Indeed, nowadays the low-cost carrier’s achievements speak for themselves with no need for gimmicks. Between its stockmarket debut in 1997 and 2019 passenger numbers rose by an average of 19% a year. While most rivals struggled to regain lost ground, Ryanair emerged from the covid-19 pandemic stronger. Summer schedules that will see the number of daily flights increase from 2,000 to 3,000 from March 29th have already attracted strong bookings. This could boost passenger numbers to 168m in the financial year to March, easily surpassing the pre-covid figure of 149m. Ryanair pulled this off, Mr O’Leary says, “partly through luck and partly through bravery”.
