The real size of Ryanair in ten years time...

RYANAIR will fly a staggering 120 MILLION people a year inside a decade, its Chief executive Michael O'Leary claimed yesterday.

That means Ryanair will be flying 10,000,000 customers a month in 2022 compared to currently approx 6,500,000 (which is approx.12% of Europe's short haul travel market).

I know alot of people get fed up with the whole extra costs added to some of the budget airlines ticketing process - but it gives Mr O'Leary alot of free publicity and business is business.

But - if we compare what Ryanair is aiming to do in the next 10 years, and we look at what British Airways did 2 years ago in 2010. We can have a little bit of a comparison (bare with me on this - I know BA does alot of long haul, and Ryanair is relatively short haul). 

British Airways and Iberia joined forces in 2010 (International Airlines Group), with the group will operate 419 aircraft, flying to more than 200 destinations, and carry a total of 62 MILLION passengers a year (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8608667.stm)

My point being:

IAG (BA & Iberia) flew 62 million passengers in 2010

and Ryanair are going to fly 120 million by 2022

I do not think of Ryanair in the same terms as I do British Airways in terms of size, scale, branding, customer service, or pricing elements (Personally, I prefer the full price ie: what you see is what you get with BA.) however,

Maybe, we should congratulating Mr O'Leary for some great business decisions.

Maybe, we should be thankful that this is another British / Irish company that is doing so well.

Maybe, those grumbling about all the little things like extra charges, might think again......