Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

It was not the most auspicious date for launching a new airline, 23 May 1986, but the record shows that's when Ryanair was born. It was a time of despair in Ireland with mass unemployment, daily savagery in the North and the nation's youth heading for London and New York. That's if they could afford the rip-off fares being charged the state-owned carrier Aer Lingus.

Twenty years on, Ryanair has grown from an airline flying the one-hop Dublin-London route to one of Europe's largest carriers. Last year it flew 35 million passengers to more than 100 European destinations, while its customers paid an average fare of just $53. The airline enjoyed revenues of $1.7 billion, up 20 percent over 2004, at a time when most competitors were stuck in a holding pattern.

How did it do it? By sticking to a single type of aircraft — the legendary Boeing 737. By focussing on secondary airports. By offering unassigned passenger seating. By removing seat-back pockets to reduce weight and cleaning expenses. By replacing free peanuts and beverages with "unfree" ones. (Some 27 million passengers bought in-flight refreshments on the airline last year, generating sales of $61 million). By eliminating its free checked-bag allowance and by charging $3.50 per piece. (Ryanair expects the move to save $36 million a year by reducing fuel and handling costs). And, especially, by using new technologies to drive new sources of revenue. Today, 98 percent of Ryanair's passengers book their flights online.

Ryanair's success is mainly thanks to the vision of its unsentimental CEO, Michael O'Leary. After taking the company public in 1997 he has overseen record rises in revenue, profits and passenger numbers. He has also taken on grasping trade unions, venal Irish politicians and incompetent Euro bureaucrats and by defanging these vampires, he's made it possible for ordinary people to fly. And that's why they respect him. They get what they pay for. Nothing more. But they appreciate the money they save by flying Ryanair.