Ryanair: Business Context Analysis - SWOT, PESTEL, and Leadership

This report provides a detailed analysis of Ryanair's business context, encompassing SWOT and PESTEL analyses to evaluate internal and external factors influencing its operations. The SWOT analysis examines Ryanair's strengths, such as its extensive route network and strong financial performance, and weaknesses, including refund policies and employee relations. The PESTEL analysis assesses the impact of political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors on Ryanair's business, highlighting opportunities like post-COVID recovery and threats such as Brexit and fuel price fluctuations. The report also explores different leadership styles, recommending a suitable approach to meet Ryanair's business objectives, and examines the airline's ethical and social responsibilities. The analysis concludes with recommendations for Ryanair to leverage its strengths, mitigate threats, and capitalize on opportunities in the competitive airline industry.

Context of Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
SWOT and PESTEL analysis for Ryanair..................................................................................1
Evaluate how PESTEL factors has influenced the Opportunities and Threats of the Ryanair
and how the Ryanair is addressing their Strengths to negate Threats and Weakness affecting
their Opportunities......................................................................................................................4
Strengths......................................................................................................................................4
Examine the different styles of leadership and the appropriate leadership style of Ryanair......5
Recommendations which suitable leadership style is for Ryanair that will help them meet their
business objectives......................................................................................................................6
Examine Ryanair's Responsibility, Response and Obligations in their Ethics and Social
Responsibilities ..........................................................................................................................7
Reflection....................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
References:.......................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business is an occupation or profession to run the commercial activities while providing
goods and service in return for profits. For long term run of the business there must be proper
leadership and management (Xie and et. al.,2018). In business, leadership is motivating and
directing the employees to achieve company's target profitably and Management is the
combination of various activities like planning, controlling, directing, staffing and organising to
achieve the goals of business without any hurdles (Abdel-Basset, Mohamed and Smarandache,
2018). In this framework, the report is about the “Ryanair”, Ryanair is the low cost airline
founded in the year 1984. It is the largest European budget airline operates on a low cost,
scheduled-passenger airline serving short- haul, point-to-point routes mostly within Europe.
Report contains the SWOT and PESTLE analysis of Ryanair and how PESTLE factors influence
the opportunities and threats of business. Management and leadership style of Ryanair are
examined in the report and leadership style is recommended to achieve the objective of Ryanair.
Responsibility, Response and Obligations in Ryanair Ethics and Social Responsibilities are
researched and explained.
MAIN BODY
SWOT and PESTEL analysis for Ryanair
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis of the Ryanair is the framework to examine the internal and external
factor that create an impact on the business of the Ryanair and airline industry. These factors
include: Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats.
Strengths Weaknesses
 Ryanair offers the European market
with more than 1800 routes and 200
destinations which is approx 65% more
than its competitors routes.
 The company is having a strongest
balance sheet in the airline industry
with maximum profit of 1 billion Euros
 Refund policy of Ryanair is the
weakness to company as customers are
furious about the 5% of refund claim as
per legal policy and also upset about
the time based brochures rather than
refund.
 Due to change in price of fuel Ryanair
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at the year end.
 In Irish stock exchange Ryanair's stocks
are consistent and safest stocks to buy
with the rating of 83.
 Business model of the Ryanair is the
core strength, keeping the low cost base
has given the company a benefit of
reputation as low cost airline.
 Frequent point to point flights on short
haul distance is Ryanair strategy to
offer the non stop fast service to
customers by avoiding unnecessary
costs to passengers.
has to grounded its fleets in heavy
number which in turn results in the
downfall in the financial records of
Ryanair.
 Ryanair has aggressively expanded the
fleets which might result in
overcapacity in future.
 Company is in bad reputation due to
lower employee rating as company has
lay-off many employees in last two
years.
Opportunities Threats
 The COVID-19 has caused recession
and unemployment in Europe but this
has given opportunity to Ryanair, to
grow the network, use lower airport and
expand fleet.
 Low cost airline model is opportunity
for Ryanair to survive from COVID-19
crisis and gain cost leadership from
other airlines.
 With delivery of Boeing Ryanair has
opportunity to offer the highest
employment in Europe airlines with
talented and skilled cabin crews and
pilots.
 Adverse complications have arise due
to no deal Brexit and also caused
weaker GBP and a pressure on the fare.
 COVID-19 crisis and impacts are the
great threat to airline industry as many
companies are now bankrupt and cut
the passengers numbers by approx
60%.
 fluctuations in fuel and oil prices has
become the threat to Ryanair as
maintenance cost, staff cost, fuel cost of
Ryanair is increased.
 Ryanair also has threat of competitor's,
as Easy jet is also working on low cost
model for its airline business.
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PESTLE Analysis
PESTLE analysis is the framework to analyse the impact of external factors at macro
level on the business of the Ryanair. These factors include: Political, economic, social,
technological, legal and environmental. Political: Policy by government, political issue in country or political crisis of company
defines the political background of the company and there impact on company's growth
(Amankwah-Amoah, 2020). Brexit has created a political instability between the UK and
EU which has adverse trading impact on Ryanair business environment. Frequent
terrorist attacks have lower the demand of airline which will affect the Ryanair business.
COVID related government measures and policy has restricted the Ryanair smooth
functioning. Hence, to lower the impact of Brexit Ryanair should more focus on trading
in European countries. Economic: Fuel prices, customer rating, air traffic, exchange rates, unemployment rates
defines the economic growth and deficit of the Ryanair's and airline industry. Last year
increase in fuel price has impact on Ryanair's fuel budget butt this year fall in fuel has
given Ryanair a benefit of margin. Due to COVID-19 there was severe impact on
economic growth of Ryanair and country as well. Brexit will also put pressure on the
Ryanair financial growth. Restriction on international flights has created downfall in
passengers with decline in revenue. Foreign exchange rate gap in US Dollar and Euro is
causing Ryanair the economic loss. therefore low cost airline concept is most beneficial
to Ryanair to grow its business financially. Social: Age, Salary, Geographical areas, population growth and society trends defines the
impact of social factors on the profitability of the company. In aviation sector after
COVID geographical area are playing a major role as passengers are not travelling to
different locations due to safety measures of COVID (Crane, Matten and Spence, 2019).
Low cost airline are benefited with society of middle class. In European countries
holidays to travel have become the society trend which is beneficial to Ryanair. Ryanair
is also planning in improving the gender ratio in its employee staff mostly pilots. Technological: Innovation, technological security measures, automation, artificial
intelligence are the factors to define the technological stability in the aviation sector
(Western, 2019). Ryanair has very well adopted the technological factors as due to cyber
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security issue of booking tickets on websites and mobile applications. Additionally to
resolve the issue Ryanair secure the website with 'Payment Card Industry Data Security
Standard'. Ryanair also using the latest technology Boeing 737-800 “ next generation
aircraft. Ryanair is strategy are also based on taking advantage of the internet. Legal: Ethics, CSR, corruption, anti-bribery and corruption, law and regulations of
country all are the legal factors mandatory to followed by the organisations (Efthymiou
and et. al., 2021). Ryanair as a leading low cost airline firm has its own business code of
conduct and ethics and anti corruption and bribery law. Ryanair has European corporate
governance code to follow within the group. Ryanair has commission aviation regulation
license to operate its airline services. Ryanair also has its antitrust or competition law.
 Environmental: sustainability, CSR, environmental policies, pollution control and
factors like these which helps in reducing the harmful impact on environment by various
business are compulsory for organisation to utilize (Ferro, 2018). Ryanair is the Europe's
greenest and cleanest airline group with its carbon dioxide emission policies. Ryanair has
low noise latest Boeing-737. Ryanair has its environment website with various CO2
projects and is free from non recyclable plastics from last 5 years.
Evaluate how PESTEL factors has influenced the Opportunities and Threats of the Ryanair and
how the Ryanair is addressing their Strengths to negate Threats and Weakness affecting
their Opportunities.
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are analysed from the above PESTLE
analysis of Ryanair which will help the company in gaining competitive advantage of those
opportunities and strengths and coping up with the weaknesses and threats to avoid the bad
impact on Ryanair's profitability and productivity.
Strengths
Environmental factors of Ryanair are the biggest strengths to the firm as this has made
the Ryanair the Europe's cleanest and greenest airline group with ten winning formulas.
Company's technological factors acts as a strength to firm in protecting the informational data of
employees and passengers and secure the firms website. Ryanair legal laws and legislations give
the firm strength of transparency and socially ethical in market.
Weaknesses:
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Economical factors of Ryanair such as fuel price and exchange rates has become the
weaknesses of the firm as these factors are negatively impacting the company's yearly fuel price
budget and also the pricing strategies are not yielding due to high exchange rates. Booking and
payment of tickets on the mobile application and website has lead the company in cyber security
issues and leaking of firms personal information related to customers and employees this
weakness for the Ryanair can be reason to mitigate its opportunities. Ryanair prime focus should
be eliminating these weaknesses from its strengths and reciprocate it into opportunities.
Opportunities
Environment factor has given a Ryanair and opportunity to flourish its Carbon dioxide
projects in profitability accompanied with welfare to society and environment. After Brexit,
company has opportunity to grow its business more in Ireland, Poland and other European
countries with there legal licenses. With high number of delivery of latest next generation
Boeing 737 company has opportunity to increase its passengers rate and also the revenue.
Ryanair's environmental factors can also help the firm in making relations with government and
acquire some European governmental policies to grow business without and political barriers.
Threats
Economic factor of Foreign exchange rate gap in Euro and US dollar has caused the
threat to Ryanair in operating the ticket prices in Euro. Fuel rates fluctuation is resulting in bad
impact on economic factors as well as political factors. Increase in fuel rate and disruption in
exchange rate has adversely affected the Ryanair's profitability and more increased more threat
for future growth. Brexit has caused the threat to Ryanair as any decision between EU AND UK
could impact the business of Ryanair. Ryanair with its key strength low cost base can negate the
threats of the firm to gain profitability and can assist aviation industry to overcome from COVID
-19 impact.
Examine the different styles of leadership and the appropriate leadership style of Ryanair
Leadership the act to direct and motivate the employees to achieve a desirable and
profitable objectives of the organisation. Leadership style is the method of leader to direct and
assist the person in its particular way (Huertas-Valdivia, Gallego-Burín and Lloréns-Montes,
2019). Ryanair and the other airline company's of Europe follow the various leadership style for
the effective results for the company in terms of growth and profit are mentioned beneath:
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 Autocratic style: This leadership style is also known as authoritarian leadership as the
leader takes the full authority and responsibility for its decision making. In this the leader
leads the employees under close supervision and decision are made without any
discussion from employees (Kollmann, 2019). The advantage of this leadership is that it
can clearly strengthen the command chain system and disadvantage is it reduces
employees innovation and creativity skills. Laissez-faire leadership: A Delegation leadership which allows the employees to take
responsibility in making decisions and leader shows less interest in administration.
Advantage of this leadership is employees are more experienced, creative and
competence while the disadvantage is employee lacks in guidance and command
responsibility (Phadermrod, Crowder and Wills, 2019). Transformational leadership:This leadership tends to focuses on fostering employees
skills and talent and always trying to bring them out there comfort zone. The advantage
of this leadership is it provide high vision and motivation to employees and disadvantage
is employees are sometimes mislead and pressured (Trevino and Nelson, 2021).
 Democratic leadership: A participative form of leadership where leader involve there
fellow team member and subordinates in several decision making, hence making the
employee feel motivated, encouraged and included. The advantage of this leadership is
strong team work and productivity is high and disadvantage is time consuming decision
making as well as communication errors (Racz and et. al., 2018).
Hence, the CEO of Ryanair feels that success requires various leadership style. Ryanair
has autocratic leadership style where don't compromise any interference in there decision making
and take whole responsibility of there decisions. Ryanair is developing the leadership pipelines
by implementing task oriented leadership where they mix both task and employees attributes
together to reach the success. But this leadership style sometimes create a problem in loyalty of
employee towards firm and developing talent within the organisation.
Recommendations which suitable leadership style is for Ryanair that will help them meet their
business objectives
It is considered from the above discussion of leadership styles that Ryanair is lacking in
some factors due to its leadership style. Therefore, Ryanair should bring into use the
transformational leadership style in its organisation so that they can improve the skills of there
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crew and also motivate them with the skills development and training programs. This leadership
style will bring the vision and more creativity in employees work and will also motivate the
employees toward the organisation. Transformational leadership not only transform the
employees behaviour and attitude towards the firm but also transform the organisation working
environment in positive manner (Temirkhanova, 2020). This leadership style will help the
Ryanair in shaping he future of the firm. This will improve the communication in Ryanair
premises and will also reduce employees turnover.
Another leadership style that Ryanair should consider in its leadership is Democratic
leadership this will bring the sense of belonging to employees in firm and employee will more
firm- centric rather than people-centric. Democratic leadership in Ryanair will bring more
transparency and honesty with crew members, pilots, and other staff of the firm. This leadership
in firm will boost there decision power with combine skills of leaders and people both.
Creativity, innovation and experience of employees and leaders will grant Ryanair with effective
solutions of problem, better decisions, and high productivity. Implementation of Democratic and
transformational leadership style in Ryanair will enhance the profitability and productivity of the
organisation.
Examine Ryanair's Responsibility, Response and Obligations in their Ethics and Social
Responsibilities
Ryanair is the largest airline industry and Europe's greenest and cleanest airline group.
Ryanair offers the secured and hygienic travel facilities to customer's and healthy working
environment to it's employees. Ryanair is well versed with its CSR and ethical duties and
perform them efficiently in the organisation. There are various environmental, social and ethical
activities performed by Ryanair are discussed below: Always Getting Better(AGB) program: This programme was organised by Ryanair to
improve its customer experience. Through this program the company created a EU261
customer service team in Madrid to improve the operational conducts and give best
experience to guest by lowering its price. In this programme Ryanair promises the low
fair, safe, fun and relaxing experience, transparent, simple and reliable travelling. Greenest and cleanest airline: Ryanair has independently become the Europe's greenest
and cleanest airline group. Ryanair has 5 year environmental plan of plastic free
organisation and also maximise the uses recyclable products, solar power plants in
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premises. Ryanair uses digitalization and e tickets format to reduce the paper usage in the
firm. Social responsibilities: Ryanair believes and is equally devoted in providing the jobs on
the basis of skills and talent rather gender, sex, disability, age, martial status or any
political or religious beliefs. Ryanair also conduct Ryanair foundation to serve the
various charitable institutions and also help in there education in Europe. Ryanair always
supports the various charitable trusts and make donations. Energy efficiency programme: Ryanair has invested heavy amount in the buying low
noise and fuel efficient aircraft and engine technology to save the environment from
noise pollution and to save the fuel for the surroundings. Ryanair also invested in Carbon
emission project which offers the customers to donate there carbon dioxide to offset the
carbon emission.
 Ethics and transparency: Ryanair is highly devoted to run the organisation ethically and
with transparency and accompanied by proper laws and legislations. 'Ryanair's business
code of conduct' brief about the principles which are followed in the organisation. The
CEO and the audit committee assures the consistency of the code in Ryanair.
Reflection
From this research I have felt that Ryanair is the leading airline firm in Europe with its
large number of employees and customers. Ryanair has well known brand image as it is most
popular low cost airline and want to grow its business in this format only. It is noticed that
company's CEO and management has effective autocratic and transformational leadership style
to manage the crew and other staff and give a succeeding path to firm. But it is also seen that
Ryanair is facing various challenges and threats in the raising the company's growth and values.
For which I have suggested the strategy to the company to gain competitive advantage by
increasing its revenue from serving ancillary services. This firm has made me realized that one
should adopt values, ethics and also take care of the environment around you to grow in life.
From the above research I have learnt that a effective leadership is required at various phases of
life as well as to overcoming bad conditions of life like the Ryanair is overcoming so positively
and effectively from COVID-19 crisis. Ryanair's company life has taught me various skills,
strategies and leadership styles to develop my personality and overall future career growth.
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I have learnt a important lesson that beside the company's policies or restriction, Environment
safety and ethics should be major principles of my life this will not only safe the environment
surrounding me but also grow me as better human being. With this I have also recommended the
new leadership style to company to improve its functioning and reach its objective in profitable
manner. In regard to this I have use various strategic models to conduct the research of Ryanair's
strengths , weaknesses, opportunities and threats. I have also suggested the strengths to negate
the threats and opportunities to mitigate the weaknesses so that Ryanair can effectively and
efficiently grow its business to heights with proper leadership. Therefore I have conspicuously
taken steps to which would foster my future life growth and experience.
CONCLUSION
It is studied from the report that the organisation has exercised strategic models such as
PESTLE and SWOT model to identify the influence of internal and external factors on
company's activities. Ryanair incorporated these model to get various benefits and to erect there
strategies. Leadership styles are discussed to recite the organisation interprocess leadership style
and suitable leadership style is recommendation to meet the company's objectives (Rodríguez-
García, Orero-Blat and Palacios-Marqués, 2020). Corporate social responsibilities and ethics are
well employed in the firm's success and there benefits to environment are also stated in report.
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References:
Books and Journals
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environmental sustainability policies in the global airline industry. Journal of Cleaner
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Crane, A., Matten, D. and Spence, L. eds., 2019. Corporate social responsibility: Readings and
cases in a global context. Routledge.
Efthymiou, M and et. al., 2021. The factors influencing entry level airline pilot retention: An
empirical study of Ryanair. Journal of Air Transport Management. 91. p.101997.
Ferro, F.I.V., 2018. Equity research-Ryanair Holding PLC (Doctoral dissertation, Instituto
Superior de Economia e Gestão).
Huertas-Valdivia, I., Gallego-Burín, A.R. and Lloréns-Montes, F.J., 2019. Effects of different
leadership styles on hospitality workers. Tourism management. 71. pp.402-420.
Kollmann, T., 2019. E-business. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis based
SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management. 44. pp.194-203.
Racz, L and et. al., 2018. Extensive comparison of biodiesel production alternatives with life
cycle, PESTLE and multi-criteria decision analyses. Clean Technologies and
Environmental Policy. 20(9). pp.2013-2024.
Rodríguez-García, M., Orero-Blat, M. and Palacios-Marqués, D., 2020. Challenges in the
Business Model of Low-Cost Airlines: Ryanair Case Study. International Journal of
Enterprise Information Systems (IJEIS). 16(3). pp.64-77.
Temirkhanova, I., 2020. EMPLOYER BRANDING IN THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY: ON THE
EXAMPLE OF RYANAIR. Social Sciences. 1(52).
Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2021. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do
it right. John Wiley & Sons.
Western, S., 2019. Leadership: A critical text. Sage.
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