Ryanair is an Irish airline. Founded in 1985, it originally operated on two routes between Ireland and the United Kingdom. The company relaunched itself as a low fares/‘no frills’ airline in 1990/91 and, following the full deregulation of air transport in 1997, increased the number of services it offered to continental Europe. By the summer of 2003 Ryanair was operating on 127 routes that cover 84 destinations across 16 countries. Its annual traffic amounts to more than 15m. passengers.
To maintain its status as a low fares/‘no frills’ airline Ryanair has concluded agreements with small, underused airports which are able to charge the airline low landing fees and provide subsidies from regional government to encourage their use. The Bas-Rhin Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which manages Strasbourg airport, paid €1.4m. (US $1.5m.) to Ryanair to help the carrier launch two daily round trip flights from London’s Stansted airport. In response to a complaint by Air France, a court in France ruled in September 2003 that this payment had amounted to illegal state aid to Ryanair. The airline suspended its service and launched one to Baden-Baden in Germany instead.
In February 2004 the European Commission ruled that Ryanair had received illegal incentives from the Wallonian regional government in Belgium to use Charleroi airport, south of Brussels. The Commission claimed that such incentives were incompatible with the proper functioning of the internal market. Ryanair was ordered to repay 25%–30% of the subsidy it had received, a sum of some €1.4m.
CEO: Michael O’Leary
Address: Ryanair Corporate Head Office, Dublin Airport, Co. Dublin, Ireland
