RYANAIR WANTS US customers to swap Route 66 for the Wild Atlantic Way – and it has set up a new website to tell them so.
The Irish airline, Europe’s busiest low-cost carrier, has launched the play for American customers well ahead of its planned move into the long-haul transatlantic game.
It showcases Ryanair’s cheap flights – in US dollars – between various European cities and Irish destinations, including Shannon, Cork and Knock airports.
One banner slogan reads: “Uncle Sam says fly Ryanair”, while another says: “Trade Route 66 for the Wild Atlantic Way”.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary previously said the budget airline wants to run its own flights from the US to Europe – but it’s at least 4 years away from being able to get the planes it needs for the route.
‘An historic shortage’
He told the Deloitte Enterprise Ireland CeoForum about a month ago that the airline was “very keen” to do low-cost, transatlantic flights between about 15 European cities and 12 US destinations.
“The difficulty is we would need a fleet of 30 or 40 long-haul aircraft to start, we can’t do it in 1s and 2s,”he said.
“And there is a historic shortage of long-haul aircraft, partially because the growth carriers have put in such enormous orders for the next 4 or 5 years.
The good news is we think we can do it, we think we can make a lot of money, but the bad news is we can’t source the aircraft … for probably 3 or 4 years unless there is some significant change in the ordering profiles for long-haul aircraft.”
It comes as Ryanair continues to kick big financial goals – announcing a series of upgrades to its profit forecasts this year as passenger numbers continue to beat expectations.
The company’s latest prediction was for a profit of up to €830 million and over 90 million customers for the 2014-15 financial year.
Meanwhile, O’Leary was making a cameo appearance in Ryanair’s Christmas video that was shot in Dublin.
The airline has been featuring a new, “festive” version of its jingle for flight arrivals.
Originally published at 10.27am
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