The United Kingdom’s airline loss is others gain you may think but not so. These agreements work both ways and other members of the European Common Aviation Area and those with third party agreements lose their privileges to fly into the United Kingdom. Without proper thought, this could prove to be a lose-lose situation for all. A vocal campaigner for Remain in the referendum was Michael O Leary, Chief Executive of RyanAir. He made his views well known during the campaign comparing Brexit to armageddon and stating As the UK’s largest airline RyanAir is absolutely clear that the UK economy and its future growth prospects are stronger as a member of the European Union than they are outside of the EU. And he has continued to make the case since the result urging the United Kingdom to ignore the result and remain in Europe. Ryanair was founded in 1984 and its first flight in 1985 was a 15 seater from Ireland to London Gatwick. It has seen its passenger numbers rise form 5 000 in that first year to 119 977 801 in 2016. It boasts a fleet of 400 aircraft over 1 800 routes and in 2017 88 of its flights arrived on time. Safe to say it is one of the main competitors in the low-cost carrier world in fact last year it flew more international passengers than any of its competitors. Ryanair has seen its adjusted profit after tax rise steadily in the past 5 years as follows Year M Variance from the previous year 2017 1 316 6 2016 1 242 43 2015 866 7 66 2014 522 8 8 2013 569 3 2. It is clear to see that they are still a force to be reckoned with but do have their competition. Michael Porter’s five forces of competition framework show us that there are five forms of competition to consider the existing competition, competition from substitutes threat of entry supplier bargaining power and customer bargaining power.
