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Ryanair

Europe's largest ultra-low-cost airline by passengers and fleet.

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The airline's headquarters are located in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland, and it operates as an ultra-low-cost carrier.[1] Within Europe, Ryanair holds the top position for scheduled passenger numbers, fleet size, and flight volume.[1] On a global scale, it ranks first for international passenger traffic and third in market capitalization, trailing only Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.[2]

Last updated 2026-10-13 from the source article.

Key facts and history

The company was incorporated on 28 November 1984 as Danren Enterprises and was founded by Christopher Ryan, Tony Ryan, his son Declan Ryan, and Liam Lonergan.[3] During its initial twelve months of operation, the number of passengers transported totaled 5,000.[4] By the start of the 1990s, the firm's cumulative financial losses had reached £20 million.[5] In that same period, Michael O'Leary traveled to Dallas for a meeting with Southwest Airlines' Herb Kelleher, after which he devised a strategy to convert Ryanair into a budget carrier.[5]

An initial public offering in May 1997 made the airline a publicly traded entity, with capital raised on both the Dublin and NASDAQ stock exchanges.[6] The holding company, Ryanair Holdings plc, oversees several airline subsidiaries: Ryanair, Buzz, Malta Air, Lauda Europe, and Ryanair UK.[7] The entire group possesses a fleet of 651 aircraft and runs more than 3,500 short-haul flights each day, servicing roughly 230 airports across 36 nations.[7] Michael O'Leary, the long-serving CEO who holds about 4% of the company, often intentionally provokes media disputes to obtain free advertising for the brand.[8]

What the cited sources add

O'Neill wanted Ryanair to take Aer Lingus to the European Commission for breach of competition rules, but Tony Ryan vetoed that idea.[9] An Aviation Week & Space Technology article states that Ryanair first introduced the low-fare model on the London Stansted–Glasgow Prestwick route in 1995.[10] The same source notes that by March 2000, Ryanair operated a total of 33 routes from 3 bases including Dublin and London Stansted.[10] A Guardian article from 2006 reports that Ryanair published on its website the entire exchange of correspondence between the airline and the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary programme.[11]

The Ebsco research starter records that Ryanair became the first European airline to have carried over one billion people in 2017.[12]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Ryanair" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Ryanair Holdings Public Limited Company", lei-ireland.ie (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Ryanair" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: O'Halloran, "Ryanair carries more international passengers than any other airline", Irish Times, 25 August 2016; "Largest airlines by market cap", Companies Market Cap; "Top publicly traded airlines by earnings", Companies Market Cap; Pope, "'Fake results': Ryanair responds after finishing last in passenger satisfaction survey", The Irish Times, 27 February 2026; "Ryanair Holdings plc FY 2025 Annual Report (Form 20-F)", United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 19 May 2025; Mohamad, "Ryanair: How Europe's Cheapest Airline Became Its Mos en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Ryanair" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Aldous, "Tony Ryan: Ireland's Aviator", Gill & Macmillan Ltd, 2013, p. 80; Peters, "From small-scale startup to low-cost leviathan – marking 40 years of Ryanair", AeroTime, 17 February 2024; Veitch, "The method and madness, how Ryanair learnt to fly", Key.Aero, 11 November 2024; Hancock, "Flying too close to the sun – how poor management and greed downed GPA", The Irish Times, 12 October 2009 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Ryanair" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hall, "Ryanair opens Dublin to London route", Aviation News, 30 May 1986, p. 44; Aldous, "Tony Ryan: Ireland's Aviator", Gill & Macmillan Ltd, 2013, p. 80; Endacott, "Ryanair will be planning some bold moves after turning 40", Travel Weekly, 10 July 2025; Veitch, "The method and madness, how Ryanair learnt to fly", Key.Aero, 11 November 2024; Liu, "Routes Europe Flashback: Ryanair From the Beginning", Aviation Week & Space Technology, 10 April 2015; Slater, "Ryanair marks 40 years since first flight took off from Waterford Airport", Waterford N en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Ryanair" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Veitch, "The method and madness, how Ryanair learnt to fly", Key.Aero, 11 November 2024; Veitch, "The method and madness, how Ryanair learnt to fly", Key.Aero, 11 November 2024; Veitch, "The method and madness, how Ryanair learnt to fly", Key.Aero, 11 November 2024; Espiner, "Michael O'Leary: Ryanair's outspoken boss", BBC News, 4 February 2019; "Meet the legend who inspired Ryanair to fly so high", Irish Independent, 16 August 2012; "O'Leary's Ryanair Close to Catching Southwest in Market Value", Bloomberg News, 9 September 2015 (original not en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Ryanair" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jolly, "Ryanair profit falls, hammering shares", The New York Times, 28 July 2008; "Ryanair pilots and crew enjoy shares windfall", Irish Independent, 18 September 2000; Veitch, "The method and madness, how Ryanair learnt to fly", Key.Aero, 11 November 2024 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Ryanair" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Registered address and VAT number", Ryanair; "Our Network", Ryanair; "Ryanair Holdings plc FY 2025 Annual Report (Form 20-F)", United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 19 May 2025; Syme, "Ryanair's CEO says flight bookings in Europe have surged since Middle East travel chaos began", Business Insider, 4 March 2026; Efthymiou, "Low-Cost Carriers route network development", Annals of Tourism Research, July 2023; "Ryanair Cuts 800000 Seats to Germany in Dispute Over Taxes", Bloomberg News, 15 October 2025 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Ryanair" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "'You can't take that on the plane for free!' How Ryanair turned its staff into bounty hunters", The Guardian, 8 April 2026; Asquith, "The King Of Ancillary Revenue—How Chaos, Confusion And Low Prices Created One Of The Most Profitable Airlines In The World", Forbes, 4 March 2020; "Ryanair Holdings", Forbes; "Ryanair Holdings", Fortune; Smyth, "ieExplains: Why Elon Musk can't buy Ryanair despite his online jibes", Irish Examiner, 20 January 2026; Davies, "Michael O'Leary: a gift for controversy and an eye on the bottom line", The Observer, 24 S en.wikipedia.org
  9. "First chief executive of Ryanair who fell foul of Tony Ryan", The Irish Times, 21 April 2018. facts only, no text reused. irishtimes.com
  10. Liu, "Routes Europe Flashback: Ryanair From the Beginning", Aviation Week & Space Technology, 10 April 2015. facts only, no text reused. aviationweek.com
  11. "Ryanair accused in TV 'expose'", The Guardian, 13 February 2006. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  12. "Ryanair Ltd", Ebsco. facts only, no text reused. ebsco.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Ryanair (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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