Low-cost airline giant Ryanair is on a journey to upgrade its fleet to carry 300 million passengers a year by 2034. Thomas Haynes examines recent events at the carrier and reports on its plan to achieve this ambitious aim

Boeing delivery delays forced Ryanair to implement aircraft reductions at several airports during the winter 2023 season

KEY-THOMAS HAYNES

Like all airlines, Ryanair was not immune to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the years prior, it had tracked an impressive trajectory towards its long-time goal of carrying 200 million passengers in a single year. The travel restrictions of 2020/2021 dealt a significant blow, but it wasn’t long before traffic figures returned and exceeded pre-pandemic numbers. In 2019, it carried 142 million people while at the height of the crisis during 2020, just 27.5 million flew with the airline. However, it would take only two years for it to reach 169 million, which was, in part, a reflection of a wider rebound in peoples’ willingness to travel after restrictions were lifted.

Base boost

Emerging from the pandemic in 2021, the low-cost carrier went on a base launching spree in a bid to cement its position as the leading airline in select markets. New locations included Agadir, Billund, Stockholm/Arlanda, Riga, Turin, Venice/Marco Polo and Venice/Treviso. It also re-opened its Cork base.

The Boeing 737-800 has become the cornerstone of the Ryanair fleet

BOEING

The following year, it re-launched its hubs in Girona, and the Canary Islands at both Tenerife/South and Lanzarote, while also opening new bases in Madeira and Newcastle.

Speaking at the time of the latter’s launch, Ryanair’s director of marketing, Dara Brady, said: “The opening of this base and introduction of these new routes from Newcastle reinforces our commitment to increasing connectivity, travel options and inbound tourism to the area as Ryanair will now offer 40% more capacity than it did pre-pandemic.”

In 2023, another handful of bases were launched including Copenhagen, Dubrovnik, Reggio, Tangier and Trieste. As of June 2024, the company boasted a roster of 95 operating bases – which is nine more than it had at the end of 2019.

Fleet focus

As has long been the case, Ryanair is a single-fleet all-Boeing airline – with the small exception of its Austrian subsidiary Lauda, which flies a roster of 27 Airbus A320-200s.