LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ryanair: Aer Lingus
built 274 days ago
O'Leary has been trying to engineer a merger of Ryanair and Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus, which Aer Lingus has so far resisted. Some industry analysts have speculated the new carrier plan is an attempt to pressure Aer Lingus into resuming merger talks.
Source:
Ryanair launched Ryanair.com in January 2000, leapfrogging over Aer Lingus, which had an Internet presence but not online booking. The new web site soon became the busiest one in the country, logging 14 million impressions a month. E-commerce proved to be a low overhead way for the carrier to sell 50,000 tickets a week, more than double the amount sold on Travelocity.com, the next most popular travel site. Ryanair sold $130 million worth of tickets online in the first year. It planned to exploit its potential as a portal to other travel services.
Source:
In a separate statement today, Ryanair lambasted the European Union's decision to clear EasyJet's purchase of GB Airways, a British Airways Plc franchise. Ryanair's 1.48 billion-euro hostile takeover bid for Irish carrier Aer Lingus Group Plc was blocked by the European Commission last year.
Source:
Ryanair's strong financial position versus other European budget carriers is underscored by its growing cash reserves. These rose 8.7% over the year to 2.2 billion euros ($2.97 billion), even though Ryanair spent 344.9 million euros ($465.5 million) to acquire a 25.2% stake in its Dublin-based rival, Aer Lingus.
Source:
In the mid-1990s, Ryanair had 500 staff and 11 Boeing 737s and was carrying more than two million passengers a year. In contrast, Aer Lingus had three times as many aircraft and ten times the staff, but flew only twice the passengers. Ryanair sold round trip tickets from Dublin to the United Kingdom for as little as £59, and its share of the London-Dublin route eventually exceeded Aer Lingus's 40 percent. Both Ryanair and British Midland complained of the Irish state carrier's perceived predatory pricing policies to European Community regulators.
Source:
Ryanair calls Dublin, Ireland its home but this Irish airline is based in the London Stansted Airport. It ... has based in around 15 foreign countries including Italy, Germany, Sweden, France and Belgium alongside a few areas in the UK. A few weeks ago, Ryanair expressed its desire to buy its strongest competitor, the flag-bearer of Ireland, Aer Lingus. The latter politely but firmly declined the $1.9 billion offer of Ryanair.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Aer Lingus