Originally Posted by racedo
I agree but if you buy an ailing airline you get access to their bookings and while probably not that substantial you can also email every single person who ever flew with them and do a seamless transition with aircraft handed back to the lease company.
Additionally in the case of Ryanair as they are in the longer term market for new planes then having some A319/320's to fool around with ensure Boeing play ball on price especially when Ryanair engineers are making the right noises about how wonderful the airbus products are everytime a Boeing rep is visiting.
Sorry, but with respect, racedo, I have to disagree. There is no earthly reason for Ryanair to buy a competitor in the situation of SE. Access to their bookings? O'Leary has been doing his best to talk down "shaky airlines" and minimise their bookings. The forward bookings SE is likely to have will be limited and at low yields. Why would Ryanair not just wait for a competitor like SE to close and then start whatever routes they want, with fares they set themselves?
And some A319s/A320s to fool around with? Please! You think Ryanair didn't already get a good enough deal from Boeing for the foreseeable future? Are you suggesting that a few inherited A319s will somehow make Boeing "play ball on price" but the prospect of losing a further hypothetical Ryanair order to a very motivated and aggressive Airbus Industrie (as happened a few years back with easyJet, until then a dyed-in-the-wool 737 operator) won't?
