Ryanair, the low fares airline

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 2,0, Lund University, language: English, abstract: The European airline industry has historically been dominated by national carriers like British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France, whose aggregate share of intra European routes was about 70 percent by the end of 1998. But from 1990 a rising share of the market started to migrate to the budget carriers because of the deregulation policy of the EU. This essay contains an analysis of the European airline industry as a part of the transportation industry at the beginning of 1999 with a special emphasis on the budget sector. In that sector, one of the most famous and successful budget carriers, Ryanair, will be contemplated with regard to its strategy and its strengths and weaknesses. Finally, a short summary will be done about what happened in the European airline industry between 1999 and 2003.