Ryanair talk of transatlantic flights

Ryanair talk of transatlantic flights

The CEO of the low cost airline Ryanair has again raised the possibility of launching transatlantic flights, provided you can access the slots desired flights in cities and the number of long-haul aircraft required.

After finalizing its order for 175 Boeing 737-800 June 19, 2013, and referred to the purchase of at least 200 737 MAX, Michael O'Leary is back on the possibility of launching routes to North America, prices "starting at 10 euros or 10 dollars" in order to "break" the transatlantic service. "There is an opportunity to connect fifteen or twenty European airports to 15 biggest cities in the United States" through the open skies agreement between the two sides of the ocean, he said.

Irish specialist cheap flight would separate this activity, like AirAsia (forerunner in this field with AirAsia X), Norwegian Air Shuttle, Jetstar (Jetstar Asia) or Cebu Pacific subsidiary. And to achieve the necessary economies of scale, the CEO believes it should have dune fleet "from 30 to 50 units and not 4 or 6", which would be constructed with a premium class: it "would be crazy to exclude 15 % of passengers' willingness to pay this extra says O'Leary. The main obstacle course will obtain slots flights, although Ryanair boss did not mention of any questioning of his preference for smaller airports.

The transatlantic Ryanair want is not new: it was spoken in April, giving himself so "four or five years" to start the project, and had also raised the issue during his failed attempt to merge with Aer Lingus when she promised to Europe to pass traffic from the Irish national carrier from 9.5 to 14 million passengers per year including through the expansion of its transatlantic network.

Examples of low cost long-haul multiply: in addition to companies already mentioned, it is recalled Scoot launched by Singapore Airlines and Air Canada Red will serve Europe from July. But questions remain profitability, AirAsia X has quickly abandoned such roads from Kuala Lumpur to Paris or London. Recall that the first and only low cost transatlantic Britain's Laker Airways went bankrupt in 1982 after two years of activity at low cost.