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Ryanair: How a Small Irish Airline Conquered Europe

Author: Siobhan Creaton
Publisher: Aurum Press Ltd
Category: Book

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

6 reviews
Sales Rank: 154533

Media: Paperback
Edition: 2004
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1

ISBN: 1845132939
Dewey Decimal Number: 387.7065417
EAN: 9781845132934
ASIN: 1845132939

Publication Date: August 1, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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•	Paperback - Ryanair: How a Small Irish Airline Conquered Europe
•	Paperback - Ryanair: How a Small Irish Airline Conquered Europe

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Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Well-written, engaging corporate tale December 21, 2005
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

The story of how discount airfares came to Europe is no fairy tale. This book is a disturbing story about the underside of deregulating Ireland's airline industry. It's a tale of temperamental executives, overspeculation, greed, government intervention, mistreated customers and the challenges of free market operations. Given a wealth of material and an exciting industry, author Siobhan Creaton delivers a well-written, engaging corporate tale. The cast includes a combustible mix of powerful personalities who sometimes, but not always, tolerate each other. There is also a revolving door of top executives who serve the company's purposes and leave, as well as horror stories about how cost cutting created festering customer relations. Creaton packs this into an exciting story that moves quickly, though it rambles now and then. We recommend this compelling profile to anyone interested in corporate case studies, executive management or modern aviation.

1 out of 5 stars

Rhetoric June 28, 2005
2 out of 6 found this review helpful

I went in to this book with high hopes. After an overly-lengthy history of GPA there isn't a lot left for Ryanair. The book critically lacks the 'insider' information, the people who were around Ryanair when it transformed itself. The author has not had interviews with the senior management toi understand what makes them tick. The rapid expansion is very lightly covered, the detail of how the company can afford 100+ new planes, about how it negotiates with airports etc would be far more interesting. The bulk of the book is press releases, soundbites and newspaper articles. The last 3 or 4 chapters took me about 2 minutes to read as they are just heaping praise on O'Leary. Worth reading, but not buying.

4 out of 5 stars

No miracle, just cost-cutting and luck May 20, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

The essence of this book is a constant focus on the bottom line of the business supplemented by a large slice of luck. Firstly Ryanair managed to negotiate the lowest airport fees in Europe by buying up capacity at Stansted when the new airports partnering agreements with other airlines fell through. Strategically this set them up for the long term. Since then rigourous monitoring of costs such as only using black & white printers in their corporate headquarters through to only buying second hand aircraft (in the beginning at least) and using the same model of aircraft on all routes equals large savings in maintenance and overhead costs.
Furthermore most non-value added costs such as pension costs, uniform and training costs are passed to the employee rather than being paid by the employer. This is taking to the max the concept of the employee as just another factor of production and by removing the requirements for experience and career development from all roles O'Leary does not care about staff retention, not even as regards to pilots.
All in all there is a lot that any organisation can learn from the management of Ryanair in terms of controlling costs. If, however, you value your staff and need to retain them, and want to attract customers for reasons other than hilariously cheap prices, ignore this book.

5 out of 5 stars

Intriguing, inspiring, and hilarious...a great book! January 7, 2005
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a great book that I couldn't put down until I read it entirely!
As a frequent Ryanair customer, saving big money every time I travel, I always tried to imagine how such a great airline could charge so little for airfare and continue to make a profit(or stay in business). As a school project (Economics) I chose to research Ryanair's success story and discovered this book. I even drove 4 hours (round trip) to get a copy! This book answered all of my questions and I am still fascinated with this company!
Regardless of Ryanair CEO, Michael O'Leary's 'colorful' personality and his ability to stir up the media, his tenacious efforts continue to drive the company to the top of the airline industry. Some of his comments, outbursts, and responses that are quoted throughout the book, had me rolling with laughter! The humble beginning Ryanair endured through the 1980's is a very inspiring story of persistence that brought radical changes to the way we travel today.
Not only is this a good read about this company, however anyone interested in overcoming great adversity will be inspired and motivated to never give up on their dreams.
A great book that is worth the money (as well as a 4 hour drive)!

5 out of 5 stars

Ryanair: how a small irish airline conquered europe October 23, 2004
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I have just read this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have been fascinated and entertained by Michael O'Leary for many years now. This book was the first to go behind the scenes in Ryanair and showed how he operates with staff and his total ruthlessness and disregard for what people think of him.

It is a great read and the author had obviously done lots of legwork and has uncovered plenty of new information that vividly shows how Ryanair almost collapsed several times but survived and prospered under O'Leary's leadership.

I particularly enjoyed the interview with Herb Kelleher, the Southwest Airlines chief and the guru for all low fares airlines. He was so entertaining and obviously is enthralled by O'Leary.

It's a real page turner and provides lots of lessons for anyone in business trying to develop their company while keeping an eyes on their costs.