Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Quick Glance into Ryanair

Ryanair, the Dublin-based airliner known for its operation of low-cost passenger airline service, is in the news for signing an order from The Boeing Company worth $15.6 billion. Ryanair is one of the few airliners that orders exclusively from Boeing, and has now expanded its fleet by 30% to over 400 units in order to grow its capacity to over 100 million across Europe by 2018. Boeing (NYSE: BA), which has seen its stock price soar by over 10% in the past month to close at around $85, welcomed the news, as its Commercial Airplanes CEO Ray Conner remarked the Next-Generation 737 "as the most efficient, most reliable large single-aisle airplane flying today," which "has been and will continue to be the cornerstone of the Ryanair fleet."

Ryanair Holdings (NASDAQ: RYAAY), the holding company for Ryanair, has market cap of around $12 billion. Its net profit margin in Q4-2012 fell to 1.87% after posting 12.76% for Q3. A visit to Ryanair's website indeed illustrates the low-cost business that it operates. There's a roundtrip from London to Dublin one month in advance available for only 44 GBP. On flight search websites that offer comparison, it becomes even more evident that the $56 value is significant that of its competitors, including $194 from British Airways. The low fares do come at some costs though; as users go on the website to search for flights, they are prompted to enter a "security code," which is obtained by viewing a short advertisement. Nevertheless, the colossal deal was signed today in New York.

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