Cut To The Bone Fares Service And Turn-Around

Abandoning the allocated seat system meant a sharp reduction in flight delays. All youve got to do is find a way of forcing the buggers on board on time, says Michael OLeary, Ryanairs fast-talking 36-year old chief executive.

The seating initiative was typical of Ryanairs determination to reduce the amount of time its aircraft spend on the ground.

The Irish carrier used to be able to prepare an aircraft for take-off 30 minutes after the previous flight had landed.

This year Ryanair decided to stop carrying cargo. The airline will not say how much revenue it lost as a result, although analysts put the cost at 400,000 a year. With less loading and unloading to do, aircraft can be turned around in 20 minutes.

Several low-cost airlines have sprung up in the wake of the liberalisation of the European Unions aviation market, a process completed in April. But Ryanair is the best-established of all.

Founded in 1985, the airline spent five years making a mess. It tried to imitate conventional airlines, offering two classes of seating. It had three different types of aircraft. It went through five chief executives and lost 20m in four years.

At the beginning of the 1990s, it decided to offer air travellers something different. Passengers would pay rock-bottom fares. There would be one class of seating and no frills.

We said that were not going to feed you or put you up in hotels or frequent flyer points or any of that rubbish, says Mr OLeary.

Modelling itself on Southwest Airlines, the US low-cost carrier, Ryanair set about persuading people who had not previously thought of flying that it was worth trying when fares were so low. The result was that the total number of passengers flying between Dublin and London increased from 1.7m in 1991 to 3.3m last year.

Ryanair claims about 37 per cent of the traffic on the route, just ahead of Aer Lingus.

It was the first airline in Europe to launch a domestic service in a country other than its own, flying from London to Prestwick airport, near Glasgow.

This year, the airline began flying between the British Isles and continental Europe. It offers services from Dublin to Paris and Brussels and from London to Stockholm and Oslo. It is talking to airports in eight European countries about further routes.

Ryanair, which went public this year, now flies only one type of aircraft Boeing 737-200. By next year Ryanair will have 20 aircraft. Flying only one aircraft type cuts down on maintenance and staff costs.

Ryanair operates from secondary airports. In London, it uses Stansted and Luton, rather than Gatwick or Heathrow. It flies to smaller airports in continental Europe, too: Beauvais in Paris and Charleroi in Brussels.

Mr OLeary says that at secondary airports aircraft spend less time circling before landing. Passengers can get off the aircraft more quickly. Ryanair prefers using stairs to air bridges. Manoeuvring air bridges into place can be laborious, and Ryanair does not want its aircraft on the ground any longer than necessary.

Mr OLeary is constantly searching for ways of cutting costs. He told travel agents that he was no longer prepared to pay 9 per cent commission. Ryanair would pay 7.5 per cent. Lunn Poly, the UKs biggest travel agents chain, responded by boycotting Ryanairs flights.

Mr OLeary shrugs this off. Ryanair expects to carry 4m passengers this year, compared with 650,000 in 1991.