O’Leary left on sidelines in battle for transatlantic skies

THIS could have been Ryanair’s move. The airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, has long predicted the demise of Norwegian, but also long voiced his ambition to one day be involved in low-cost, transatlantic travel.

Mr O’Leary has always insisted that any low-cost transatlantic business Ryanair might one day be involved in would effectively be a spin-off.

IAG has already got a head-start on Ryanair with Level. If it succeeds in acquiring Norwegian, Mr O’Leary’s transatlantic ambitions – or whatever remains of them – could finally be in tatters.

Norwegian has been using new Boeing 737-800s and its 737-Max jets to fly between Ireland and the US, while it also has almost 30 787 Dreamliners, as well as Airbus and Boeing jets on order.

Ryanair also has more than 450 Boeing 737-800s in its fleet, and has firm orders for 110 Max jets and 100 options. The first Max jets will be delivered to Ryanair next year.

For Ryanair, buying Norwegian would see it take on a new aircraft mix, and it’s debatable how effective the Irish carrier would be at absorbing Norwegian.

However, Ryanair has already shown its willingness to embrace Airbus, albeit it via a subsidiary. Last month, Ryanair moved to take a 75pc stake in Austria’s LaudaMotion, a carrier that uses Airbus jets.

And while IAG sees a future for Norwegian, maybe Ryanair doesn’t.

Perhaps all Norwegian has done is prove how difficult the low-cost transatlantic model can be to make work on a large scale. Perhaps Ryanair has simply been waiting to see if Norwegian would fail before trying to pick over its carcass.

But IAG is undoubtedly looking at Norwegian from more than just the long-haul perspective.

However, it could also face regulatory issues on both sides of the Atlantic in any efforts to buy Norwegian. Willie Walsh undoubtedly thinks he can overcome them.

After all, he’s the guy who persuaded the Irish government to sell is 25.1pc stake in Aer Lingus.