STRATEGY
Ryanair’s objective is to firmly establish itself as Europe’s leading low-fares scheduled passenger airline through continued improvements and expanded offerings of its low-fares service. Ryanair aims to offer low fares that generate increased passenger traffic while maintaining a continuous focus on cost-containment and operating efficiencies. The key elements of Ryanair’s strategy are: Low Fares. Ryanair’s low fares are designed to stimulate demand, particularly from fare-conscious leisure and business travelers who might otherwise have used alternative forms of transportation or would not have traveled at all. Ryanair sells seats on a one-way basis, thus eliminating minimum stay requirements from all travel on Ryanair scheduled services, regardless of fare. Ryanair sets fares on the basis of the demand for particular flights and by reference to the period remaining to the date of departure of the flight, with higher fares charged on flights with higher levels of demand for bookings made nearer to the date of departure. Ryanair’s Dublin to London (Stansted) route is its largest route in terms of passenger volume, with fares ranging from 0.99 to 199.99 (excluding government taxes and passenger service charges). Ryanair’s competitors generally do not operate a one-way pricing policy, so direct comparison is not possible, but current round-trip fares on Aer Lingus, Ryanair’s largest competitor on the LondonDublin route, for travel in September 2004 were 82.27 for economy restricted return tickets, 218.27 for economy flexible return and 353.75 for business class tickets. In July 2004, Ryanair launched a fare promotion offering a total of one million seats on certain routes for “ 0.99” (excluding government taxes and passenger service charges) for travel during the period between September 7, 2004 and January 31, 2005, and launched a similar fare promotion in