Business class is a must for long haul says Howard Millar, CFO Ryanair. The airline is famous for low cost and single class system on short haul.

Howard Millar, chief financial officer of Ryanair, said that long distance flights cannot be undertaken without business class. Long haul is not financially viable with only low-cost, single-class system. This system is pioneered by Ryanair and South West on shorter routes. For longer routes Ryanair will never fly with this system.

He further said that after executing a number of business models on it, the conclusion was arrived that it is not feasible to operate a long haul flight without including business or premium class. Due to this reason the airline will never provide long haul flights. Ryanair at present provides short haul and point to point service within Europe.

He further pointed out the staffing concerns that occurred in long-haul business and gave an example of Norwegian Air. He also said that the cost of long distance aircraft will also be expensive. There are already huge orders placed by Gulf carriers with the makers of aircrafts. This implies that there are few long-haul aircrafts available that too at exorbitant prices.

Oliver Sleath, analyst at Barclays, said it is difficult to operate long-haul flights without business class. These flights need structurally higher costs that low cost airline like Ryanair cannot avoid. There will be fuel expenses, passenger taxes, and other expenditures that cannot be fulfilled by providing only one-class, low-cost service. This explains why Ryanair has not started low-cost long haul.

Ryanair is an ultralow cost carrier of Ireland established in 1985. This airline serves 28 countries in Europe and Africa. The carrier is adding more flights on major destinations.