Ryanair resurrects long-haul service concept

Ryanair has resurrected the idea of operating its own long-haul flights at some point, despite having seemingly killed off the notion two years ago.

Speaking to Bloomberg at an event in Brussels, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary was yesterday quoted as saying that the company has not completely given up on offering its own transatlantic flights. However, he noted the plan is low on the list of priorities, partly due to Boeing and Airbus being booked up on orders for relevant-sized planes out to the early 2020s.

“When Boeing and Airbus have 80 or 100 spare slots for long-haul aircraft that they desperately want to shift at a low cost, we’ll jump on it,” he said. “But we’re not going to kill ourselves at the moment when their order books are full out to 2020-2021.”