The purpose of this report is to analyse Ryanair’s strategic position, in addition describing and evaluating its strategies between 2006 and 2010. The first part of the report will include PESTEL, SWOT and Porter’s five forces to evaluate the most important factors that affect Ryanair’s strategic position. Furthermore, at the second part, Ryanair’s corporate and business level strategies will be analysed and evaluated.
The Ryanair airline was founded in 1985 as a family business to serve a south Ireland – London Gatwick route. After five years of gradual development Ryanair adopted the successful low fares model of Southwest Airlines (Ryanair, 2010). The adoption of this model gave to Ryanair a comparative advantage in an industry characterised by fierce competition. During the following years Ryanair became one of the largest LCC in Europe and the largest European airline in the IATA traffic rankings with 181 aircraft, 59 million passengers and a 14% passenger increase in 2009. Looking at the published financial data of the company it can be observed a slight revenue increase from €2,941 million to €2,988 million and a €319 million profit. (Ryanair Annual report 2010). Furthermore, in June 2010 Ryanair paid its first ever dividend to shareholders of €0.34 per share (FT, 2010).
3. PESTEL analysis
To assess the macro-environment of Ryanair a PESTEL analysis will be used. Through the PESTEL framework and by assessing the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal factors, the Opportunities and Threats can be identified. Therefore, future trends and significant changes can be forecasted through this analytical tool (Johnson et al, 2008).
3.1 Political factors
Ryanair’s main operating area is Europe and is affected by the EU airline policy. Specifically, EU allows the free transportation of passengers and goods in the EU which facilitate the airlines’ operation.