Ryanair Says It's Serious About Alitalia but Only the Short-Haul Routes
Skift Take
Ryanair does appear serious about taking over Alitalia. But it still seems odd that Ryanair would want to take over one of the world's most dysfunctional airlines. Wouldn't it just be better for Ryanair to keep growing organically?
Ryanair may have "bluster more than anyone else in the world," a senior executive for the airline acknowledged Wednesday, but it is serious about bidding for the short-haul operation of struggling Italian airline Alitalia and turning it into a separate division of Ryanair that might operate with a hybrid full-service, low-cost model.
But Dublin-based Ryanair has no interest in taking over Alitalia's long-haul routes, despite what Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary suggested to journalists last week in a briefing. Several outlets reported O'Leary said Alitalia's long-haul fleet was "really attractive," and that Ryanair was not opposed to flying longer routes.
"We are only interested in the short-haul," Kenny Jacobs, Ryanair's chief marketing officer, told Skift Wednesday during an interview in London. "But if someone else buys and runs the long haul, we're very interested to feed their long-haul operations."
(Asked about the discrepancy between the two statements, a Ryanair spokeswoman said: "Our position as Kenny outlined today is correct.")
Ryanair has made a non-binding offer to control up to 90 of Alitalia's Airbus aircraft, along with pilots and crews. It is waiting
