Ryanair: The Full Story of the Controversial Low-cost Airline

The supercharged growth of this low-cost airline has actually changed the way countless people live their lives, whether it be Ireland's new "Ryanair Generation" for whom its cheap flights to Dublin have eliminated much permanent emigration to the UK, or the thousands of Britons now enabled to buy holiday homes in rural France. This is the first book to tell the full story of the Ryanair phenomenon, from its inauspicious beginnings to its current dominance, from the secret of its business strategy to its cavalier stunts and practices. Ryanair employees past and present were interviewed, as well as its top management and those at its major rivals such as British Airways and easyJet, to produce an authoritative, objective, and compulsive account of one of the most colorful companies in Europe. With Ryanair continuing to expand, the battle for the low-cost airline market in Europe becoming ever more cutthroat, and chief executive Michael O'Leary happy to do battle with everyone from airports (for their landing charges) to his own pilots (over pay and conditions)—and generate an endless stream of PR and news stories in the process—this edition is fully updated to take account of all Ryanair's most recent history.