Ryan Air
Strategic Management
Ryanair has grown to be the leading European low cost airline (Figure 1) since its foundation in 1985. This essay analyses a Ryanair case study (Durham University Business School case study) and seeks to assess Ryanair’s competitive strategy, success factors, distinctive capabilities and the sustainability of their competitive strategy.
The airline has 57 bases and over 1,600 daily flights across 29 countries. It operates a fleet of 303 new Boeing 737-‐800 aircraft, employs over 9,000 people and will carry over 81.5 million passengers this fiscal year (Ryanair.com).
Figure 1
Top 10 Airlines (3-‐Jun-‐2013 to 9-‐Jun-‐2013, Europe to Europe, System traffic), ranked by Seats
Source: CAPA -‐ Centre for Aviation & Innovata
The competitive strategy adopted by Ryanair emulates a low-‐cost strategy pioneered by Southwest Airlines in the USA. Following the appointment of their CEO Michael O’Leary, Ryanair implemented this low-‐cost approach in 1991 (case study) that at the time did not exist in Europe. At this stage it could be argued that a “blue ocean” strategy was (Kim & Mauborgne, 2004) initiated by creating
Ryanair has grown to be the leading European low cost airline (Figure 1) since its foundation in 1985. This essay analyses a Ryanair case study (Durham University Business School case study) and seeks to assess Ryanair’s competitive strategy, success factors, distinctive capabilities and the sustainability of their competitive strategy.
The airline has 57 bases and over 1,600 daily flights across 29 countries. It operates a fleet of 303 new Boeing 737-‐800 aircraft, employs over 9,000 people and will carry over 81.5 million passengers this fiscal year (Ryanair.com).
Figure 1
Top 10 Airlines (3-‐Jun-‐2013 to 9-‐Jun-‐2013, Europe to Europe, System traffic), ranked by Seats
Source: CAPA -‐ Centre for Aviation & Innovata
The competitive strategy adopted by Ryanair emulates a low-‐cost strategy pioneered by Southwest Airlines in the USA. Following the appointment of their CEO Michael O’Leary, Ryanair implemented this low-‐cost approach in 1991 (case study) that at the time did not exist in Europe. At this stage it could be argued that a “blue ocean” strategy was (Kim & Mauborgne, 2004) initiated by creating
References: (2011) Exploring December (2009) M. (1996)