Ryanair

Ryanair was founded in 1984 by the Ryan family — Tony Ryan, Liam Lonergan, and Christopher Ryan — initially operating a 15-seat Embraer 110 Bandeirante from Waterford to London Gatwick. The airline was losing money rapidly. In 1994, the Ryan family hired Michael O'Leary — an accountant who had never worked in aviation — as CEO. O'Leary studied Southwest Airlines intensively and concluded that the US low-cost model could be even more aggressively applied in Europe, where airlines were protected by government ownership and bilateral agreements that restricted competition.

European Union air transport deregulation in 1997 allowed airlines to fly any route within the EU at any price. Ryanair had anticipated the change and was positioned to exploit it immediately: the airline offered fares that were fractions of the legacy carriers' prices, using secondary airports (Stansted rather than Heathrow, Charleroi rather than Brussels) that offered lower charges and faster turnaround times. The formula was simple and devastating for incumbents: fill the plane with passengers at any price necessary, then earn the real margin on baggage fees, seat selection charges, car hire commissions, and hotel sales.

O'Leary's genius was recognising that the base airfare was not the product — it was the marketing. The product was the ancillary revenue that passengers generated once they had committed to flying: checked bag fees (introduced in 2006), priority boarding fees, in-flight food and drink, car hire commissions, hotel bookings, and eventually seat selection charges for every seat on the aircraft. The model converted Ryanair's customers into a captive audience of millions who, having bought a cheap ticket, were then upsold at every stage of the journey.

By 2014, Ryanair's customer satisfaction scores were among the worst of any airline in Europe. O'Leary launched an "Always Getting Better" programme that softened the most egregious fee structures, improved the website, introduced allocated seating for the first time, and ended the practice of charging for printing boarding passes. The improvements dramatically improved customer satisfaction without significantly denting the financial model. Passenger numbers continued to grow, and the stock rose accordingly.

Ryanair reported revenues of approximately €15 billion for fiscal year 2024, carrying 180 million passengers — more than any other European airline. Its market capitalisation of €31.8 billion made it the most valuable airline in Europe, exceeding Lufthansa Group despite operating a fraction of the routes. The airline's fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 8-200 jets — a variant developed specifically for Ryanair to carry 197 passengers on a standard 737 body — operated with the lowest unit costs in European aviation. O'Leary, approaching 25 years as CEO, remained the most recognised and most contentious figure in European aviation.