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11/7/12

European Airline Industry:As Europe scrimps, budget airline Ryanair soars - by Ben Quinn

Spartan, garishly colored cabin interiors, seats stripped of pockets, a seemingly constant bombardment of mid-air retail offerings, and a cheesy automated trumpet fanfare that announces “yet another on-time arrival.”

It could only be Ryanair the budget airline European travelers love to grumble about while readily snapping up its fares. The pattern has transformed the nature of travel on the continent and forced more upmarket rivals, including Lufthansa and British Air to start copying Ryanair.

While companies from a range of sectors across the continent continue to struggle against the headwinds of deep austerity, better than expected results released this week by the Dublin-based carrier for the first half of this year underlined the apparent resilience of one of Europe’s most extraordinary business success stories. Despite operating in cash-strapped times where many Europeans are cutting back on the pre-austerity habit of taking multiple weekend city vacations, it posted a 10 percent rise in net profit and 15 percent rise in revenues to €3.1 billion (almost $4 billion).

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