Ryanair’s O’Leary pledges growth push by stealing European market share

Ryanair CE Michael O’Leary has vowed to push for breakneck growth and win more market share from rivals in Europe, as he presses ahead with a goal to double passenger numbers over the next decade. The airline’s ambitious new target to fly an annual 300mn passenger by 2034 would be more than any airline has yet managed. “I think the thesis that there’s no more growth in Europe, [and that] Europe is completely tapped out, is wrong,” he told the Financial Times. The company bought 300 short-haul aircraft in a $40bn deal with Boeing earlier this month. But some investors and analysts question whether there are enough passengers left to carry in Europe, particularly at a time of rising climate concerns when policymakers are raising carbon taxes on flying. O’Leary agreed the airline’s growth rate would moderate to around 4-5% a year, but said this was enough to hit its forecasts. He said there was still plenty of room to steal market share from rivals in western Europe, as well as stimulate demand in new markets in central and eastern Europe. “As long as we don’t do something stupid — which is a daily challenge in this industry — we will continue to wipe the floor with every other airline in Europe,” he said. Ryanair has been European aviation’s post-pandemic winner, moving into new markets as financially weaker rivals retrenched. The carrier is already the largest in Europe by passenger numbers; it expects to carry a record 168mn passengers in the year to the end of March, 13% higher than before Covid. Alex Irving, an analyst at Bernstein, envisages the airline’s growth inevitably slowing as the industry stabilises following the pandemic. Its home market of western Europe is “essentially fully penetrated”, he said. “Double-digit, and even high single-digit growth rates, were sustainable while it was smaller, but as a near-600 plane airline, it cannot maintain these rates without spoiling yields,” he said.<br/>