The Irish airline Ryanair, which was originally founded in 1985 as a regional carrier, is now the most popular airline in the world. With 79 million passengers per year and a network of 1500 routes from 51 airports, it is also one of the fastest growing and largest international airlines. Ryanair began flying from Dortmund Airport to seven attractive destinations in the summer of 2013.
The figurehead of Europe's leading low-cost airline, which has its headquarters in Dublin, is managing director Michael O'Leary, who has been head of the company since 1993. He is well known for his consistent pricing policy. The Ryanair principle is to offer lower prices than the competition. In order to ensure that its prices are as low as possible, Ryanair has a young, modern fleet, which keeps costly maintenance work to a minimum. On average the aircraft are four years old. Another cost reduction measure is to use only Boeing 737s. This significantly simplifies flight scheduling and cuts the cost of parts storage and pilot training.
As well as reducing costs, a young fleet also increases passenger safety. In addition, Ryanair is famous for its punctuality. The ticketless airline flies primarily from regional airports such as Dortmund and keeps its turnaround times short. In 2012, its punctuality rate was 93%, which put it ahead of airlines such as Lufthansa and British Airways. Ryanair also held two other records in 2012. It had the smallest number of items of lost luggage and the fewest flight cancellations.
Ryanair charges extra for flight and baggage check-in. Snacks and drinks on-board can be booked separately. Since the beginning of 2012, it has been possible to reserve seats on Ryanair planes. In addition, for a small extra charge passengers can opt for priority boarding, which allows them to board the plane before the other passengers.