February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Chief executive Michael O’Leary called the move “opportunistic,” and the airline also announced that less than a year after ordering 150 Boeing 737-800 aircraft it had added another 100 to the order, which has a value of $6 billion.
O’Leary said Ryanair had guarantees from the U.S. government to borrow 85 percent of the consideration.
The airline will fund the euro 23.9 million Buzz acquisition from its own reserves. But the real cost of that deal is a nominal sum of less than euro 5 million because Ryanair will acquire some euro 19 million in cash from Buzz when the deal is finalized, on April 1.
Describing the deal as “astute, albeit opportunistic,” Merrion Capital analyst John Mattimoe said: “Ryanair is paying a net euro 5 million for an airline that will carry 4 million passengers this year in its current format, while EasyJet paid euro 400 million for circa 5 million potential passengers in Go.”
In a separate development, a Ryanair plane flying from Dublin to Bristol was forced to return to Dublin and make an emergency landing after crew smelt smoke in the cabin.
A spokeswoman for Ryanair said: “The pilot was notified by cabin crew of a smell of smoke in the cabin. As a precaution the plane made a turn around and returned to Dublin airport, where it landed safely. There was no fire detected on board.”
Passengers were taken back to the terminal, and were due to travel to Bristol on another plane.