Irish low-cost carrier and by far Europe's largest airline, with a fleet of over 640 planes and a fifth of the continent's capacity. Founded as a tiny, barely profitable airline, it was built over 30 years by Michael O'Leary into one of the world's most successful carriers. It expects to have carried 208m passengers in its financial year ending April 2026—roughly double EasyJet's figure and triple that of Wizz Air, its main low-cost competitors.
O'Leary borrowed the low-cost model from America's Southwest Airlines but perfected it. Ryanair uses cheaper, less popular airports, operates a single type of plane (the Boeing 737) to keep maintenance and pilot-training costs down, and keeps planes full and flying for as much time as possible. Its net margin is around 15%, compared with a worldwide average of just 4%. Since the beginning of 2023 its shares have risen by 130%, far outpacing the global industry.
The collapse of Alitalia in 2021 allowed Ryanair to take a 40% share of Italy's domestic market. It also moved into Sweden and Denmark to exploit the post-pandemic weakness of SAS, a Scandinavian rival. Half its seats still depart from three countries: Britain, Italy and Spain. Capacity at several regional airports in Spain is being slashed in a disagreement over rising fees.
Ryanair has some €1bn ($1.2bn) in cash and hopes to be debt-free by May 2026. Keeping most of its pilots and staff during the pandemic, while others laid people off, enabled it to rapidly take advantage of the rebound in air travel. Its financial strength has helped it buy planes on the cheap, including when Boeing was desperate for orders.
A giant order for up to 300 larger, more fuel-efficient versions of Boeing's 737 MAX, which should start to arrive in 2027, will further reduce costs and propel the airline towards its goal of shifting 300m passengers a year by 2034.
Passengers do not get Wi-Fi, phone charging or seats that recline. Elon Musk called O'Leary an "idiot" for not installing his Starlink satellite Wi-Fi; O'Leary returned the insult, launched a "big idiot" sale and thanked Musk for "a bumper week of free PR". Musk, who is not a citizen of the EU, cannot buy the Irish airline.
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