Ryanair’s O’Leary may launch E.U.-U.S. airline

Michael O’Leary, CEO of Dublin-based Ryanair Holdings Plc, may start a no-frills transatlantic airline once the U.S.-E.U. “open skies” agreement takes effect next March, according to Bloomberg News.
Dublin-based Ryanair, which operates routes within Europe, plans to double its service by 2012, O’Leary noted. “By mid-2009, we will be carrying 70 million passengers at 23 bases across Europe,” he told Flight International magazine. “It will be relatively straightforward for us to do a deal for 40 to 50 long-haul aircraft and connect these bases transatlantically,” charging fares as low as $12 one-way.
The new carrier would serve five or six secondary U.S. airports, such as Baltimore, T.F. Green Airport and Long Island’s Islip Macarthur, the magazine said. But don’t hold your breath. Though the idea is “a possibility,” airline spokesman Peter Sherrard told Bloomberg today, “there would be a three- or four-year timeframe, and it would be completely separate to Ryanair.”
Other low-fare carriers also are considering dipping into the transatlantic market, Bloomberg said. Canada’s Zoom Airlines, controlled by Scottish entrepreneur Hugh Boyle, yesterday said it will introduce transatlantic flights for $255 and up, starting June 21. And U.K.-based BMI said last month that it “expects to announce shortly details of its first USA service from Heathrow.”