RyanAir Pestle Case Study
Key Learning Outcomes
By the end of the case, students should be able to:
- Understand the broad macro-environment of Ryanair and the UK airline industry in terms of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors (PESTEL/PEST/STEEPLE).
- To apply strategy business models and frameworks such as Pestle/Pest/Steeple, etc to real company cases.
- See also, Ryanair Swot Analysis 2021
- See also, Ryanair Porters Five Forces 2021
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Founded in 1984, Ryanair is Europe’s largest airline and the lowest cost carrier with itsprimary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. The airline operates a low cost carrier scheduled passenger airline that serves short haul point to point routs between Ireland, the UK Europe, Israel and Morocco. Alongside its air passenger services, Ryanair offers a number of ancillary services including in-flight beverage and food sales, internet related services and merchandise among others. Through its website MY Ryanair, the airline markets accommodation services, travell insurance as well as hotel and accommodation services (Reuters 2021). As a result of COVID 19, Ryanair’s net loss for the year that ended March 31 2021 was 1.02 billion euros ($1.24 billion) compared with a net profit of EUR648.7 million in fiscal year 2020 ( Goriainoff 2021).
Ryanair operates in a very competitive industry where major players have resorted to consolidation in order to grow their market share. With supply now exceeding demand and most travelers opting for low cost carriers, major brands have also resorted to cutting costs in order to match low cost carriers. This has resulted in price wars which have left the industry less profitable, pushing small companies into bankruptcy. As of 2020, low cost carriers (LCCs) in Europe had 44.5% of the total seat capacity in the region. Despite a difficult year, Ryanair is still the busiest airline group in Europe, transporting 51.7 million passengers in 2020 as shown in figure 2.
Being the lowest cost carrier across Europe, Ryanair is likely to benefit more from today’s challenges as cash strapped consumers seek to get away on shoestring budgets.
Ryanair operates in a very competitive industry where major players have resorted to consolidation in order to grow their market share. With supply now exceeding demand and most travelers opting for low cost carriers, major airline brands have also resorted to cutting costs in order to match low cost carriers. This has resulted in price wars which have left the airline industry less profitable, pushing small companies into bankruptcy.
As of 2020, low cost carriers (LCCs) in Europe had 44.5% of the total seat capacity in the region. Despite a difficult year, Ryanair is still the busiest airline group in Europe, transporting 51.7 million passengers in 2020 as shown in figure 1 (below). Being the lowest cost carrier across Europe, Ryanair is likely to benefit more from today’s challenges as cash strapped consumers seek to get away on shoestring budgets.
Figure 1: Leading airlines in Europe in 2020, based on number of passengers (in millions)
In the following sections, the report examines the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and ecological environment Ryanair operates and how it is impacting its growth. The environment that organizations such as Ryanair operate in is increasingly becoming more complex, ambiguous, and volatile. This has made it essential for organizations like Ryanair to keep up with the changes in the wider environment in order to survive.