Ryanair: Celtic tiger or British bulldog?

Low-cost airline Ryanair's rapid growth in the UK could soon see it stripped of its Irish status, the Guardian reports.

Ryanair is officially registered in Ireland and is policed by the Irish Aviation Authority, despite serving close to twice as many destinations from Stansted as Dublin, and operating major hubs at Luton, Liverpool and Glasgow.

But the no-frills airline is now facing calls for it to be policed by the British safety authorities after boss Michael O'Leary appeared to concede in an after dinner speech last week that Ryanair was, in effect, based in the UK.

It may seem like an academic question but Ryanair's nationality has two important implications.

Firstly, the airline's status is of monumental importance to Ireland's economy, and the Irish government won't want to let it go without a fight.

Secondly, the move could change the way Ryanair is regulated, with the much larger Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) potentially placing more stringent controls on the airline in areas such as training, maintenance and aircraft design.

Although a hotly contested point, one top CAA source told the Guardian that Ryanair's days as an Irish airline could be numbered.

"The time is rapidly approaching when we need to look at what is meant by 'substantially established' in the UK in a legal sense," said the source.

Ryanair operates 301 routes in 21 European countries and expects to carry 35 million passengers this year.

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Comments

[ROB]

A typically English attitude. Five million navvies and nurses, Terry Wogan, Bob Geldof, Pierce Brosnan, U2 - first our talent and now our businesses... Grow out of your imperial age and live in the real world. Ryanair is a European airline headquartered in Dublin.

[Gary]

Terry Wogan, Bob Gelgof, Pierce Brosnan, U2 and Ryanair all owe their success to the British economy.

"Grow out of your Imperial age?"
The Republic of Ireland receives billions from British taxpayers via Europe to bring it up to European economic standards.

Celtic Tiger? Ireland's own economists admitted that the "Celtic tiger" was a massive exaggeration. One more thing; the Irish are NOT Celts.

[R.MacI]

And there are no tigers in Ireland either...

Talk about not having a clue, Ireland in a net contributor to the EU, and we are of Celtic origin since 600BC.

[Garrett]

I'm always amazed how certain segments of the British population begrudge Ireland its success. There is a lot more to this than EU money, however, unlike some people we are happy to pass on the fruits of our success to other countries.

Ireland's economic success is based on a number of factors. Ireland’s education system is world-class. On various different rankings it is placed either third or fourth in the world. By contrast, Britain is ranked 33rd and our poor education performance is repeatedly identified by organisations such as the OECD as our greatest weakness.

The Irish understand that staying ahead in innovation requires world class research and development. Ireland’s intellectual property laws give incentives for companies to innovate, and the tax system gives huge incentives to turn R&D into the finished article. No tax is paid on revenue from intellectual property where the underlying R&D work was carried out in Ireland.

Thirdly, in a world where cheap, rapid communication means that investment decisions are made on a global basis, capital will go wherever investment is most attractive. Ireland’s business tax rates are only 12.5 per cent, while Britain's are becoming among the highest in the developed world.

In Ireland they have doubled spending on public services in the past decade while reducing taxes and shrinking the state’s share of national income. So not only does Ireland now have lower business and income taxes than the UK, there are also twice as many hospital beds per head of population.

World-class education, high rates of innovation and an attractive climate for investment: these are all elements that have helped to raise productivity in Ireland.

Irish average incomes are now 20 per cent higher than in the UK. After being held back for decades, the productivity of Irish companies — the yardstick of economic performance — has grown three times as quickly as the UK’s over the past ten years. Young Irish families once emigrated in their millions to seek a better life overseas; these days it is young people across Europe who come to Ireland to find good jobs.

[John]

Well said Garrett... I've lived in the UK now for nine years, and yes the British, actually the English, do have a haughty attitude to the Irish and our success. But as time goes on, their petty arguements against us continue to sound ever more hollow. Their country is now such a "great" place, that they are now leaving it. Severeal million English no longer live in the UK, fed up with out of control crime, unregulated immigration, ever higher taxes (like council tax) and ridiculous house prices... not to mention the increasingly cold attitude people take towards each other.

It seems the generations of breeding the attitudes they've taken to other nationalities (look at Egypt and Suez, or Northern Ireland in the 60's for recent history) have now come home to roost in their own society.

Talk about Karma...

The sooner the Scots break away from them, the better, and then they'll just be one small, overpopulated, jumped up country... that not even the US cares about (like G Bush actually listen s to "Yo Blair!").

If we got a little humility from them, and some apologies from the Queen, they might be able to redeem themselves.