We’ve spent some time contemplating this issue…trying to come up with something to say on it. On April 12th, Flight International magazine announced that in an interview with Ryanair head Michael O’Leary plans to launch a new transatlantic serving the East Coast. He expects to serve secondary airports such as Baltimore, Providence, and Long Island MacArthur with fares starting at $12. The airline, unlike Ryanair itself, will have a premium class.
What can we say about that? $12 sounds good. O’Leary, however, is bad news. As Bloomberg mentioned, the implications of a trans-atlantic Ryanair would be significant. Ryanair’s service level would be painful for the minimum 6 hours a transatlantic flight requires. For now, it seems O’Leary is blowing smoke…something he apparently excels at.
Long Island Macarthur Airport certainly hasn’t heard any word from him. The airport has no facilities for arriving international passengers to the degree an airline such as proposed would need. In fact, its modern concourse…designed for and used exclusively by Southwest is the only part of the airport containing jetways. The older section has had its jetways removed.
We are curious to hear more, however. O’Leary has said he would not run the new airline. We will watch to see if a reputable and reliable organization…if any…might be formed…although we do find Ryanair forming a transatlantic sister airline unlikely. Hopefully, ideas like it and Skybus will fade, leaving us with a new breed of airlines that concentrate on customer service, and clean decent service…frills or no-frills. Again…no-frills need not mean bad service.