Ryanair enjoys the highest number of internet bookings in the world, with over 90 per cent of its seats reserved through the Net, according to research presented to analysts and investors.

The conference on low-cost travel, hosted by Goodbody Stockbrokers and Boeing in Dublin, was told the internet bookings at leading US airlines accounted for around 10 per cent.

Low-cost US airlines benefit from much higher internet usage, with airlines such as Southwest recording that 25-65 per cent of all seats are sold through this medium.

The conference heard Ireland was emerging as a global leader in the financing and management of low-cost air travel.

Investors were told the best opportunities for low-cost carriers were to be found when there were open markets, considerable traffic to less-congested secondary airports, where existing carriers have higher cost and fare structures, and markets were underserved in terms of the frequency of flights on point-to-point routes.

These factors, which are common to the European market, should bode well for low-cost airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair, the conference was told.

The low-cost carriers were estimated to have about 11 per cent of the total European airline market in 2002. They increased the number of available seats by 38 per cent last year during a period when all other carriers reduced their seats by 8 per cent.

In the US, Southwest Airlines, which has been the model for low-cost carriers internationally, also put on more seats last year than all of the remaining low-cost carriers combined.

Research by McKinsey Consultants suggests Ryanair has a 63 per cent cost advantage over the major flag carriers. Ryanair and EasyJet have expanded their fleets and have given orders for up to 518 new aircraft from manufacturers Boeing and Airbus.

Assuming limited growth among traditional flag carrier fleets, the two will account for at least 15 per cent and up to 30 per cent of the total European fleet by 2010, the conference was told.