Ryanair SWOT Analysis: Strategies for Competitive Advantage

This essay presents a SWOT analysis of Ryanair, a low-cost Irish airline, examining its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the dynamic European market. Ryanair's strengths include its low-cost pricing strategy, large passenger volume, and cost-saving measures like utilizing less congested airports and a direct online reservation system. Weaknesses include its exclusive focus on European routes, staff relations, and ancillary fees that can increase overall costs. Opportunities for Ryanair involve expanding into long-haul flights, leveraging technological advancements, and capitalizing on aircraft orders to minimize fuel consumption. Threats include increased competition, fluctuating fuel prices, potential eurozone instability, and the impact of global recession on consumer spending. The analysis concludes that Ryanair's success is driven by its low-cost model, appealing to passengers seeking affordable and timely travel options.

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Ryanair SWOT analysis
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Ryanair SWOT Analysis essay
Introduction
This SWOT analysis provides an overview of Ryanair, an Irish low-cost airline founded
in 1984 that operated in the UK and some other European countries. Just like any other
organization, Ryanair is experiencing an environment of the fast-changing market that come
along with new strengths, exposed weaknesses, new market opportunities and threats as well.
This essay discusses all the four parts of SWOT analysis based on Ryanair Company.
Ryanair is an airline company that was established in 1984.It was characterized by low-
cost price, which carried its operation within the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe.
Ryanair carries the largest number of passengers in Europe. This is according to International air
transport association. In 2017, Ryanair was the first European airline in history to carry over one
billion customers. (about us , 2017)
Due to the low cost of the tickets, the Ryanair has gained popularity which has
contributed to its success. With large sized planes, the company has cut the cost of transport,
therefore, exploiting the economies of scale and scope. It also cuts the cost of plane operation by
considering using less congested airports, where they pay less charge compared to using busy
and congested airports. They also pay less than other airlines for labor. Ryanair don’t rely on
travel agents because they have extensive online ticket reservation system which leads to cost
saving. Moreover, they raise extra revenues by charging ancillary fees, thus making the company
stable. (wyman, 2017)
Ryanair offers their services only within Europe, for passengers to travel to neighboring
countries, they are forced to change the airline. To make the low prices on the run, they save on
staff costs, free food, and large, powerful fuel. By subsidizing the travel cost, the company is not
capable of using central airports. Since Ryanair’s flights operate at night in most cases, there is
the likelihood that the passengers don't the desired comfort thus inconveniencing their flight.
Ryanairs negotiates with Employee Representatives Committees and does not recognize trade
unions. Though Ryanair has low-ticket price charges, it has extra charges on many unavoidable
services making it more expensive. Ryanair usually faces criticism due to their relations with the
employee, customer service, and ancillary fee.
It can be noted that Ryanair has been growing over the recent past. This has made the company
gain mass popularity, therefore, increasing the number of passengers it attracts. Due to this, it is
possible to expand its services to long-haul. Analysts have a suggestion that the demand for
transatlantic flights in the future could increase thus able to expand their market operations
beyond short-haul. The massive order of aircraft will enable Ryanair to strengthen the Europe
market position as well as to minimize fuel consumption through the state of the art aircraft.
Advancement of technology will make increment in productivity and travelers convenience and
comfort.
The growth of airline service providers, which is resulting in raising competition and flight ticket
prices become cheaper while the price of jet fuel is going high. Considering that Euro is the
Ryanair reporting currency and the operations of Ryanair is in Europe, in case some countries
leave the eurozone then Ryanair will be affected by the break-up. Also, the US dollar dominates

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the international jet fuel prices thus fuel cost subjected to the risk of the exchange rate.
Furthermore, consumer buying power decreases due to unemployment rates caused by the
Global recession.
Conclusion
In conclusion, significant passengers have chosen to travel with Ryanair’s airline last year. The
increasing earnings and profits of the company only prove that their business model is successful
and that people want to travel at low costs, fast and on time. (Kush, 2018)

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References
Kush, J., 2018. Case Study: Ryanair | Analysis. [Online] Available at:
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/ryanair-case-study-analysis-management-essay.php
[Accessed 9 August 2018].
ryanair, 2017. the history of Ryanair. [Online] Available at:
https://corporate.ryanair.com/about-us/history-of-ryanair/ [Accessed 9 August 2018].
wyman, 2017. Airline economic analyst 2016-2017. [Online] Available at:
http://www.oliverwyman.com/our-expertise/insights/2017/jan/airline-economic-analysis-2016-
2017.html [Accessed 9 August 2018].