Last week we looked at how easyJet is essential transport infrastructure in the United Kingdom . Everyone’s favourite orange airline operates 1,208 domestic flights within Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Today I wanted to extend that analysis in two ways. First to evaluate easyJet’s contribution to international routes from and to the UK. And also to understand the extent to which Ryanair and Jet2.com compete with easyJet. Ryanair includes both their Irish and British operations. I believe that there is a case for the government to step in and only permit a takeover if easyJet will not be broken up. The airline provides services that are unlikely to be replaced by other carriers and the UK’s regional economies depend on the airline. Once again we will be looking at data from the first week of the next half term holiday – 17-Oct to 23-Oct-2026. Advertisement: This article was written using data from OAG Schedules Analyser: visit oag.com. Thanks OAG! Competition within the UK When it comes to easyJet’s UK routes, they genuinely fill a gap in the market. Of the airline’s 1,208 domestic flights, only 212 compete with Ryanair. 142 (67.0%) of these are on Belfast. Another 70 connect Glasgow and Edinburgh with London Stansted. easyJet and Jet2.com do not compete on UK domestic routes. Routes shared between easyJet and Ryanair are shown in the map below with green lines. The map also shows Ryanair exclusive routes in blue – these are smaller scale operations with only 30 flights a week between them. Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper: visit gcmap.com Play with the map here | Used with permission International market competition at the airport level 24 airports are served internationally by one of our three airlines. At 12 of these, all three airlines operate. A summary is shown in the table below. Source: OAG Schedules Analyser, Oliver Ranson’s analysis This matters because while airlines tend to measure competition at the route level, consumers buy travel from their local airport. For example a passenger from Newcastle who wants to go to a Mediterranean island can choose Malta or Majorca on any one of the three airlines in our study. Meanwhile easyJet does not go to Ibiza and Ryanair does not go to Rhodes. Arguably these destinations are interchangeable for many consumers. They all have beaches. They all have scenery, villas and wine. Airlines compete across destinations as well as within routes. So the three airlines are likely to compete with each other a great deal at many of the airports. The exceptions will be Cardiff, Exeter, Teesside, Newquay and Norwich (Ryanair only) and Southampton (easyJet only). This does not mean those airlines are monopoly operators as the airports are served by non-UK airlines too. International market competition at the route level Jet2.com is the airline most exposed to competition from both competitors. Only 19.7% of their 3,066 weekly flights are on markets where they are the only one of the three airlines operating. These represent 295 (32.6%) of 905 origin-destination markets. For easyJet and Ryanair the corresponding statistics are much higher – 55.1% and 61.3% respectively. Here is a map showing the exclusive destinations from Newcastle, my home airport. easyJet exclusives are shown in orange, Jet2.com’s in red and Ryanair’s in blue. 47 (52.8%) out of 89 routes are exclusive to one of these three airlines, not counting airlines based in other countries. My impression is that Jet2.com is much more focused on holiday markets than the other two, which have a mix of both bucket-and-spade and business routes. easyJet = orange, Jet2.com = red, Ryanair = blue Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper: visit gcmap.com Play with the map here | Used with permission Newcastle’s international routes shared between our three airlines are shown on the map below. These represent 330 (73.2%) of the airport’s 451 services. Note that the three airlines are much more concentrated in these routes than they are in their exclusive markets. This is because these routes nicely encapsulate Newcastle’s demand profile: stags and hens on tour, or family beach holidays. Black = easyJet + Jet2.com, purple = Ryanair + Jet2.com, green = easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2.com Play with the map here | Used with permission The UK’s aviation market might be less competitive than you think, which makes easyJet hard to replace The UK short-haul market is not a simple three-player contest. While easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2.com frequently overlap geographically, they are not competing on identical terms. Read more
easyJet is not just another airline
Brief
easyJet is presented as critical UK transport infrastructure based on schedule analysis for the week 17–23 Oct 2026 using OAG Schedules Analyser and Great Circle Mapper. The carrier runs 1,208 domestic flights within Great Britain and Northern Ireland but directly overlaps with Ryanair on only 212 domestic flights (142 on Belfast, 70 between Glasgow/Edinburgh and Stansted), and does not compete with Jet2.com on domestic routes. At the airport level the three carriers concentrate activity: of 24 internationally served airports 12 host all three airlines, and at Newcastle 47 of 89 routes (52.8%) are exclusive to one of the three while the overlapping routes account for 330 of 451 services (73.2%). Jet2.com is most exposed to head-to-head competition (only 19.7% of its 3,066 weekly flights are sole-operator markets). Ranson concludes policymakers should block any breakup of easyJet because many regional services are unlikely to be replaced.
Why it matters
easyJet operates 1,208 domestic flights within Great Britain and Northern Ireland; only 212 of those overlap with Ryanair — 142 (67.0%) of the overlaps are on Belfast routes and a further 70 link Glasgow and Edinburgh to London Stansted.
Key details
- Of 24 UK airports served internationally by easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2.com, all three carriers operate at 12 airports, showing heavy airport-level overlap even when individual routes differ.
- Jet2.com is the most exposed to direct competition: only 19.7% of its 3,066 weekly flights are on markets where it is the sole operator (295 of 905 O‑D markets, 32.6%); easyJet and Ryanair are sole operators on 55.1% and 61.3% of their markets respectively.
- Author Oliver Ranson (13 Jul 2026), using OAG Schedules Analyser data for 17–23 Oct 2026 and maps from Great Circle Mapper, argues the UK government should only allow any easyJet takeover if the carrier will not be broken up because its routes are hard to replace and support regional economies.