Ryanair: Low Cost Strategy Model

My first and most important goal in undertaking this research assignment is to source, dissect and analyse the low cost strategy model of Ryanair and how they succeed in using this strategy.

Ryanair, founded in 1985 by a man named Christopher Ryan has grown significantly throughout the years. It has grown to be the largest airline in Europe in terms of numbers of passengers. This is of course, down to their low cost strategy. Ryanair’s strategy is in no doubt a low cost strategy and in my opinion, if Ryanair could have the chance to fly passengers for free at a profit they certainly would! However, this low cost strategy does come at a price. Ryanair are a cheap and efficient but most certainly no frills airline. Their consumer market is aimed towards flyers who seek an efficient, basic and luxury free flight. The man behind the recent success of Ryanair is the CEO Mr. Michael O’Leary. You might ask yourself, “how can one man be of such significance in creating such a successful business?”. Michael O’Leary didn’t create his own low cost strategy model and implement it into the organisation, instead he studied the low cost strategy model of Southwest Airlines and adapted the strategy to suit Ryanair. This strategy was the turning point in the global success of Ryanair. I will now describe to you how Ryanair use their low cost strategy and how they succeed in executing it.

Flying to secondary airports and cities.

This is one of Ryanair’s core