Ryanair to offer cheap transatlantic flights

Irish budget carrier Ryanair is planning to offer transatlantic service with flights costing as little as 10 euros, before taxes, to a number of cities in the US from Ireland and Britain, according to comments made by the airline’s boss that appeared in a Sunday newspaper report.

The low-cost airline is looking at operating flights from London Stansted and Dublin airports to Boston, New York, Florida, Los Angeles and San Francisco, said the carrier’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, in an interview with Britain’s News of the World.

A spokeswoman for Ryanair, Pauline McAlester, said that she was unable to confirm the comments prior to an official announcement due on Monday when the half-year results for the airline were released. The results are expected to show a decline in profitability due to a slowdown in passenger demand.

“Economy class will be very cheap — around 10 euros. But our business class will be very expensive. There’s always 10-15 percent who’ll pay whatever it costs for a wide seat,” O’Leary said in the interview.

Recently the airline closed its operations in Valencia, Spain, ending 70 weekly flights to the city from the UK. O’Leary is hopeful, however, that Ryanair will be able to take over aircraft from its struggling competitors to operate on the transatlantic routes, the newspaper article noted.

“We’ll just have to keep flying more aircraft, opening up more routes and offering people more cheap flights,” O’Leary was quoted as saying.

Thanks to www.iht.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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