The airline that travel snobs love to hate is poised to become the biggest in Britain.
According to reports from the UK, Ireland’s RyanAir is about to overtake British Airways sometime in 2018.
According to its website, the Dublin-based budget carrier already has 1,800 daily routes, connecting 33 countries with more than 300 new Boeing aircraft.
RyanAir is much parodied for its low-cost approach — and its extra charges that often multiply the airfare — and for some of the statements made by its CEO, Michael O’Leary, who once reportedly wanted to charge customers to go to the toilet, and suggested that passengers should stand on short-haul flights.
The carrier is also well known for using smaller, out-of-town airports, where passengers can spend longer on a bus or train getting to their ultimate destination than they do on the plane from their point of departure.
According to The Telegraph, in terms of the number of countries served, the world’s biggest carrier is Turkish Airlines, with 117, followed by Lufthansa, Air France and British Airways (all with 78), and Qatar Airways (73).
