Recliner wrote:
"Roland Perry" wrote in message

In message , at 21:19:24
on Mon, 12 Oct 2009, Paul Corfield remarked:

I don't feel I have lost out by not travelling by Ryanair. I would
hope Mr O'Leary's planes are pretty new given the huge rate of
expansion that he has managed with his airline
I'm sure it's part of his business plan to buy new planes to give easy
and consistent maintenance and operations. As opposed to BMIbaby who
have a rag-bag collection of surprisingly old planes.

Yes, Ryanair buys huge batches of identical planes from Boeing (but
always with the threat of defecting to Airbus, as easyJet did), for
knock-down prices. O'Leary proudly shows off about ordering them during
recessions, when he can get the best deal. They are then kept for a
relatively short time, before being sold on, with little or no
depreciation (as Ryanair buys them for less than the second-hand price).


IIRC , the Panorama report stated that he was practically ready to do a
deal with Airbus, then backed out at the last minute. I think that one
of the Airbus executives also said that Ryanair were trying to secure
planes at unacceptably low prices.