Ryanair has hinted that it may introduce cheap flights beyond Europe.
Reports suggest the airline is in talks with the Cypriot government about having a base there, which could service the Middle East and Russia.
While the budget carrier reported a 152% boost in its profits yesterday, it also admitted it would be “very keen” to expand in southern Europe, the Telegraph reports.
There had been mounting speculation that Ryanair was considering buying Cyprus Airways, but Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, denied he was interested in its purchase at a press conference yesterday. O’Leary said he was asked to express interest in it by the Cypriot government.
“We have submitted an expression of interest principally because the Cyprus government asked us to submit it,” he said.
“We are not particularly interested in Cyprus Airways, which has huge legacy issues and historic losses. We would however be interested in growing our business in Cyprus and we would be very keen to base additional aircraft there.
“If we are going to put aircraft in Cyprus, we would need to have a Cypriot air operator’s certificate (AOC) so we could go from Cyprus into some of the Middle Eastern destinations.
“The problem for us is that once you go out of the EU we can only fly from Ireland because we go back to being an Irish airline with an Irish AOC.