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* CEO O'Leary says he long aspired to an Airbus fleet
* Ryanair now operates 430 planes, all of them Boeings
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* No large Airbus deal likely in the short term
By Conor Humphries and Victoria Bryan
The acquisition by one of the world's biggest airlines,which now operates 430 Boeing 737s, marks an unusual stepin the low-cost business, where carriers tend to stick to asingle aircraft type to keep costs down and operations simple.
The move to buy 75 percent of
But Chief Executive Michael O'Leary is starting small withAirbus, although he said he had harboured aspirations to developan Airbus fleet at Ryanair for "some years".
The Laudamotion deal gives Ryanair 15 Airbus A320, withplans to double that in three years. By comparison, Ryanair aimsto have 570 Boeing 737s in five years, ensuring it stays one ofthe biggest clients for the
"This obviously gives them more bargaining power," said MarkSimpson, an analyst at broker Goodbody, which has a "buy" ratingfor Ryanair. "If they are going to 600 aircraft, do you have 400Boeing and 200 Airbus? It gives them flexibility."
To keep costs down, Ryanair could choose to operate eitherBoeing or Airbus out of each base but not mix them, he said.
Ryanair's ties with Airbus have been strained over theyears. Former Airbus sales chief John Leahy, who retired at theend of 2017, was furious at O'Leary for giving the impression hewas about to sign a deal for 100 aircraft in 2002 beforesqueezing a better deal from Boeing.
O'Leary has always declined to comment on the issue.
But the departure of Leahy, who refused to pitch to O'Learyfor a big 200-plane order in 2009, might change the dynamics.
"Airbus never wanted to play ball with Ryanair, but it couldbe a new start with changes to the Airbus sales team and topmanagement," aviation consultant John Strickland said.
"VALUED CUSTOMER"
Ryanair has ordered 40 737s and 200 737 Max aircraft, partof plans to carry 200 million passengers a year by 2024.
A Boeing spokesman did not comment on O'Leary's remark thathe had long aspired to an Airbus fleet, saying: "We look forwardto continuing to meet the requirements of a valued customer."
O'Leary, who has donned a Seattle Seahawks American footballshirt and delivered rousing speeches to Boeing workers, iscredited for saving hundreds of jobs at the
Airbus may yet balk at trying to win O'Leary into a bigorder, in a bid to avoid a price war that might anger its owntop buyers, like easyJet, if they believed a rivallow-cost carrier was securing a better deal for aircraft.
But the growing size and clout of low-cost carriers meansRyanair is not alone in building bridges beyond traditionalsuppliers. Industry sources say a top easyJet executive was theguest speaker at a recent internal Boeing event.
"It's not about today, but it is about keeping networksintact," one industry official told Reuters.
Building broader relationships in the industry would makesense if Ryanair or easyJet ever moved to add wide-body jets totheir fleet. Ryanair has previously said it would launchlong-haul routes if it secured the right aircraft at the rightprice.
O'Leary said on Tuesday that Laudamotion would operate as aseparate entity in the Ryanair group, a move he also proposedwhen trying to acquire former Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus,another Airbus operator. The airline eventually went to IAG.
An investment banker who has advised Ryanair and IAG atdifferent times said he expected O'Leary to build up a group ofseveral airlines, starting with Ryanair, Laudamotion and RyanairSun, which is a charter carrier based in
"You create a group of airlines to compete with each otherintensely - a kind of an IAG for low-cost carriers," he said.
Ryanair is not alone in facing more complexity with anacquisition. All-Boeing operator Alaska Airlines bought Airbusoperator Virgin America in 2016 for
Still, some industry experts expect
"But it serves as a reminder to Boeing," Strickland said,"never to become complacent."
(Reporting by Conor Humphries, Victoria Bryan and Tim HepherEditing by Edmund Blair)
