Fasten your seatbelts -- Ryanair's first flight took off 40 years ago today!
Before the bright yellow scratch cards, the in-flight trumpet fanfare, and the occasional €9.99 fare that makes you book a spontaneous trip to Milan, Ryanair was a scrappy little airline with a single plane, a 15-seater Brazilian-made Bandeirante, and big dreams of shaking up the skies.
It all began on a Monday morning, July 8, 1985 , when Ryanair's first ever flight took off from Waterford Airport, bound for London Gatwick. It wasn't exactly a jumbo jet, but the ambition was sky-high. 40-years-ago today, Ryanair took off from a tiny runway in Waterford…and the rest Is budget travel history Pic: Philippe Clement/Shutterstock
Unsurprisingly, it seems people were eager for a new way to fly, with bookings in the first week soaring 40% above expectations.
However, over the next several years, the airline's losses mounted before a genius business model saw them halving fares across the Irish Sea.
Forty years later, that tiny hop across the pond has turned into a full-blown low-cost empire, carrying millions of passengers across Europe and beyond — with some occasional drama, plenty of headlines, and more than a few cabin bag controversies.
Back in 1985, it was just a bold idea taking off from a small runway in the southeast of Ireland, with one TikTok user taking us on a walk down memory lane.
User @cian.coff08 took to the platform on Wednesday to give his followers a glimpse into the airport that started it all.
'40 years ago today, Ryanair took their first flight from this airport…this is where it all began,' he wrote, with many eager to see the airport functional once more. Unsurprisingly, it seems people were eager for a new way to fly, with bookings in the first week soaring 40% above expectations. Pic: Kaskip/Shutterstock
Sean Power of Harvey Travel on Gladstone Street in Waterford spoke to WLRFM about the impact the major milestone had on the locality.
'It was unbelievable. Instead of having to travel to Dublin, when the roads were totally different from what they are now, people were absolutely delighted to see a service out of Waterford,' Mr Power said.
'People were also apprehensive about what type of aircraft it was and how long the flight would take. But when people heard there were lots of bookings, it drove even more people to book.
'We were able to make contact with people in the UK and talk to them about inbound traffic into Waterford, building a package of a flight into Waterford and a hotel in the surrounding area,' he added.
Love them or hate them, you can't deny that Ryanair is the best airline for cheap flights — whether you can depend on their punctuality or other things is another argument.
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