Ryanair: Analyzing Major Strategic Forces and Evaluating Current Strategy

Background of Ryanair

Ryanair is Europe’s largest airline and employs a number of different strategies to grow and maintain their position in the aviation industry Ryanair describes their business (Ryanair Holdings plc) as Europe’s largest airline group, and is the parent company of Buzz, Lauda, Malta Air & Ryanair. They carry ciorca 149m passengers per year (pre Covid-19) on more than 2,500 daily flights from over 80 bases. The Group connects over 225 destinations in 37 countries on a fleet of 450 aircraft. www.corporate.ryanair.com/ryanair-facts-and-figures/ (accessed 16th July 2021) The case study entitled “Ryanair: the low fares airline – new directions?” (Higgins, E. 2019) provides the basis for your analysis, and this should be supplemented by wider reading to include other relevant information and supporting evidence.

Your assignment tasks are to: a) Critically analyse the major strategic forces that have affected the airline market in Europe over the last 2 – 3 years.

b) On the basis of your analysis in task

a), identify and critically evaluate the current strategy pursued by Ryanair, and identify how this might need to evolve and change in the future. The essay word count is 2000 words (+/- 10%) You will need to research Ryanair, along with the wider aviation sector in the UK and Europe, using as wide a range as sources as possible. You should consider not only issues specific to Ryanair, but also the forces acting in the sector in which they operate, as well as wider economic and political forces.

You are expected to research relevant academic theories and models to use in your answer. **You should be able to find material about Ryanair and the airline industry from a range of sources, but please remember the following: a) Ensure you always reference clearly where you get material from b) Be critical when considering the value of information from any source: how reliable or independent is that source c) Whilst you may gather information from a range of sources, remember this is an academic piece of work, and so your work needs to be underpinned by academic references, particularly when referring to theory. d) Academic sources are academic textbooks and journals, not general websites **Indicative

Marking Criteria: You are required to produce

a) A critical analysis of the strategic issues involved in the case study, utilising relevant theories and concepts.

b) An analysis that is based on a range of information, taking account of the validity and reliability of any source.

c) Work that is underpinned by academic references from a range of academic journals and textbooks. You need to attach a reference list, which covers only the references used in your work.

d) Work that it is an essay format (ie no headings) and is written in the third person. **

You will lose marks if

a) You produce work that is outside of the work count by more than 10%.

b) Your work is badly written, or with poor grammar or spelling, or is written in anything other than the third person.

c) Your referencing should be done using Harvard Referencing System

d) You do not use extensive referencing. Whilst there is a likely to be a mix of academic and non-academic sources, you are likely to fail if you rely exclusively on non-academic references.

e) Your Turnitin score identifies inappropriate copying of material or poor paraphrasing.

f) You submit your work late (without an agreed extension or approved Mitigating Circumstances)

These learning outcomes are:

1. Undertake an analysis of an organisation and identify and evaluate the major forces that are at work

2. Select and apply appropriate tools and techniques to examine the strategic options and to explain and assess the consequences of those choices I am adding Case Study Document and Strategy Plan along with this assessment brief