Ryanair’s impact on airline market share from the London area airports: a time series analysis.

Ryanair tends to operate to destinations from its UK bases that are not the main airports in the country being served and in this it differs from many other European low cost carriers. Although direct competition is not provided in the way that rival services operate between identical pairs of airports, indirect competition is provided. This raises the question, when Ryanair commence services, what is the impact on the market share of the incumbent airlines at these other airports? It seems that total traffic is stimulated on these sectors and that the incumbent's traffic generally falls whilst their share, and probably their yield, also falls as Ryanair competes. Ryanair appears to gain more market share than its initial stimulus to the market.