America here we come - Ryanair flights for as little as £10
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Tuesday November 04 2008
Despite predictions that five to six European airlines could go bankrupt between now and Christmas, Michael O'Leary held out the prospect of a new transatlantic low-cost operation within two to three years with economy fares of just £10.
Speaking in London, the Ryanair chief executive said a low-cost transatlantic operation, could come about if Ryanair was able to buy around 50-60 long-haul aircraft.
"We would not have any links with the company that would run this apart from the fact that we would envisage flights being made across the Atlantic from some of our European bases.
"We are not going to be a transatlantic airline ourselves. We never will."
He added that the transatlantic operation would fly into secondary airports in the US. Mr O'Leary said that the transatlantic operation could see four to five aircraft based at eight to 10 European bases including London, Dublin, Rome and Frankfurt. Destinations could include Los Angeles, Florida and Denver, Colorado.
While economy fares could possibly be as low as £10, one-way business class fares would be around £1,000.
However, he seemed to be at crossed purposes with his deputy chief Michael Cawley.
At a Dublin press conference Mr Cawley said he didn't see a transatlantic operation as an "imminent project".
"The costs involved are fundamentally different," he said. "This will never be a Ryanair project. Our area of expertise is in short-haul."
He said that any such project would need to get aircraft "at the right price" and added that those prices are not currently low enough.
