Analysis Of Ryanair's Market Trends

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Market Trends

Past
Before Ryanair was formed in 1985, Aer Lingus was the main airline in Ireland. However, since Ryanair restructured and re-launched as a low-cost carrier in 1991, competition has risen substantially. It took many years for Ryanair to catch up with Aer Lingus, but during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ryanair achieved a compound annual traffic growth rate of 30.5%, which significantly threatened Aer Lingus’s profit and growth margins. However, Aer Lingus’s structural reformation into a low fare airline caused Ryanair’s profits to fall by 20% in 2003. Aer Lingus was losing approximately 2.5 million euros a day, with passenger numbers having fallen by 4.6% over the previous year (O’Connell and Williams, 2005). However, the …show more content…

More routes have been announced, such as a year-round service between Dublin and Newark (Kelpie and Mulligan, 2016) . Aer Lingus and Ryanair are both expected to perform positively in coming years. Ireland’s resurgent economy is a significant reason why both airlines are expected to do well in the future. Aer Lingus’ increased emphasis on transatlantic and long haul operations is likely to drive revenue per seat growth, while Ryanair’s position as a benchmark in efficiency and value, combined with its recently discovered friendly image, should further drive growth. (Euromonitor, …show more content…

Aer Lingus faces competition from several other airlines, including CityJet, Lufthansa, and Ryanair.
Ryanair is increasingly overshadowing Aer Lingus in the airline industry, and is becoming one of the most successful airlines in Europe. Unlike Aer Lingus, Ryanair was known for its no-frills approach, poor customer service, excessive fees and a poorly designed website. Despite these weaknesses, the airline’s low priced tickets attracted millions of customers each year. Ryanair has now strengthened its position in the industry. For the past couple of years Ryanair has been trying to “improve its image among the travelling public, with the airline being keen to display its ‘nice’ side with its recent ‘Always Getting Better’ programmes” (Euromonitor, 2016). Ryanair’s low cost operations allow budget conscious customers to fly abroad in an affordable manner. Ryanair’s punctuality and flawless safety record are additional strengths to the company. As a result of its improved strategy, in 2015, Ryanair became the fastest growing player in Ireland. Sales values reached €299 million, an increase of 14% (Euromonitor,