Ryanair wants to take on Lufthansa in Germany, its chief executive said in a newspaper interview today and predicted the German airline would fail in its bid to build a low cost business.
"We currently have market share of around 4% in Germany. In the next three to four years, we're aiming to increase it to 15-20%," Michael O'Leary told the Handelsblatt paper.
He also dismissed Lufthansa's plans to expand its own budget flight operations.
"There's a long history of expensive airlines trying to find a foothold in the low-cost segment. The jets are just repainted and the inflight meals are cancelled. But that doesn't make them a low-cost airline," he said.
Ryanair is planning to expand to Germany's major airports to attract higher-paying business passengers, O'Leary said.
"We've just started in Cologne and in the winter, we'll start flights to Hamburg and expanding our services to Berlin. More airports will follow," he said.
Lufthansa, which has been hit by a string of strikes by its pilots, is battling to compete with budget carriers on lucrative long-haul routes.
Ryanair has shifted strategy to be "nicer" to customers and is working to build out its network to include major airports to attract more of the higher-paying business customers who are Lufthansa's core passengers.
Last month, a German magazine reported that Ryanair plans to expand to all large airports in the country except Frankfurt, including Lufthansa's second biggest hub, Munich.
Shares in the airline rose to an all-time high on Monday after passenger numbers surged for a second successive month and the budget airline's expanding fleet had fewer empty seats than a year ago.
