Ryanair has its headquarters in Dublin and its biggest operational base at London Stansted, in the UK. It is now Europe's largest low-cost carrier operating around 716 routes across Europe and North Africa from a total of 28 bases. Ryanair is the third largest airline in Europe in terms of passenger numbers, and the world's largest in terms of international passenger numbers.

  The company began back in 1985 with the Waterford to London route. However, after taking the rapidly growing airline public in 1997 the money raised was used to expand the airline into a mass-European carrier. Revenues subsequently rose from €231 million in 1998 to more than €800 million in 2003. Although the recent increase in fuel charges and airport taxes has seen more moderate increases, revenue is now well over €1,000 million.

  The company was founded in 1985 by Christy Ryan (after whom the company is named), Liam Lonergan (owner of an Irish tour operator named Club Travel), and noted Irish businessman, Tony Ryan, founder of Guinness Peat Aviation.

  However, despite adding more flights during the late 1980's, it continued to run at a loss until Michael O´Leary joined the company. He was charged with the task of making the airline profitable. Basing his ideas on the American 'no frills, no business class' operations, he began to run flights into the lesser known airports which offered lower landing and handling charges.

In 1995 Ryanair celebrated its 10th birthday by carrying 2.25 million passengers.

  The big change came in 1992 as the EU de-regulated the air industry and gave carriers from one EU country the right to operate scheduled services between other EU states.

  The second big change came in 2000 when their website was launched. They soon realised that by selling direct to the public, prices could be slashed.

  In April 2003 Ryanair acquired Buzz, its ailing competitor from KLM, at a knock-down price. Expansion continued, and by the end of 2003 the airline flew 127 routes, of which 60 had opened in the previous 12 months.

  The following year the airline launched two more bases, at Rome and Barcelona, increasing the total to 11 hubs.

  However, it was now a much more competitive business and the second quarter of 2004 saw the company record their first operating loss in almost 15 years (€3.3 million).

  In 2006 the company carried more international passengers than any other airline, according to figures from the International Air Transport Association, (IATA). During the course of the year the company flew a total of 40 million people, ahead of Lufthansa (38 million), Air France (30 million) and British Airways (29 million).

  Last year it became the first airline to transport more than 4 million passengers every single month during a calendar year.

  Ryanair's seemingly unstoppable rise has been driven by low fares, and its route network continues to grow, one which will include Ibiza from this year.