Airline reveals perks of 'business plus' fares and confirms it will submit non-binding offer this week to buy Cyprus Airways

Ryanair has launched a business service in the airline's latest move to revamp its image and catch up with travellers' demands for better treatment.

The airline said its "business plus" fares would give customers flexible tickets, more check-in baggage, priority boarding and "premium" seats – in the first five rows for quick boarding, or on exit rows with extra legroom. It said business passengers already make up more than a quarter of its customers and that the new fares, starting at €69.99 (or £59.99 for UK customers), were designed to get more of their business.

In May, Ryanair said it was "asleep at the wheel" as customers got fed up with receiving bad service in return for low fares. Its rival, easyJet, moved upmarket and launched a business package while Ryanair continued to "unnecessarily piss people off", in the words of Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's chief executive.

With O'Leary taking a lower profile, Ryanair has introduced allocated seating, relaxed cabin bag restrictions, reduced charges, and loosened booking conditions.

Its chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, said more than a quarter of Ryanair customers were already travelling for business. He said the new tickets would not see larger seats or extra facilities, bar perhaps USB chargers on new planes:

"We won't be introducing a blue curtain. Customers haven't asked us for the high business fares and facilities, they just want a bit of flexibility and a better schedule. The schedule is very oriented around business travellers: places like Madrid, Milan and Barcelona have three times daily returns, so they can travel there that morning and come back the same day."

Ryanair will also be flying to more city-centre airports, and signing a partnership with another global distribution system to make it easier for firms to book airline tickets for their business travellers.

Ryanair's profits fell for the first time in five years last year while easyJet expects profits to rise strongly in its financial year, which ends next month.

O'Leary had made Ryanair's hidden charges and inflexible booking procedures a selling point to emphasise his cheap fares but consumers grew tired of his antics, forcing a rethink of strategy.

Ryanair launched its summer 2015 schedule from London's Stansted airport three months earlier than last year. It announced three new routes, to Cologne, Edinburgh and Glasgow, meaning passenger numbers from the Essex airport should grow by 1.3 million to 17 million next summer. Jacobs said: "What we're trying to do is get returning customers in who are thinking about next summer's holiday already."

Jacobs confirmed that Ryanair would be submitting a non-binding offer this week to buy Cyprus Airways, the island's loss-making flag carrier, as it investigates expansion into the Middle East and Russia. The purchase would likely see Ryanair operate the airline's fleet of six leased Airbus planes under its existing Cypriot brand, and give it a licence to spread further. He said: "It's a very strategic point in the map of Europe, a logical extension of our European route map and meets Asia and the Middle East. It gives you access to all of that – Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Israel, Cyprus and Russia. Whether we do it through the acquisition of Cyprus Airways or not, we'll continue to have an interest."