Ryanair's purchase of new Boeing aircraft will allow it offer a wider variety of destinations from Dublin, its chief executive Michael O'Leary said today.
Speaking at a press conference updating the media on its fleet, the Ryanair boss said new destinations could be added in Russia, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, the Gulf states and Egypt.
Mr O'Leary said the new aircraft will be able to fly for up to five and a half hours.
The airline will have a fleet of 308 aircraft this year. Its fleet will grow to 420 by 2019 and as many as 520 by the year 2024.
Mr O'Leary said a decision on whether to sell its 29% Aer Lingus stake to British Airways parent group IAG would be up to the Ryanair board.
Mr O'Leary said Aer Lingus "needs to find a home in one of the big five airline groups."
"A few things could happen - we could accept (an offer), we could reject or we could make a fourth (takeover) offer for Aer Lingus," he stated.
Ryanair eyes feeder role for long-haul airlines
Airlines such as British Airways and Air France-KLM could soon start using low-cost carriers like Ryanair and EasyJet to feed people onto their long-haul routes, Ryanair bosses have said.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said the days are numbered for how much longer national flag-carriers can operate intra-European flights because it was too expensive for them to compete on these point-to-point routes.
"If you go forward in Europe in the next five or 10 years, I think the low-cost carriers, mostly ourselves and EasyJet will do a lot more feeding of major airlines," O'Leary said at a news conference in London yesterday.
British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France will instead concentrate on their more profitable long-haul routes, he said.
Lufthansa and Air France are already using their own low-cost subsidiaries to operate some of their short-haul European routes in response to competition from the budget carriers.
Meanwhile, Ryanair's chief financial officer, Neil Sorahan said the airline would be unlikely to sign formal 'interline' agreements for feeder flights, but legacy carriers could instead schedule their long-haul flights to fit in with Ryanair's arrival times.
Mr O'Leary said it was possible that in future Ryanair could fly into London Heathrow, Britain's biggest airport which is not currently used by budget airlines, if it were contracted to do so by British Airways.
But he added that no discussions with legacy carriers were underway.
Ryanair is already expanding into larger airports to win market share from legacy carriers.
But for now has ruled out flying to Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt, Europe's three largest airports, due to costs and the time it would take to turn aircraft around.
However, London Stansted Airport, Ryanair's biggest base, is in talks with airlines from the US and the Middle East carriers about starting long-haul flights there, the airport's Managing Director Andrew Harrison saidt.
Michael O'Leary said Ryanair was open to connecting with any US or Gulf airline flights into Stansted, London's third busiest airport.
