New Aircraft Purchase

Ryanair Holdings PLC
24 January 2002



              RYANAIR ORDERS UP TO 150 NEW BOEING 737-800 AIRCRAFT

                    NEW CAPACITY WILL ALLOW RYANAIR TO GROW

                      TO 40 MILLION PASSENGERS AND BECOME

                EUROPE'S BIGGEST INTERNATIONAL SCHEDULED CARRIER

Ryanair, Europe's largest low fares airline and Boeing, the world's biggest
manufacturer of commercial aircraft today (Thursday, 24th January 2002) in
London announced a new long term partnership which commits Ryanair to acquiring
up to 150 new Boeing 737 800 series aircraft (100 firm and 50 options) over an
eight year period from 2002 to 2010. This is the largest single firm order for
Next Generation 737's ever made.

Ryanair, the pioneer of low fare air travel in Europe, anticipates in the
current year (end 31 March 2002) carrying over 10 million passengers making it
the 7th largest international scheduled airline in Europe. Ryanair will operate
a fleet of 44 Boeing 737's this summer and this new order will enable Ryanair to
deliver a threefold increase in traffic to over 40 million pax per annum, which
will make Ryanair Europe's No.1 international scheduled airline.

These new 737-800's will replace Ryanair's (21) older 737-200 aircraft over the
next four years and will make Ryanair the largest operator of Next Generation
737 aircraft, as well as the airline with the youngest fleet in Europe. These
new aircraft will create over 3,000 new jobs in Ryanair, including over 800
pilots, more than 2,000 cabin crew and over 400 engineering and operations
vacancies. With new aircraft comes even greater cost efficiencies and the phased
delivery of these new aircraft will allow Ryanair to grow at 25% per annum by
selling even more lower air fares.

Ryanair selected the Boeing Next Generation 737-800 aircraft (following 6 months
of intense negotiations with owners of both new and second hand aircraft) for
the following reasons:

-     an exceptionally competitive offer from Boeing

-     more seats (189) on the 737-800s, than A320s (180) or 737-700s (149)

-     lower per seat operating costs than A320s or 737-700s.

-     already successfully operating Boeing 737-800s

-     streamline turnarounds, crewing, training, maintenance and spares

-     financing structure already in place

-     phased deliveries will maintain 25% traffic growth and make Ryanair No.1
      in Europe

Announcing details of this order today in London Ryanair's Chief Executive,
Michael O'Leary said:


    'This new partnership with Boeing will provide Ryanair with a continuous
    supply of Boeing 737-800 aircraft - the most successful jetliner in the
    world - and will allow Ryanair and Boeing to revolutionise short-haul air
    travel all over Europe in the same way that Southwest and Boeing have in the
    United States. This huge order cements our long-term relationship with
    Boeing. The fact that Boeing were able to win this order in the face of
    intense competition from Airbus, and despite many hundreds of offers for
    second-hand aircraft, shows just how committed Boeing is to working with
    Ryanair, Europe's largest low fares airline.

    'This order eliminates some uncertainty which hung over Ryanair's growth
    plans. We can now point our customers, our people and our shareholders
    towards our long-term plan which will see Ryanair open many new routes and
    bases all over Europe and demonstrate how Ryanair in time will overtake
    British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France as Europe's biggest carrier of
    international scheduled passengers.

    'The timing of this large order vindicates Ryanair's conservative approach
    to aircraft financing and balance sheet strength in recent years. We
    presently have over €700m in cash and this financial strength has enabled us
    to move quickly and take advantage of opportune times to buy new cost
    efficient aircraft and continue our growth at a time when many of our
    competitors are in turmoil. Ryanair's new partnership with Boeing will
    ensure that we continue to be the most cost efficient airline in Europe and
    we in turn will continue to offer passengers the lowest air fares in
    Europe.'



Note to Editors

-Ryanair's new base at Frankfurt Hahn starts operations on 14 February next.

-Ryanair will announce 6 new European routes on Thursday, 31 January 2002.

-Ryanair's 3rd Quarter results will be announced on Tuesday, 5 February 2002.


Ends.                                                Thursday, 24th January 2002

Contact:            Ryanair                          Murray Consultants
                    Michael O Leary                  Pauline McAlester
                    Tel: [phone]               Tel: [phone]



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