Ryanair Transatlantic!

[telecat]

Mr O'Leary is taking Ryanair across the Atlantic but states he cannot do it for 5 years as he cannot buy the Aircraft to do the job in a shorter timescale. I presume he is buying new as 757's would be available. Is the 777/787 order book that backed up?

Anybody for New York for a tenner?

[AlexIT]

Honestly, I don't know.
While I don't mind flying Ryanair on European routes, for longer travels most will depend on how (un)comfortable seats will be.

I gave up flying Air Chance (pardon France ) after a terrible LAX/CDG flight when the plane was full and we were on a row with a bulkhead just behind the seats, which could not be reclined at all!

So I am now quite sensible to that and before spending 6 or more hours in a plane, I want to be sure that I won't regret it from Takeoff...

[Martin4356111]

I’ll be watching this one with great interest. Mr O’Leary is trying to succeed in an area (long haul and low cost) where many before him have failed, some quite miserably.

I can only imagine that he is looking purchase brand new aircraft, probably the Airbus A330 or Boeing 777 although the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 will do the same job. That said, there are plenty of used airliners in storage at the moment that would do the job in the meantime.

Lots of airlines are using smaller aircraft to fly long haul so they don’t need to be of the 777, A330 etc size. Aer Lingus, United and AA all use the Boeing 757 for their transatlantic routes. I’ve also heard that a Canadian airline (not sure who) will be using a Boeing 737-800 for a Scotland - Canada route, not a routine occurrence but something that Jet2 used to do when their 757 went tech. Maybe he’s looking at using an extended range Boeing 737?

[FlashmanChop]

737-800?

Doesn't Oslo - Dubai flight exist?

[Mojocvh]

He does appear to drive a hard bargain when acquiring aircraft.

[onyx39]

A318 gets across the Pond, BA use it on the LCY - JFK route. Would the larger 320 models make it?

[telecat]

The 320NeoLR has been designed to do it but it depends on the market. The "Long thin" where you fly to and from more airports. Or the Hub style where you want as many passengers as possible on the plane. Delta for example fly from a lot of North Eastern Seaboard airports so the "Long Thin" model applies. BA only fly from Heathrow and to JFK so they want more on the jet so a 380/747 is best.

[Geneve]

Mr O'Leary said, "We will be adding additional seating 'in loo', if you'll pardon the pun, of toilets. Anyone can hold on for 6-7 hours if they're only paying £10 for a seat." However, he was quick to qualify his comments when a minion whispered that it might impact on bar sales. "Of course our accountants will be carefully calculating the seats versus toilets versus drink sales benefits".

He did, however confirm the intended move to single pilot operations. "Our planned seating configuration will leave limited space for flight crew. However, anyone with a PPL, or even a few hours towards it, will be given priority seating near the front".

[Pothole]

Geneve said:

Mr O'Leary said, "We will be adding additional seating 'in loo', if you'll pardon the pun, of toilets. Anyone can hold on for 6-7 hours if they're only paying £10 for a seat." However, he was quick to qualify his comments when a minion whispered that it might impact on bar sales. "Of course our accountants will be carefully calculating the seats versus toilets versus drink sales benefits".

He did, however confirm the intended move to single pilot operations. "Our planned seating configuration will leave limited space for flight crew. However, anyone with a PPL, or even a few hours towards it, will be given priority seating near the front".

Please stop giving the grinning fool publicity for his ridiculous remarks which are clearly aimed at the Daily Mail hack desparate for a travel story.

[Sheepshanks]

telecat said:

Mr O'Leary is taking Ryanair across the Atlantic but states he cannot do it for 5 years as he cannot buy the Aircraft to do the job in a shorter timescale.

If he'd ordered the 'planes when he first started talking about it he'd have had them for several years now.

[Blaster72]

kapiteinlangzaam said:

Norwegian are already offering a lowish cost transatlantic service with the 787.

Norwegian are also losing vast sums of money doing so, It'd be a brave move for Ryanair considering they doing pretty well at the moment. It's a move that could easily end badly for them.

[Prawo Jazdy]

This is nothing new. Thomson have been offering long haul flights on spartan aircraft with no entertainment and no free food or drink for years (plus £50 charge for an exit seat). Surely USA routes with Ryanair have already been done. They fly daily to East Boston Airport (ICAO designator EIDW).

onyx39 said:

A318 gets across the Pond, BA use it on the LCY - JFK route. Would the larger 320 models make it?

Yes, but they stop at Shannon and they only take 32 passengers, so I'm not sure that's proving much. I think Ryanair would cram a few more in.

Edited by Prawo Jazdy on Tuesday 17th March 22:26

[onyx39]

Prawo Jazdy said:

This is nothing new. Thomson have been offering long haul flights on spartan aircraft with no entertainment and no free food or drink for years (plus £50 charge for an exit seat). Surely USA routes with Ryanair have already been done. They fly daily to East Boston Airport (ICAO designator EIDW).

onyx39 said:

A318 gets across the Pond, BA use it on the LCY - JFK route. Would the larger 320 models make it?

Yes, but they stop at Shannon and they only take 32 passengers, so I'm not sure that's proving much. I think Ryanair would cram a few more in.

Edited by Prawo Jazdy on Tuesday 17th March 22:26

32 passengers, all in flat beds, and it only stops at Shannon on the way out because of the length of the runway at LCY means it cannot get a high enough take off weight to carry enough fuel for the hop over the pond. Out of Stansted, should not be a problem.

[subirg]

I hope this fails spectacularly. I hate Ryan Scare and everything about the airline. Can't wait to read stories from the disappointed souls who expect to fly from London to New York only to find that they've landed in Mexico and have to take a donkey transfer to the US. The sooner this company goes out of business the better.

For the avoidance of doubt, I don't work for an airline and have no vested interest. I just hate Ryan Air because they are rubbish.

[jmorgan]

Maybe this is just to get the media attention.

[onyx39]

subirg said:

I hope this fails spectacularly. I hate Ryan Scare and everything about the airline. Can't wait to read stories from the disappointed souls who expect to fly from London to New York only to find that they've landed in Mexico and have to take a donkey transfer to the US. The sooner this company goes out of business the better.

For the avoidance of doubt, I don't work for an airline and have no vested interest. I just hate Ryan Air because they are rubbish.

Luckily, there is no legal obligation to use them, and "other airlines are available"

Personally I've only used them a couple of times, and they seemed ok. Lets face it, its never going to be BA First is it?

[BrabusMog]

subirg said:

I hope this fails spectacularly. I hate Ryan Scare and everything about the airline. Can't wait to read stories from the disappointed souls who expect to fly from London to New York only to find that they've landed in Mexico and have to take a donkey transfer to the US. The sooner this company goes out of business the better.

For the avoidance of doubt, I don't work for an airline and have no vested interest. I just hate Ryan Air because they are rubbish.

I had to use them 3 times when Norwegian recently went on strike, the only bad thing I can say about them is having to fly from Stansted. It's a bus that flies, if you are expecting to be wined and dined, pay the extra and fly BA.

[Lost soul]

I would not even consider flying to the states with these clowns

[Sheepshanks]

subirg said:

I hope this fails spectacularly. I hate Ryan Scare and everything about the airline. Can't wait to read stories from the disappointed souls who expect to fly from London to New York only to find that they've landed in Mexico and have to take a donkey transfer to the US. The sooner this company goes out of business the better.

For the avoidance of doubt, I don't work for an airline and have no vested interest. I just hate Ryan Air because they are rubbish.

I've vowed never to fly RyanAir - I just don't need that hassle in my life.

However I hope it works - flying to the US has jumped up in price quite significantly so competition has got to be a good thing.

[gwm]

I've flown Ryanair and plenty of the cheap airlines. Pay your tenner to get an emergency exit seat, put headphones in and zone out. You'd be worse off on many flag carrying airlines.