2nd December 1998

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Leading Irish airline entrepreneur Michael O'Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair, visited Magee College this week to kick off a Distinguished Speaker programme

Organized by the University of Ulster's School of Commerce and International Business, located at the north west campus, the Distinguished Speaker programme MSc International Business students will be exposed to up to the minute analysis of core business issues by the men and women who are driving forward commercial life in Europe and beyond.

Mr O'Leary offered an incisive tour d'horizon of the European airline industry, analysing the challenges and opportunities it faces, and laying bare the commercial strategies by which his firm, Ryanair, had achieved success. Over the past seven years, he said, Ryanair had made regular air travel available to hundreds of thousands of people who might otherwise have been lost to the industry through a focused programme delivering low fares, frequent flights and no frills to cost-conscious customers.

There was no big secret to this, Mr O'Leary told his audience. High service efficiency enabled a low cost product, which in turn generated rapid market growth and good margins. He claimed it was the inefficiency and high cost base of his competitors which had opened up the market for a successful low cost, high volume airline operator.

And the Dublin-based executive revealed that Ryanair was in negotiations with airports both at Belfast and Londonderry to begin direct flights to UK destinations in 1999.

Dr Dolores O'Reilly, Senior Lecturer in International Business, is co-ordinator of the Distinguished Speaker programme.

"It's a great honour for us to have an executive of Mr O'Leary's calibre here to start off our Distinguished Speakers programme," she said.

"This exciting programme will bring many of the world's leading business thinkers and executives to Magee College, where they will share their knowledge and business insights not only with our students, but with the local business community, enriching the business culture of the city, and connecting Derry ever more closely to the people and ideas that shape international business life."

Already lined up to visit the Magee College campus are leading international business figures like Richard Goldstein, CEO, Unilever and Ed Cameron, CEO, PricewaterhouseCoopers said Dr O'Reilly.

Dr O'Reilly may be contacted for further information on the Distinguished Speaker programme at 01504 375288 and Registry Office, University of Ulster at Coleraine on 01265 324221 for information on the International Business course.

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk