ABSTRACT

The projected Ryanair passenger number for the year ended 31 March 2005 is 28 million. In the European international scheduled airline market Ryanair will rank third after Air France/KLM at 45 million and Lufthansa at 30 million passengers respectively. In April 2004 the market capitalisation of Ryanair was E3747 million. This compares with E1206 million for easyJet, its main low-cost rival, and E4155 million for Air France/KLM, E4961 million for British Airways, E5428 m for Lufthansa and E2584 million for Iberia. This article examines the sustainability of the Ryanair model which differs substantially from the traditional European national airline model that dominated the sector before deregulation.