low price, value for money and efficiency are core values for Ryanair. Those core values should not change regardless of environmental turbulences. This means that cost reduction and other profit sources than travel fares are important factors in Ryanair’s strategy since they cannot compensate its expenditure by increasing travel fares. For the low cost strategy prices of taxes, fuel, and governmental regulations are especially important. The airline deregulation not only helped Ryanair but also increased competition under different airlines and air traffic. The result of this is increased regulations by the European Union (EU) government in terms of safety and environmental rules. This again raises operating costs within the EU.  Efficiency and low prices are due not the least to the company’s lower labor expenses.

The Ryanair Company controls these costs through a performance related pay structure. This special system is of course also dependant on EU social/employment legislation, which is always subject to change. A main problem is the uncertainty of...