Ryan Air Flies to ORD?

[AA SLF]

Was at ORD last week and when the rent car bus stopped at the Terminal they announced "Ryan Air" with all the other airlines. When did this happen? What equipment do they use to get across the Atlantic, surely not a 738. Does the 738 have the range? Is it ETOPS qualified?

What a hugh surprise to me, cause it is the MOL "Ryan Air" for sure, in Terminal-3 at ORD.
dAAvid -

[AA SLF]

Sure enough, went to the ORD (Hare) home page (link here: <a href="http://www.ohare.com/ohare/airlines/airlines_term3.shtm" target="_blank">http://www.ohare.com/ohare/airlines/airlines_term3.shtm</A> ) and they are listed as Arrivals in Term-5 (which is where US Customs is located) and departures in Term-3 (which is DL & AA mostly). Is this a "code share" deal, or can I now buy a tkt for 10GBP r/t from ORD to ??
dAAvid -

[World Traveller]

Ryan International? I think they operate some JMC aircraft on winter lease for Apple vacations. as well as their own aircraft, which my spotters book suggests are 737, 727 and DC-10.

MOL's mob it ain't, for sure.

WT
"Haway ah gan"

[AA SLF]

Nope - it really is MOL's RyanAir from Ireland. Blue 73Xs with the Harp on the tail. Prove it to yourself. Click on the link I embedded; page down to where you see a "list" box on the left side of airline names; scroll the list down until you see RyanAir; click on that name and it takes you directly to MOL's home page. I did an intensive search on there looking for ORD, but could NOT find anything at all. Just European destinations.
dAAvid -

[Downwind_Left]

Looks like O' Hare got it wrong then.

This is Ryan International Airlines, NOT Ryanair as WT pointed out.

Link should be <a href="http://www.flyryan.com/" target="_blank">Ryan International Airlines</a>

There's even a link on their homepage for people who've found the wrong Ryan...

[rightstuff]

Ryan International operating on behalf of Apple Vacations.The equipment are JMC A320's and B757.Also operating out of MKE,MSP and DXT.

[AA SLF]

All right, guys, I believe you. Oh the egg on the face for ORD! But, I am not going to be the one to tell them. I am going to just let it ride. But believe me, the tape recorded announcement on the rent car bus was "Ryan AIR" and not Ryan "INT'L" - as y'all have so correctly pointed out.
dAAvid -

[therosterman]

What AA SLF heard was more than likely Ryan International. What he saw, however, could have been a ferry flight delivering a new -800. ORD seems a bit out of the way though??

[AA SLF]

because as Downwind_Left said above .....
"Ohare got it wrong" ......
Oh boy - this is going to be fun. And I heard the recording on the rental bus on two (2) seperate trips, one B4 Christmas and the other last week after. Yes, I thought I heard it wrong on the first trip, so was very care to listen on the second trip. That's why I waited so long to post here. -- dAAvid

[Devils Advocate]

Well there's an awful lot of Oirish Americans living and about the Boston environs !

[Dan Winterland]

Several years ago, I was operating out in the Far East using the callsign "Lion", our usual callsign in western airspace. The locals had problems with the letter "L", so we adopted the callsign "Ryan" to avoid the inevitable confusion, even to the extent of filing our flight plans under "Ryan". Of course, it wasn't too long before some spotter mag reported that Ryanair had started a Far East operation!

[dallas dude]

Just throwing this into the mix,

ATA's paint scheme on their shiny new B737-800's is somewhat similar to MOL's. The ATA aircraft are equipped with spiffy looking winglets.

ATA is hubbed out of Midway (CatI). Maybe it was one of these 737's you saw.

ORD is an ideal alternate for ORD (Cat III).

Ryan flew a postal contract using B727's. (I believe FedEx now "owns" that flying). They usually go to the freight terminus on the southwest side of ORD.

Any chance the call sign referenced such a B727 whilst you thought it applied to a B737 and put two and two together to come up with five?

Just wondering.