Ryanair bought the entire capital of Laudamotion airlines, the low-cost airline of former Formula 1 champion Niki Lauda. This was announced by Ryanair explaining that the purchase of the entire share capital is aimed at increasing its routes, passengers and hiring staff.
In truth, the Irish company is just completing an operation it started last August when it bought 75% of the capital of Laudamotion for 50 million. The operation was completed, it was known today Tuesday, last December.
Niki Lauda had bought last winter from Air Berlin, which went bankrupt, the low cost which was first called Niki and then he himself had renamed Laudamotion based in Vienna.
Ryanair explained that with the acquisition it intends to increase to 25 LaudaMotion aircraft for the summer of 2019 and 30 aircraft in 2020 to carry around 7,5 million passengers by 2021, against the 4 million expected in the first year. Laudamotion will thus become the second Vienna-based airline behind Austrian Airlines if plans are met.
"With the support of Ryanair, in 2021 we will be able to transport 10 million passengers a year" predicted the CEO of Laudamotion, Andreas Gruber. The airline, which serves 49 destinations in 18 countries, plans to employ up to 400 pilots, cabin crew and engineers at its four bases (in Austria, Germany and Spain).
