Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) is considering buying more small airlines or establishing new units but plans no major acquisitions in the next few years, CEO Michael O'Leary said at a press conference.
"You’ll see in the next couple of years, I’d like to see Ryanair evolve as kind of a group of different airlines. We will have Ryanair based out of Ireland, you’ll have LaudaMotion (Vienna) based out of Austria, you’ll have Ryanair Sun (Warsaw Modlin) in Poland," O'Leary said, as quoted by Reuters.
He further clarified that the LCC would be looking at carriers operating between 20 and 50 aircraft.
"Nothing big but if there were some small-scale opportunities that popped up like the LaudaMotion opportunity then we could do it," O'Leary said.
The carrier initially acquired a 25% stake in LaudaMotion early in 2018, shortly following the establishment of the airline as a new reincarnation of Niki (Austria) (Vienna). Subsequently, Ryanair increased its holding to 75% and recently assumed full ownership of the Austrian airline. It uses the unit to run services from Vienna and a number of German airports, as well as some flights from Palma de Mallorca.
In turn, Ryanair Sun was initially established in 2018 as a leisure charter carrier based in Poland. The airline is currently in the process of taking over all scheduled services from the LCC's Polish bases but will also continue to offer charters to tour operators.
Ryanair has plans to grow both LaudaMotion's Airbus narrowbody fleet and Ryanair Sun's B737-800-based fleet.
