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An ultra low cost long-haul airline providing service to the United States from Europe could only be envisioned by eccentric Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary.  Near the end of the decade O’Leary plans to have a fleet of 50 Airbus A350 or Boeing 787’s serving five or six US destinations from 23 destinations in Europe. 

And those destinations are not going to be the normal JFK’s and IAD’s.  Nope, O’Leary wants to serve the smaller markets.  Baltimore, Providence, etc.  O’Leary notes that the recent open skies agreement will allow Ryanair to do this. 

Ryanair hopes to gain market share in two key markets.  The ultra low cost and the premium product.  He wants to compete with Virgin Atlantic

"By mid 2009, we will be carrying 70 million passengers at 23 bases across Europe.  It will be relatively straightforward for us to do a deal for 40 to 50 long-haul aircraft and connect these bases transatlantically. There would be no one to touch us,” said O’Leary. 

What makes this unbelievable is the fact that O’Leary wants to sell tickets for as low as $12 US.  That’s right, you walk onto the plane for twelve bucks.  But if you want to check luggage, that will cost you.  You want have food or a drink.  That will cost you.  Basically it’s Ryanair now only trans-Atlantic. 

If this works, and O’Leary acknowledges the failure of low cost carriers in this area before, Europe my become one of the cheapest places to fly.   

FlightGlobal   

If you want to read more in-depth check out Flight Global next week when the full article is released.