Ryanair’s €17 Billion Investment in a bid to Double Passenger Numbers

In a bid to double passenger numbers to 150 million by 2024, the Irish airline Ryanair has ordered 200 new Boeing 737 aircrafts. This will make the low-cost airline as big as Air France and Lufthansa combined (the next two largest European airlines) in terms of total fleet size. The bill is thought to be costing Ryanair approximately €17 billion. The airline just last year ordered 180 Boeing 737-800s which cost €12.4 billion in June 2013. This may seem like a large sum of money, but with annual pre-tax profits of approximately €591 million, 17 million Euros is a fractional amount. Ryanair Airlines will be selling many of its existing fleet in order to make way for the new models.

In the last financial year, Ryanair carried 81.7 million passengers, making it the largest airline in Europe with regards to passenger volumes. Air France shortly followed behind, carrying 77.3 million passengers, while Lufthansa carried 76 millions passengers. In terms of Ryanair’s operating margins, the airline is comfortably outperforming its rival easyJet. However, easyJet is achieving significantly higher returns on capital compared to Ryanair. The two budget airlines are always in high competition with each other, as both airlines focus on short-haul flights across European destinations. Ryanair recently imitated rivaleasyJet, by introducing business class tickets. Ryanair has also made radical changes to their policies in order to become more "customer friendly", as the airline had a very bad reputation. The airline was renowned for issuing high fees and hidden charges for overweight baggage and re-printing of boarding passes. These charges have since been significantly reduced. Ryanair used to charge £70 to reprint a boarding pass, but now charge a reasonable £15. Checking baggage in at the airport also reduced from £60 to £30 per bag. Ryanair decided to revoke these charges, as the company strives towards a more positive future for both the airline and flight passengers. In order to increase passenger volumes from 81.7 million passengers to 150 million passengers by 2024 is an incredibly optimistic but perhaps achievable goal. In addition to expanding the Ryanair fleet size, the airline has been expanding geographically too and has been exploring potential new routes.

An online poll conducted by Martin Lewis (MoneySavingsExpert.com) showed that Ryanair had only responded to 4% of flight delay compensation claims made against them, and 62% of claims were still ongoing. This data was collected from a total of 622 passengers. Airlines tend to leave claims ongoing rather than resolving the claims straightaway which means that passengers have to wait months before making any progress. This is why it is advised to contact a flight delay refunds companies such as Blueway Limited (www.flightdelayrefunds.com). If you decide to cooperate with Blueway it will significantly speed up the claims process and your claim will be taken seriously. Blueway will manage your claim from start to finish, alleviating you from stress. Visit their website for more information on how to claim compensation. Don’t delay, contact Blueway today!