Ryanair move to takeover LaudaMotion

munchkin_utd

Ryanair have announced a 25% stakeholding in the new offshoot of the failed Air Berlin airline, with the wish to have 75% as soon as possible if permitted by the EU.

Ryanair has entered into an agreement with Formula One legend Niki Lauda, which will see the airline support Mr Lauda’s plan to develop and grow LaudaMotion, an Austrian airline based in Vienna.

LaudaMotion, which is owned by Mr Lauda, recently acquired many of the assets, including A320 aircraft, of the former Niki Airline, and will shortly start a range of scheduled and charter services from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ryanair will acquire an initial 24.9pc stake in LaudaMotion, which will rise as soon as possible to 75pc, subject to EU Competition approval, a statement from Ryanair said.

The cost of the 75pc investment in LaudaMotion (if approved by the EU) will be less than €50m, Ryanair said, with the low-fares airline confirming that it will provide LaudaMotion with an additional €50m for year one start-up and operating costs.

https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/ryanair-to-partner-with-f1-legend-lauda-to-develop-austrian-airline-36723828.html

on the face of it, small stuff, but if you were to ask what a board member of Lufthansa, who have a mere 87% of German inland flights with prices that would make an irish passenger wince, you'd likely get a different answer.

Is Ryanairs plan to use LaudaMotion as their German speaking area brand, which would be a far more acceptable proposition to Lufthansa loving politicians and regulators than a massive presence by Ryanair itsself ?

EDIT: a Quote from MOL which really says it all.

"The LaudaMotion AOC will support a fleet of Airbus aircraft which is something we have hoped to develop within the Ryanair Group for some years.
With access to the Ryanair fleet and financial resources, LaudaMotion will now grow more rapidly, as it seeks to compete in a market which is dominated by Lufthansa's high airfares with its Swiss and Austrian subsidiaries," Mr O'Leary said.

ted1

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Ryanair have announced a 25% stakeholding in the new offshoot of the failed Air Berlin airline, with the wish to have 75% as soon as possible if permitted by the EU.

Ryanair has entered into an agreement with Formula One legend Niki Lauda, which will see the airline support Mr Lauda’s plan to develop and grow LaudaMotion, an Austrian airline based in Vienna.

LaudaMotion, which is owned by Mr Lauda, recently acquired many of the assets, including A320 aircraft, of the former Niki Airline, and will shortly start a range of scheduled and charter services from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ryanair will acquire an initial 24.9pc stake in LaudaMotion, which will rise as soon as possible to 75pc, subject to EU Competition approval, a statement from Ryanair said.

The cost of the 75pc investment in LaudaMotion (if approved by the EU) will be less than €50m, Ryanair said, with the low-fares airline confirming that it will provide LaudaMotion with an additional €50m for year one start-up and operating costs.

https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/ryanair-to-partner-with-f1-legend-lauda-to-develop-austrian-airline-36723828.html

on the face of it, small stuff, but if you were to ask what a board member of Lufthansa, who have a mere 87% of German inland flights with prices that would make an irish passenger wince, you'd likely get a different answer.

Is Ryanairs plan to use LaudaMotion as their German speaking area brand, which would be a far more acceptable proposition to Lufthansa loving politicians and regulators than a massive presence by Ryanair itsself ?

EDIT: a Quote from MOL which really says it all.

"The LaudaMotion AOC will support a fleet of Airbus aircraft which is something we have hoped to develop within the Ryanair Group for some years.
With access to the Ryanair fleet and financial resources, LaudaMotion will now grow more rapidly, as it seeks to compete in a market which is dominated by Lufthansa's high airfares with its Swiss and Austrian subsidiaries," Mr O'Leary said.

I believe that their fleet is one A320, do they bought 25% of an A320...

IngazZagni

ted1 wrote: »

I believe that their fleet is one A320, do they bought 25% of an A320...

According to the Ryanair press release they will have 21 aircraft flying this summer and that will include 6 aircraft wetleased from Ryanair mainline.

Edit: The other 15 aircraft are being transferred over from Niki

Harika

FunFact: Niki Lauda was promoting the nowadays chancellor of Austria: Sebastian Kurz during the last elections. He started the bidding with the slogan to have an Austrian national solution, and the far right people in the government were supporting this as the only other bidder was Anglo-Spanish group IAG/Vueling. So it was decided that he gave the best offer.

ted1

IngazZagni wrote: »

ted1 wrote: »

I believe that their fleet is one A320, do they bought 25% of an A320...

According to the Ryanair press release they will have 21 aircraft flying this summer and that will include 6 aircraft wetleased from Ryanair mainline.

Edit: The other 15 aircraft are being transferred over from Niki

I should know bettter than to trust Wikipedia

ted1

Are they going with Airbus because
1.) more type rated pilots available
2.) Boeing started taking advantage thinking that Ryanair had to buy their planes
3.) potentials trade war inflated prices
4.) Germans and French prefer to fly European planes and support industry

EchoIndia

ted1 wrote: »

Are they going with Airbus because
4.) Germans and French prefer to fly European planes and support industry

What passenger would choose an airline on the basis of where the equipment is built?

L1011

EchoIndia wrote: »

What passenger would choose an airline on the basis of where the equipment is built?

Americans. Not as much of an issue this side of the Atlantic

ted1

EchoIndia wrote: »

ted1 wrote: »

Are they going with Airbus because
4.) Germans and French prefer to fly European planes and support industry

What passenger would choose an airline on the basis of where the equipment is built?

Plenty of people.

EchoIndia

ted1 wrote: »

Plenty of people.

Please elaborate, preferably with evidence.

goingnowhere

There is very much a 'team America' in the US. Have a look at the safety card on any US airline and it will say "assembled in xxx". Airbus has a factory in the US to side step the buy American ethos and has being making significant ground in the US, Delta, JetBlue, American

Look around Europe,
FR, KLM, SAS, Norwegian are the only major shorthaul ops in EU on Boeing equipment

Niki was Airbus, they still have airbuses and crews so simplest way forward

EchoIndia

goingnowhere wrote: »

Look around Europe,
FR, KLM, SAS, Norwegian are the only major shorthaul ops in EU on Boeing equipment

Niki was Airbus, they still have airbuses and crews so simplest way forward

Agreed Airbus have a strong hold on the European market, but they are huge in Asia also and a study of output from the Airbus narrowbody lines at TLS and XFW will show a lot of USA-bound aircraft coming off the line (and relatively few for European customers) at the moment. As for narrow-body Boeings in Europe you can add in operators like the Tui group, Transavia/Transavia France and Air Europa as fairly significant operations.

In any case I still don't believe that most airline passengers choose their flight based on where the aircraft is built. Most can't tell a 737 from an A320 or indeed an A330 anyway.

ted1

I never said most.

EchoIndia

ted1 wrote: »

I never said most.

I meant "many" but in any case we are both entitled to our views.

munchkin_utd

ted1 wrote: »

Are they going with Airbus because
1.) more type rated pilots available
2.) Boeing started taking advantage thinking that Ryanair had to buy their planes
3.) potentials trade war inflated prices
4.) Germans and French prefer to fly European planes and support industry

Not sure if your question is why are Lauda running airbusses ( which is easy, because thats what Niki were running) or why is Ryanair interested in buying into an airbus operation.

Id say youre bang on with 1 and 2, nr 3 not such an issue and 4 is completely irrelevant, at least for the german(ic) market where Lauda will be operating.
Lufthansa operate Brazilian Embraers, Canadian Bombardiers, British Aerospace Avros and lots of American Boeing aircraft, and in the past even had Shorts (of Belfast) planes in their fleet.

It was mentioned in some report or other that theres a good pilot training centre in Vienna which was inherited with the takeover of the Niki operation so that could also be a factor.

Anyhow, the whole thing is just plain bizarre at this stage.
Laudamotion is starting off by wet leasing 8 planes TO Eurowings (aka Lufthansa) until at least the end of May, with negotiations ongoing for an extension of that. They will run as Eurowings flights with Eurowings flight numbers, not sure if the slots being used are Eurowings or former Niki slots.
These planes though, if I understand it right, are actually owned by Lufthansa group and are being leased to Laudamotion.

So there we are, Ryanair (indirectly) running Lufthansa airbus machines for Lufthansa ! You couldn't make it up.