Ryanair's transatlantic plans could be five years away

There are still question marks around Ryanair's plans to provide a transatlantic service.

The airline's board has approved plans for a transatlantic service from Europe. However, it could take up to five years before the routes are in operation.

It is also thought that a separate airline could be set up by the company to run the transatlantic service.

Eoghan Corry, Editor of the Travel Extra publication, said although Ryanair's Chief Executive Micheal O'Leary has been talking about transatlantic routes for years, there are still no definite plans in place.

"It's 'iffy' if it ever will [happen]," he said. "[It won't] be Ryanair … a separate Ryanair "transatlantic". But nobody will really know about this until the deal is done.

"The timing of this is not decided by markets … it's decided by when the price of wide-bodied aircraft comes down."