Aer Lingus vs Ryanair operating costs

[Dee747]

From a Reuters news report today discussing the differences between the two airlines' operating costs - It costs Aer Lingus an average 85 euros to carry a short-haul passenger, compared with 53 for Ryanair, Bloxham analyst Joe Gill said.

While accepting that this is an across the board average, and not route specific, how do these figures tally with what you've recently paid on each airline? Then, taking into account the load factors you experienced on your flights, just how do these two really stack up? Who's putting the best spin on their results? :confused:

[MANtoDUB]

Travel weekly on MAN-DUB and vice versa route and found prices on both FR and EI to be much the same, a few euro in the overall price, load factor is always quite high too (Mon AM and Fri PM flights)

Usually go EI though - personal preference!

[Just a spotter]

Taken from a post on antother board

Ryanair (As per half year results Sept 08 (http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/news.php?yr=08&month=nov&story=fin-en-031108&view=email))

Total number of Routes: 808
Total aircraft in service: 168*
Passengers carried: 31.6m

Profit: €214.6m

Staff: 6,426

Aer Lingus (As per Half year results Aug 08 (http://www.aerlingus.com/Corporate/7am_Interim_report_2008_FINALoamdhi.pdf))

Total number of Routes: 99**
Total aircraft in service: 42*
Passengers carried: 4.8m

Profit: €22.3m loss

Staff: 4,050

By way of comparison, when Ryanair were operating fewer than 100 routes (they hit the 100 mark in 2003) they did it with circa 1,500 staff (here (http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/about.php?page=About&culture=GB&pos=HEAD))

* jethro's Fleet Listings (http://jethros.eu/fleets/fleets.htm)
** aerlingus.com (http://www.aerlingus.com/cgi-bin/obel01im1/Corporate/med_corp_profile.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0039986316.1226164120@ @@@&BV_EngineID=cccladefjeggmlmcefecfigdffgdfkg.0&P_OID=-536880294&Category=0)

JAS