Several years ago, low-cost carrier Ryanair was  a single Irish airline operating flights across  

Europe with its primary bases located in Dublin  and at London Stansted. However, a lot has changed  

in the years since. An impressive five airlines  now fall under the Ryanair Group umbrella, ranging  

from Polish carrier Buzz with its intriguing  livery, to Malta-registered Lauda with some  

Airbus A320 family aircraft. Indeed, the airline  group now has 500 aircraft with many more brand  

new 737 MAX jets on the way. Here's the story of  how one huge airline became five large airlines.

Excluding the impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic,  Ryanair carries more international passengers than  

any other airline. In 2019 the airline carried  149 million passengers on its 2,500+ daily flights  

across 40 countries. While every Ryanair group  flight operates under a Ryanair flight number, the  

Irish budget carrier is increasingly diversifying  its operations across its group airlines. 

These days the Ryanair Group is made up  of five smaller airlines. Confusingly,  

the leading airline in the group is called  Ryanair and is the original airline that  

existed before being split into subsidiaries. In November 2018, Ryanair was joined by Ryanair  

however, and has since been rebranded as Buzz to  differentiate it from the leading airline brand.

In March 2019, an additional subsidiary was  formed. As an Irish airline, Ryanair is also  

an EU airline. The airline's largest base has  historically been at London Stansted Airport.  

Anticipating possible issues post-Brexit, the  airline sought to launch a UK subsidiary called  

Ryanair UK. It’s not just Ryanair that has  this type of split. Indeed, we also have  

Wizz Air and Wizz Air UK among others, as well as  UK-based easyJet and its European counterparts,  

easyJet Europe and easyJet Switzerland. Going back to Ryanair UK however,  

December 2018 saw a Boeing 737-800 registered  on the UK registry as the subsidiary’s first  

aircraft. The aircraft, registered G-RUKA,  would eventually joined by 7 more 737-800s.

August 2019 saw the creation of the airline's  largest subsidiary to date. Known as Malta Air,  

the airline has bases across Europe and  has slowly taken market share from Ryanair.  

The final airline was acquired by Ryanair  rather than created by the Irish carrier. 

Meanwhile, Austria’s Laudamotion began  operating Ryanair flights in late 2019  

and is the reason Boeing 737-dominant Ryanair has  a handful of Airbus narrowbodies in its fleet.  

This is something we’ll explain  more in-depth later in the video.

Excluding the impact of the pandemic,  the addition of the new subsidiaries  

had naturally meant that the number of  flights being operated by Ryanair began  

to fall. However, the airline was operating  more flights year on year at the same time.

Before the subsidiaries really got  a chance to establish themselves,  

the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With roughly a full  year of uninterrupted recovery, the breakdown  

between the subsidiaries has become more steady. The market share of Buzz and Malta Air began to  

grow steadily. There was a brief exception during  the height of the first wave of COVID-19 in  

Europe when all of the airline's few flights  were operated by the main Ryanair airline. 

The graph here shows the proportion of total  flights being operated by the three biggest  

subsidiaries is now reasonably constant. Based  on scheduled flights from July 2021 to June 2022,  

each of the Ryanair big three has  the following share of flights. 

Ryanair, which includes Ryanair UK,  accounts for 55.6% of scheduled flights. 

Malta Air accounts for 33.4% of flights, 

And Buzz has 11% of flights  within our selected date range. 

In April 2021, Malta Air actually operated  more flights than Ryanair, at 3,906 to 3,480.

A result of varying travel restrictions,  this dominance was short-lived. According  

to Cirium's data from March 2022,  Ryanair operated 37,094 flights,  

Malta Air operated 22,284, while  Buzz operated just 7,616​​​​.

Now, let's take a deeper look at the airline's  different subsidiaries in order of launch,  

starting with Ryanair Sun, the  first to begin operating flights. 

Ryanair Sun initially began operating  charter flights in April 2018.  

In mid-to-late 2018, Ryanair announced  that it would be closing its Polish bases  

and transferring operations to Ryanair Sun. In March 2019, Ryanair revealed that Ryanair  

Sun was getting a rebrand and ditching  the primary brand name. The airline today  

operates as the bee-themed airline Buzz. While  all the Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft still wear the  

old Ryanair livery, the new Boeing 737 MAX jets  have the bright-yellow Buzz livery complete with  

bee cartoons on the winglets. Ryanair purchased  the Buzz brand in 2003 for around €20 million. 

According to data from ch-aviation.com, the  airline today has a 58 strong fleet of 46  

Boeing 737-800 aircraft, accompanied by 12  Boeing 737 MAX 200s. With the Boeing 737 MAX  

aircraft delivery, the fleet's average age has  dropped from 4.3 years to 3 years since July 2021.  

The airline has bases in Slovakia, Hungary,  

Poland, Czechia, and Austria, while it’s  primary base is Warsaw's Modlin Airport.

Next up is Ryanair UK. With the uncertainty  of Brexit weighing on Ryanair's mind,  

the airline decided to establish a presence in  the UK just in case it was necessary to continue  

operations once the big day came. The airline  group founded this particular subsidiary in 2017,  

with the airline's first aircraft, G-RUKA, joining  the UK aircraft register on December 20th, 2018.

While just two Boeing 737-800s were  registered with the airline in July 2021,  

this has since grown to eight  planes registered RUKA through RUKH.  

These jets are from the Boeing 737-800 family  with no MAXs yet bound for the UK subsidiary.

Moving on, Malta Air was founded in 2019  through an agreement between the Maltese  

government and Ryanair. Initially, ten aircraft  were to join the Malta Air fleet, based out of  

Malta's Luqa International Airport. The airline  has grown significantly in the two years since.  

At the time of making this video, the  airline has 144 Boeing 737-800 aircraft,  

with its first Boeing 737 MAX  200 arriving in June 2021. 

The airline's fleet has an average age  of 3.2 years and a total capacity of  

27,408 passengers. The airline has bases  in Italy, Germany, France, and Malta.  

However, it recently closed its base at Frankfurt  Airport in a dispute over handling fees.

Lauda Europe, founded as Laudamotion,  commenced flights in March 2018 when  

Ryanair revealed it would acquire 24.9% of  the airline before later growing it to 75%.  

The investment marked a departure  from Ryanair's typical model,  

as it meant the airline would have some  Airbus A320 family aircraft under its care.

An airline originally founded by the late  racecar driver and entreprenuer Niki Lauda,  

Laudamotion was fully acquired by the Ryanair  Group by January 2019. In July 2020, Ryanair  

had setup a Malta-based airline with its own  aircraft operators certificate named Lauda Europe.  

By October of that year, Laudamotion ceased  operations, and its fleet of Airbus A320s  

formed the Malta-based Lauda Europe fleet.  The airline has a total of 29 A320-200  

aircraft, with an average age of 15.1  years and a seat capacity of 5,220.  

Lauda Europe shares its main base with Malta Air. The original Ryanair still operates most of the  

group’s aircraft, accounting for over  50% of the fleet with over 260 jets.  

This includes 25 Boeing 737 MAX jets as  well as a single Boeing 737-700- which,  

in case you didn’t know, is Ryanair’s special VIP  and corporate charter aircraft available for hire.

One interesting aspect of the  Ryanair Group and its airlines  

is the liveries that aircraft  currently wear- or have been wearing.

Indeed, the majority of its subsidiaries' fleets  also contain aircraft in the Ryanair colors.  

While there’s no reason for Ryanair  UK to have its own distinct livery,  

you might at least expect  Buzz jets to be repainted.

However, aircraft aren't being repainted because  Ryanair has deemed this an unnecessary expense-  

costing money that Ryanair doesn't want to  waste. While there might be some confusion  

at the airport, passengers overall are likely to  be indifferent to the livery of their aircraft.

It’s a different story for new  deliveries of 737 MAX jets, however.

Brand new aircraft coming from Boeing  will need to be painted anyway.  

Thus when it comes to cost, it makes little  difference which livery they end up with.

Speaking of new aircraft, data from ch-aviation  notes that Ryanair has roughly 150 more Boeing  

737 MAX aircraft yet to be delivered- at  least at the time of this video’s production.

These brand new aircraft will be the special  MAX 8-200 variant. While this type has the  

same dimensions as a standard MAX 8, an extra  set of emergency exit doors have been added to  

allow for a denser seat configuration. As  it stands, these aircraft cram 197 seats  

into the all-economy class cabin, with each  non-reclining seat having a pitch of 28 inches.

So, as you can see from the Ryanair Group’s  massive expansion over the past few years,  

its low-cost operating model has been a huge  success across the continent- so much so that  

the group’s leadership have sought opportunities  to grow and expand in other parts of Europe.

While competition is fierce with fellow  operators easyJet and Wizz Air, Ryanair Group  

and its subsidiaries seem to be in the lead with  a collective fleet of 500 aircraft and counting…

How many of Ryanair's subsidiaries have you flown  

on? Share your experiences with  us by leaving a comment below!