Business English 3.1 Ryanair, EasyJet

Introduction
Ryanair and EasyJet are two important low cost airline companies. In order to understand their success it is useful to know their history, the products and services they offer, their markets and the strategies they use. Finally, even though they have grown since their creations, they may face some problems in the future.
I. History, products services
1. History
Ryanair
Ryanair was set up by the Ryan family in 1985. Its Head office is situated in Dublin. The company started with a 15 seat aircraft, a staff of 25 people and a capital of one pound. Its first air link, opened in 1985, operated from Waterford (Ireland) to London Gatwick. Despite the growth of passengers (see graph page 2), Ryanair only made losses until 1991. Now the company operates 688 routes in Europe with 168 Boeing 737-800 and is composed of 4800 members of staff.

Ryanair Passenger (Millions)1

Easyjet
EasyJet Airline Company Limited, known as EasyJet, is, like Ryanair, one of the most important low cost airlines in Europe. Its Head office is situated in London Luton. Founded in 1995 by Stelios Haji-loannou, EasyJet started with two Boeing 737-200 which operated from London Luton to Glasgow and from London Luton to Edinburgh. EasyJet now operates 465 routes in 107 European and North African airports, with 165 aircrafts and has 5,674 employees (30/09/2007).
Its number of passenger reflects EasyJet’s popularity nowadays (see chart page 3)

full year annual total ('000)
2000 5,996
2001 7,664
2002 11,400
2003 20,300
2004 24,300
2005 29,558
2006 32,953
2007 37,200

Passenger statistics

2. Products and services
Both companies offer low prices flights in more than 25 countries in Europe and North Africa. Thanks to their websites, launched in 20001 for Ryanair and in 1997 for Easyjet, people can book on the internet.
They also offer other types of services and products like :
 on board services (passengers