Ryanair says ‘no’ to transatlantic travel – ‘nobody has ever really cracked that’

Cheap long-haul flights would delight many, but the airline’s CEO Eddie Wilson explains why they haven’t taken the leap

A Ryanair flight takes off from Dublin Airport last year

Pól Ó Conghaile

Aer Lingus does it on wide-body A330s and single-aisle, A321 neo LR aircraft. Norwegian did it with a no-frills service from Irish airports until it axed the flights in 2019. And Icelandic budget carrier Play is doing it from Dublin Airport, albeit with short stopovers in Reykjavík.

With travel to the US getting easier, Covid restrictions gone and US Preclearance in Dublin and Shannon, surely the low-cost airline to end them all would crush it if it went transatlantic.

So, will Ryanair finally fly to the US?

“No,” says its CEO Eddie Wilson.

The airline has just ordered 300 new Boeing 737 Max 10 aircraft for its European network, but North America is not so much as a blip on its radar, he says.

“There are a couple of reasons. One is that Ryanair does 25-minute turnarounds and goes to a lot of uncongested airports in Europe. So we’re able to get extra turns on the aircraft. But if you’re on the transatlantic route, even the major carriers can’t get an extra turn.”

An extra turn means an additional flight, increasing the money an aircraft can make. But that’s tricky on US flight rotations due to many factors, including distance, changeover times and the chance of picking up weather delays.

“You might say you could drop down to the Canaries, but your schedule, given weather and things like that, means it’s very hard to become any more efficient... so you’re not able to replicate that part of the model.”

The next challenge is the shortage of slots at major airports. “It would be very difficult to get on one of those routes with any sort of presence. And if you had to go to secondary airports [Norwegian flew to Stewart in New York State], you’re ruling out Business Class.

“What really pays for transatlantic are the 24 people up front and the cargo,” Wilson says. “Down the back, there just aren’t enough seats for you to lower fares. We’re not set up for that. We have no experience in running a Business Class cabin, and we don’t have cargo.”

Norwegian launched in 2017 with lead-in transatlantic fares of €69 each way. But bigger carriers soon turned the screw on its economy prices while keeping their revenue ticking over up front (it was also impacted by the global grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max).

“There’s no obvious part of our business model that is transferable from short-haul,” Wilson says. “Nobody has ever really cracked that yet. [With the] Ryanair model, you do the same thing every day, every seat, every flight. That’s what has kept us on the straight and narrow for the last 30-plus years. We don’t change things very often. But when we do, it’s got to be every seat, every flight.”

A strong balance sheet, hedging on fuel prices, buying aircraft “at the right time” and getting growth deals out of secondary airports all give Ryanair “a larger cost advantage” on its competitors, he says. “And we just keep rolling that out all the time... you know, it’s boring!”

As for being cautious in terms of transatlantic flights, it looks like Ryanair will continue to keep us waiting.