Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words - 1

Business - Essay Example This paper aims at analysing, identifying as well as evaluating the strategies that Ryanair pursues in order for it to maintain its market leadership position. The main focus will be on the strategic management practices that the airline’s management has developed and adopted over time to overcome market challenges as well as stiff competition from its closest rivals for example British Airways. Ryanair is an airline that was founded in 1985 and at its start it concentrated it travel from Waterford to London. The airline has come a long way since then and today it ranks one of the biggest carriers in Europe. The company’s growth is heavily attributed to the management’s decision from its onset to plough back its earnings in expansion programs that have reaped a great deal of benefits to date. In this regard it emerged to be the big airline it is today (Carol & Julian 2000). To elaborate further on its growth trend, the airline started operations with only one aircraft which had 15 seats. In 1986 the company added two more aircrafts and by 1987 it already had a jet aircraft that made it possible for the airline to expand on its route. The company grew rapidly from this time but in 1990 it made a massive loss due to heightened competition from British airways and Aer Lingus. This phenomenon caused the management to embark on a major restructuring exercise. This saw the airline branded as a low fares one; a stance that saw its tribulations turn round as the number of passengers increased enormously after the first low fares announcements. By 1992 passenger traffic had grown by 45 percent due to the steady policy of providing good service at low cost; this translated to 945,000 passengers (Charles & Gareth 2009). The 1990s were the years of steady growth where more and more routes in Europe has been conquered and airlines like British Airways were not in