O’Leary grounded but Ryanair deal takes off

RYANAIR chief executive Michael O’Leary could not attend his own press conference in London yesterday to announce the company’s plans to buy €15bn in planes from Boeing because his Ryanair flight was cancelled.

Mr O'Leary was among hundreds of passengers stranded in Dublin airport after his company cancelled flights to and from Stansted airport due to heavy snow in Britain.

Aviation authorities said ice and snow on the runways made it too dangerous for aircraft to land at Stansted. Seven Ryanair flights to and from Britain were cancelled and some Aer Lingus flights to Heathrow were also delayed by up to two hours.

Mr O'Leary was due to announce the company's plans to purchase 250 Boeing 737-800s worth €15bn over the next eight years in a move that will make Ryanair Europe's biggest airline, but sales and marketing manager Sinead Finn had to do the honours instead.

Ryanair took the airline industry by surprise yesterday by ordering an extra 100 planes from beleaguered aircraft manufacturer Boeing to bring its total order book to 250 new single aisle short-haul aircraft.

While the quoted price of the aircraft lined-up for purchase by Ryanair is €15bn, industry sources say the Irish low-cost carrier will have been able to negotiate a hefty discount in the current depressed market for passenger aircraft.

Ryanair low-fares revolution continues as millions of European consumers can fly all over Europe for just 48," Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said.

Ryanair has confirmed orders for 125 of the planned 250 strong fleet which will enable the company to carry 50 million passengers a year making it the biggest scheduled airline ahead of British Airways, KLM and Lufthansa.

And in another unexpected move yesterday, Ryanair made its first takeover when it agreed to purchase loss making low-fares rival Buzz from Dutch airline KLM for €5m.

"I am confident this significant and timely rationalisation will eliminate losses in Buzz over the coming year. With a change of aircraft fleet Buzz will be in a position to match Ryanair's low-fare, profitable growth from 2004 on," Mr O'Leary said.

The takeover by Ryanair of Buzz leaves the Irish company with just one rival in the European low fares market Britain's EasyJet.

As a result of the takeover, Ryanair is likely to axe flights from the main airports in Paris and Amsterdam to less expensive locations while Spanish routes out of Stansted to Malaga, Murcia, Almeria and Jerez may also come under scrutiny.