bored cheese.
sorry. i can see how my earlier posting could have caused offence. what i was trying to say was that ryanair has no experience whatsoever of ETOPS flying, or of the sector lengths involved, and of this new a/c. it appears that they are trying to rush the process through and to do too much too soon. what is more is that nobody at all fly's 737's on that route. the new 737ng may a far better performance envelope, but (and its a very big but) it has no proven track record. existing transatlantic airlines and the a/c that they fly such as 747/757/767/777 a300/330 all have had proven track records before being accepted for ETOPS clearance.
ryanair will have to prove themselves very strongly, and it will be a lengthy process in order for etops certification to be granted.