Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: Merit, Keele University, language: English, abstract: Following the financial losses in 1990, Ryanair still had the courage to be the first European carrier to restyle itself into a low-cost airline model, which was base on the successful Southwest Airlines in America. Since then, Ryanair turned out to be the Europe's most profitable airline, ironically once outperforming Southwest in profit margin percentages. (money.cnn.com, 2006) Clearly, Ryanair’s adopted business model played the key role in its achievements and there is more to than just copying another airline’s tactics. In this essay, we shall discuss Ryanair’s strategic approach from a perspective of the core competencies, together with the related competitive strategy that they have implemented by it.