Ryanair is an Irish ultra-low-cost airline headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. It is the largest airline in Europe by scheduled passengers carried, fleet size, and total flights. Globally, it is the largest airline by international passengers carried, the third-largest by market capitalisation behind Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, and the fifth-most profitable by net income. In 2025, the company sold 208 million airline tickets, averaging €70 in total revenue against €62 in costs per ticket sold. It is widely considered to be the cheapest airline operating in Europe.
The airline was founded in 1984 by Christopher Ryan and Tony Ryan, from whom it takes its name. Today, the parent company, Ryanair Holdings plc, operates airline subsidiaries Ryanair DACTooltip Designated activity company, Buzz, Malta Air, Lauda Europe, and Ryanair UK. Combined, the group manages a fleet of 651 aircraft and operates over 3,500 short-haul flights per day, serving approximately 230 airports in 36 countries. Its primary operational bases are at Dublin, London Stansted, and Milan Bergamo. To maintain low operating expenses, the company dynamically manages its network, frequently cutting routes or reducing capacity in response to increases in regional airport fees, taxes, or environmental levies.
Ryanair operates an ultra-low-cost, no frills business model, generating nearly one-third of its income from ancillary revenue by charging additional fees for seat selection, cabin and checked baggage, and airport check-in services. Ryanair is ranked 790th on the Forbes Global 2000 and 280th on the Fortune 500 Europe. Longtime CEO Michael O'Leary, who owns approximately 4% of the company, frequently deliberately stirs media controversy to generate free publicity for the brand. While the airline consistently scores poorly in customer satisfaction metrics, including annual surveys by Which?, the company routinely dismisses these results as statistically unrepresentative, pointing instead to its long-term growth in booking numbers.
The company was incorporated on 28 November 1984 as Danren Enterprises. It was founded by Christopher Ryan (1936–2007), Tony Ryan (1936–2007) (founder of Guinness Peat Aviation), his son Declan Ryan, and Liam Lonergan (owner of Irish travel agent Club Travel).
The airline was renamed Ryanair and launched its first flight on 8 July 1985, between Waterford and Gatwick Airport, with a 15-seat Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante turboprop aircraft. Cabin crew were required to be at most 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) tall "in order to be able to operate in the tiny cabin of the aircraft". As of September 1985, Ryanair was operating 9 weekly flights on the route. In its first year, the airline carried 5,000 passengers.
The first chief executive was Eugene O'Neill (1956–2018), who had formerly worked as managing director of Tony Ryan's Sunday Tribune newspaper and as Ryan's personal assistant. O'Neill was talented at marketing but did not focus on costs, and the airline lost money in its early years. Ryan vetoed O'Neill's proposal to accuse Aer Lingus for breach of competition rules at the European Commission because at the time Aer Lingus was state-owned and Ryanair depended on the Irish government for its route licences. Ryan fired O'Neill in September 1987, who sued for wrongful dismissal.
Beginning in 1986, under partial European Economic Community (EEC) deregulation, airlines could begin new international intra-EEC services as long as one of the two governments approved. The Irish government at the time refused to allow Ryanair to add a route between Dublin and Luton to protect Aer Lingus, but Britain, under Margaret Thatcher's deregulating Conservative government, approved the service. The company was then able to add its second route, with two Hawker Siddeley HS 748s, directly competing with the Aer Lingus/British Airways duopoly for the first time. Ryanair's price of £99 return was half of that of the legacy carriers; Aer Lingus then cut its price to £95 return and Ryanair cut its price to £94.99 return. In their first year of operation, Ryanair's two routes had 82,000 passengers.
In 1986, Ryanair acquired an 85% stake in London European Airways (LEA) in a £630,000 rescue package. It was re-launched in April 1987 using a leased BAC One-Eleven. In May 1987, the service launched routes between Luton and Amsterdam and Brussels. In January 1988, it was rebranded as Ryanair Europe. LEA was dissolved in May 1991.
In 1987, the company lost £3 million. That year, the company began wet leasing BAC One-Elevens from TAROM and increased its network to 15 scheduled routes.
In 1988, Michael O'Leary, formerly an accountant at KPMG who had handled tax preparation for Tony Ryan and his companies and a classmate of Declan Ryan, joined Ryanair first as a financial assistant to Tony Ryan and then as chief financial officer of the company. That year, the company began leasing ATR 42-300s from Guinness Peat Aviation and launched a business class service and frequent-flyer program; they were ended the following year.
In 1989, a Short Sandringham flying boat was painted with Ryanair livery as part of a proposed sponsorship deal with Foynes Flying Boat Museum but never flew revenue-generating services for the airline.
By 1990, the company had accumulated £20 million in losses. That year, O'Leary was dispatched to Dallas to meet with Herb Kelleher, a co-founder of Southwest Airlines and an acquaintance of Tony Ryan. He came back with a plan to transform Ryanair to a low-cost carrier modelled after Southwest. O'Leary's strategy was to adopt a simple all Boeing 737 fleet, pursuing expansion over yield, create a culture of cost-cutting, and re-educate the customer to prefer lower prices to frills. Ryanair implemented a 30-minute turnaround goal to allow aircraft to make more flights per day. The company then restructured with an additional £20 million investment by Tony Ryan. Also that year, the company moved its base at Luton Airport to London Stansted Airport. The company switched to a buy on board programme, the route network was reduced from 19 destinations to 6, and the cheapest ticket prices were reduced from £99 to £59 return. By the end of 1990, the airline was on pace for 745,000 passengers per year.
In 1991, due to a decline in demand during the Gulf War, the airline lowered fares and increased operations at London Stansted Airport, generating a total profit of £293,000 for the year. In 1992, the airline carried 945,000 passengers.
In January 1994, Ryanair took delivery of its first Boeing 737. That month, Michael O'Leary became the sixth chief executive officer of the company. At that time, Ryanair was owned by the three sons of Tony Ryan.
In 1995, Ryanair carried over 2 million passengers.
Ryan clashed with O'Leary, with Ryan wanting the airline's public relations stunts to be less aggressive, and O'Leary suggesting that Ryan should leave the board.
Ryanair Holdings was established in 1996 as a holding company for Ryanair.
The EU Single Aviation Market established in 1992 as well as the airline deregulation in April 1997 and the removal of cabotage gave low-cost carriers, including Ryanair, the opportunity to expand.