The story
Founded by Tony Ryan in 1985, in Waterford.1
1984–1989
The company was incorporated on 28 November 1984 as Danren Enterprises. It was founded by Christopher Ryan (1936–2007), Tony Ryan (1936–2007) (founder of Guinness Peat Aviation), his son Declan Ryan, and Liam Lonergan (owner of Irish travel agent Club Travel).
The airline was renamed Ryanair and launched its first flight on 8 July 1985, between Waterford and Gatwick Airport, with a 15-seat Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante turboprop aircraft. Cabin crew were required to be at most 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) tall "in order to be able to operate in the tiny cabin of the aircraft". As of September 1985, Ryanair was operating 9 weekly flights on the route. In its first year, the airline carried 5,000 passengers.
The first chief executive was Eugene O'Neill (1956–2018), who had formerly worked as managing director of Tony Ryan's Sunday Tribune newspaper and as Ryan's personal assistant. O'Neill was talented at marketing but did not focus on costs, and the airline lost money in its early years. Ryan vetoed O'Neill's proposal to accuse Aer Lingus for breach of competition rules at the European Commission because at the time Aer Lingus was state-owned and Ryanair depended on the Irish government for its route licences. Ryan fired O'Neill in September 1987, who sued for wrongful dismissal.
Beginning in 1986, under partial European Economic Community (EEC) deregulation, airlines could begin new international intra-EEC services as long as one of the two governments approved. The Irish government at the time refused to allow Ryanair to add a route between Dublin and Luton to protect Aer Lingus, but Britain, under Margaret Thatcher's deregulating Conservative government, approved the service. The company was then able to add its second route, with two Hawker Siddeley HS 748s, directly competing with the Aer Lingus/British Airways duopoly for the first time. Ryanair's price of £99 return was half of that of the legacy carriers; Aer Lingus then cut its price to £95 return and Ryanair cut its price to £94.99 return. In their first year of operation, Ryanair's two routes had 82,000 passengers.
In 1986, Ryanair acquired an 85% stake in London European Airways (LEA) in a £630,000 rescue package. It was re-launched in April 1987 using a leased BAC One-Eleven. In May 1987, the service launched routes between Luton and Amsterdam and Brussels. In January 1988, it was rebranded as Ryanair Europe. LEA was dissolved in May 1991.
In 1987, the company lost £3 million. That year, the company began wet leasing BAC One-Elevens from TAROM and increased its network to 15 scheduled routes.
In 1988, Michael O'Leary, formerly an accountant at KPMG who had handled tax preparation for Tony Ryan and his companies and a classmate of Declan Ryan, joined Ryanair first as a financial assistant to Tony Ryan and then as chief financial officer of the company. That year, the company began leasing ATR 42-300s from Guinness Peat Aviation and launched a business class service and frequent-flyer program; they were ended the following year.
In 1989, a Short Sandringham flying boat was painted with Ryanair livery as part of a proposed sponsorship deal with Foynes Flying Boat Museum but never flew revenue-generating services for the airline.
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1990–2009
By 1990, the company had accumulated £20 million in losses. That year, O'Leary was dispatched to Dallas to meet with Herb Kelleher, a co-founder of Southwest Airlines and an acquaintance of Tony Ryan. He came back with a plan to transform Ryanair to a low-cost carrier modelled after Southwest. O'Leary's strategy was to adopt a simple all Boeing 737 fleet, pursuing expansion over yield, create a culture of cost-cutting, and re-educate the customer to prefer lower prices to frills. Ryanair implemented a 30-minute turnaround goal to allow aircraft to make more flights per day. The company then restructured with an additional £20 million investment by Tony Ryan. Also that year, the company moved its base at Luton Airport to London Stansted Airport. The company switched to a buy on board programme, the route network was reduced from 19 destinations to 6, and the cheapest ticket prices were reduced from £99 to £59 return. By the end of 1990, the airline was on pace for 745,000 passengers per year.
In 1991, due to a decline in demand during the Gulf War, the airline lowered fares and increased operations at London Stansted Airport, generating a total profit of £293,000 for the year. In 1992, the airline carried 945,000 passengers.
In January 1994, Ryanair took delivery of its first Boeing 737. That month, Michael O'Leary became the sixth chief executive officer of the company. At that time, Ryanair was owned by the three sons of Tony Ryan.
In 1995, Ryanair carried over 2 million passengers.
Ryan clashed with O'Leary, with Ryan wanting the airline's public relations stunts to be less aggressive, and O'Leary suggesting that Ryan should leave the board.
Ryanair Holdings was established in 1996 as a holding company for Ryanair.
The EU Single Aviation Market established in 1992 as well as the airline deregulation in April 1997 and the removal of cabotage gave low-cost carriers, including Ryanair, the opportunity to expand.
The airline became a public company via an initial public offering in May 1997, raising funds on the Dublin and the NASDAQ stock exchanges to expand the company across Europe. All employees received free shares in the IPO; many pilots' shares were worth over £100,000 by 2000. In 1997, Ryanair carried 3.7 million passengers.
In 1998, Ryanair launched services to Stockholm, Sandefjord Airport, Torp, Beauvais–Tillé, and Charleroi.
In May 1999, the Ryan family sold 10.5% of the company, reducing their stake to 17.1% and netting approximately £117 million and Michael O'Leary sold 1.5% of the company, reducing his stake to 10.8% of the company and netting about £17 million. In 1999, flush with new capital, Ryanair placed a US$2 billion order for 45 new Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
By March 2000, Ryanair operated a total of 33 routes. The airline launched its website in 2000 built by a 17-year old entrepreneur for IR£20,000. Management thought that the online booking engine would only be a small part of its business. By the end of 2001, 75% of bookings were made online.
In December 2001, competing low-cost airline Go withdrew its service from Dublin due to competition from Ryanair.
In January 2002, the airline ordered 155 new Boeing 737-800 at what was believed to be a substantial discount due a decline in demand after the September 11 attacks, to be delivered over eight years from 2002 to 2010. Approximately 100 of these aircraft had been delivered by the end of 2005, despite production delays in late 2005 caused by a Boeing machinists' strike.
In June 2002, the High Court of Ireland in Dublin awarded Jane O'Keefe €67,500 damages and her costs after Ryanair reneged on a prize of free flights for life that she was awarded for being the airline's 1 millionth passenger in 1998.
In 2002, Ryanair refused to provide wheelchairs for disabled passengers at London Stansted Airport, leading to lawsuits. The airline argued that this provision was the responsibility of the airport authority, stating that wheelchairs were provided by 80 of the 84 Ryanair destination airports. A court ruling in 2004 judged that the responsibility should be shared by the airline and the airport owners; Ryanair responded by adding a surcharge of £0.50 to all its flight prices.
In April 2003, Ryanair acquired its ailing competitor Buzz from KLM for approximately €20 million. It was shut down in October 2004.
In June 2003, spats between O'Leary and the founding Ryan family led to the resignation of Declan Ryan, who had been on the board of directors of the company since 1985. The Ryan family sold additional shares in the company, reducing their stake to 55 million shares. Tony Ryan offered to resign, but he remained on the board until his death in 2007.
In August 2003, MyTravelLite started to compete with Ryanair on Birmingham to Dublin route. Ryanair set up competing flights on some of MyTravelLite's routes until it withdrew from the market.
A loss of €3.3 million in the second quarter of 2004 was the airline's first recorded loss for 15 years but the airline soon became profitable again. The enlargement of the European Union in May 2004 allowed for more new routes for Ryanair. In September 2004, EasyJet announced routes to Ireland for the first time, beginning with the Cork to London Gatwick route. In 2006, EasyJet withdrew its Gatwick-Cork, Gatwick-Shannon, Gatwick-Knock and Luton-Shannon routes due to competition from Ryanair.
In February 2006, Britain's Channel 4 broadcast a documentary as part of its Dispatches series, "Ryanair caught napping". The documentary criticised Ryanair's training policies, security procedures and aircraft hygiene, and highlighted poor staff morale. Ryanair denied the allegations and claimed that promotional materials, in particular a photograph of a stewardess sleeping, had been faked. In May 2006, the company was criticised by The Guardian for its £3.15 "aviation insurance levy" added to the cost of all tickets; the publication noted that most of this was profit to the airline.
An early day motion in the British Parliament put forward in July 2006 criticised Ryanair for its complex, predominantly online-only complaints process; it was signed by 57 members but tabled on 24 July 2006.
In October 2006, Ryanair launched a €1.48 billion bid to buy Aer Lingus; Ryanair already owned 19% of Aer Lingus. Aer Lingus immediately rejected Ryanair's takeover bid, saying it undervalued the airline. In October 2006, DFDS Seaways ended its Newcastle–Gothenburg ferry service, the only dedicated passenger ferry service between Sweden and the United Kingdom, citing competition from low-cost air services, especially Ryanair.
In April 2007, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary stated that it had the goal of launching a transatlantic low-cost airline; the launch was delayed and never came to fruition. In 2023, Ryanair said that it had no plans for transatlantic routes.
In August 2007, the company started charging passengers to check in at the airport to encourage people to check-in online, thereby reducing costs. In October 2007, upon the death of Tony Ryan, the Ryan family stake in the airline was 5.9%.
In October 2008, Ryanair withdrew operations from a base in Europe for the first time when it closed its base in Valencia, Spain. Ryanair estimated the closure led to 750 job losses.
In September 2008, Ryanair asked the Irish High Court to investigate why it had been refused permission to fly from Ireland West Airport to Dublin. This route was won by CityJet, which could not operate the service; the route was then given to Aer Arann without an additional tender process. However, Ryanair lost its challenge in the courts.
In December 2008, Ryanair launched a second takeover bid of Aer Lingus, offering an all-cash offer of €748 million, a 28% premium on the average value of Aer Lingus stock during the preceding 30 days. The Aer Lingus board rejected the offer. In January 2009, Ryanair ended the takeover bid after it was rejected by the Irish government on the grounds it undervalued the airline and would harm competition. However, Ryanair retained a 30% stake in Aer Lingus; in October 2010, competition regulators in the UK opened an inquiry, due to concerns that Ryanair's stake may lead to a reduction in competition. In 2015, after multiple appeals, the Competition Commission required Ryanair to sell down its stake in Aer Lingus to 5% by selling shares to International Airlines Group, which acquired Aer Lingus that year.
In February 2009, Ryanair announced that later that year it would close all airport check-in desks and that passengers would be able to leave their luggage at a bag drop, but everything else would be done online.
In May 2009, Ryanair abolished airport check-in and replaced it with a fast bag drop for those passengers checking in bags, adding fees for passengers that do not check-in online. In June 2009, due to the Great Recession, Ryanair reported an annual loss of €169 million, its first annual loss since the IPO.
2010s
In May 2010, Ryanair was fined €3 million by Italy's civil aviation authority for refusing to pay for lodging and food for passengers stranded due to air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption. The refusal resulted in a lawsuit; Ryanair lost the case in January 2013.
In May 2010, a Spanish customer brought a claim against Ryanair for unfair surcharges, claiming that the €40 surcharge on passengers who failed to print out a boarding card before arrival at the airport was unfair. In January 2011, judge ruled that Ryanair can neither demand passengers turn up at the airport with their boarding pass, nor charge them if they do not, and that the fines were abusive because aviation law obliges airlines to issue boarding passes. Ryanair appealed the decision and the Appeals Court in Spain overturned the ruling in November 2011, holding that the surcharge complies with international law.
In 2010, Ryanair carried 66.5 million passengers.
In 2011, Ryanair legally challenged regulations to ban credit card surcharges. Ryanair used a legal loophole to continue to charge credit card surcharges by allowing for payment with a very low frequency payment mechanism without a surcharge.
In February 2011, Ryanair opened a maintenance hangar at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, its biggest fleet maintenance base.
In March 2011, a former Ryanair captain was awarded £40,000 by an employment tribunal in London after being fired for handing out a union form to a cabin crew member while on duty.
In June 2011, Ryanair and COMAC signed an agreement to cooperate on the development of the C-919, to compete with the Boeing 737.
In April 2011, Ryanair began adding a surcharge of €2 to its flights to cover the costs arising from compliance with EC Regulation 261/2004, which requires it to pay for meals and accommodation for passengers on delayed and cancelled flights.
Ryanair cut capacity by grounding 80 aircraft between November 2011 and April 2012 due to the high cost of fuel and weak economic conditions during the Euro area crisis.
In July 2012, a 69-year-old woman, Frances Duff, who has a colostomy, was refused permission to bring her medical kit on board, despite having a letter from her doctor explaining the need for her to carry this with her, and was asked by Ryanair boarding staff to lift her shirt in front of fellow passengers, to prove that she had a colostomy bag. Duff had previously attempted to contact Ryanair on three occasions to inquire about its policy regarding travellers' colostomy bags, but each time no one answered the phone after half an hour.
After failing to reach an agreement from negotiations in 2009, in March 2013, Ryanair signed an order for 175 new Boeing 737-800 aircraft with a list price value of $15.6 billion before discounts, increasing its fleet by 30%, to 400 planes. At that time, Ryanair had 305 planes.
In August 2013, as part of its Dispatches series, Channel 4 aired a documentary, "Ryanair: Secrets from the Cockpit", that made allegations about Ryanair's safety standards. Ryanair sued Channel 4 and The Independent for defamation and fired a pilot that appeared in the documentary. The case with The Independent was settled in November 2013. The case with Channel 4 was settled in 2025 on undisclosed terms.
In October 2013, Ryanair announced what it described as a series of "customer service improvements", including lower fees for reprinting boarding passes, free changes of minor errors on bookings within 24 hours, and a free second small carry-on bag. Ryanair said it was making the changes as a result of customer feedback. The airline also redesigned its website, reducing the number of clicks required to book a flight from 17 to 5. The changes came about after a profit warning implored management to improve customer satisfaction.
In January 2014, Ryanair moved into a new €20 million, 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) Dublin head office in Airside Business Park, having outgrown its previous office within Dublin Airport.
In April 2014, Ryanair ordered five more aircraft, four of them to be delivered in 2015 and the last one to be delivered in February 2016, to bring the number of aircraft on order to 180.
In May 2014, Ryanair's office in Marseille was raided by French police investigating complaints that the company was failing to follow French employment law. Ryanair lodged a complaint.
In June 2014, Ryanair announced a campaign to re-invent itself as a more family-friendly airline. At the company's 2014 annual general meeting, CEO Michael O'Leary said that the airline needed to "stop unnecessarily pissing people off". Ryanair said up to 20% of its 81 million customers were travelling as families, and it wanted to raise that figure. Service improvements included not charging customers for minor infractions of its bag policy and eliminating some "irksome charges and restrictions". This change in approach had an almost immediate positive effect on the company's finances.
In the summer of 2014, Ryanair contracted AirExplore to operate some summer flights between London Stansted and Dublin airports.
In September 2014, Ryanair agreed to purchase up to 200 Boeing 737 MAX 200 aircraft (100 confirmed and 100 options) with a list price of over $22 billion before discounts.
In May 2015, the Mayor of Copenhagen supported boycotting Ryanair and banned city employees from using the airline during working hours after Danish unions protested salary and working conditions. After a court trial confirmed the unions' right to a strike action, Ryanair closed its operations in Denmark.
In March 2016, Ryanair launched a corporate jet charter service, offering a Boeing 737-700 for corporate or group hire.
In November 2016, Ryanair launched Ryanair Holidays, a package holiday service, in partnership with Spain-based tour operator Logitravel and accommodation provider World2Meet. The service was first launched in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Germany. The service was discontinued in January 2019.
In April 2017, Ryanair started issuing tickets for connecting flights, starting with a transfer hub in Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO), meaning if a connection is missed, the customer will be rebooked at no extra cost and compensated according to the EU Flight Compensation Regulation.
In September and October 2017, Ryanair cancelled between 40 and 50 flights per day, about 2% of total daily flights. Flights were cancelled with very little notice, sometimes only hours before departure. Ryanair said that the cancellations aimed "to improve its system-wide punctuality" which had dropped significantly in the first two weeks of September which the airline attributed to "ATC capacity delays and strikes, weather disruptions and the impact of increased holiday allocations to pilots and cabin crew." In subsequent statements, Ryanair acknowledged that it had "messed up" holiday schedules for pilots, including a change to the calendar year for how vacations were calculated.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ryanair, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6