600 aircraft in 2030 ?

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/ryanair-to-double-fleet-size-and-carry-150m-people-by-2030-cawley-30025008.html

Extracts :

RYANAIR could nearly double its fleet size to 600 aircraft and carry 150m passengers a year by 2030, according to its deputy chief executive Michael Cawley.

Ryanair agreed last year to buy 175 aircraft from Boeing. The first of those planes will be delivered in the autumn, and the order will boost Ryanair's fleet size to a little more than 430.

The carrier is currently in talks with Boeing about buying more aircraft, but Mr Cawley said it could be next year before that order was placed. He said Ryanair could easily place another two orders of the same size it made with Boeing last year.

"There's huge untapped potential out there," according to Mr Cawley.

"People in Ireland and the UK fly more than anyone else in Europe. If we can replicate that across countries such as Greece and Italy, the potential is massive. I'd always claim that we can get to 150 million passengers a year, even just targeting the airports we currently serve," he said.

"With our new order, we will have about 50 aircraft in Stansted alone. We'll only have about 12 in Madrid. In Poland, we have 30pc of the market. There are 25 million people there flying through its airports but Spain, with a population (of) nine million more, has 200 million passengers passing through its airports. It wouldn't surprise me in that move from 80 million to 150 million passengers a year, if we pick up 10 million or 15 million of that in Poland."

Mr Cawley also said that Israel and Turkey would provide significant scope for Ryanair expansion.

He added that Ryanair could be in a position to commence flights between Ireland and Russia by the end of this year.