LONDON, July 4 — All airline companies know that good service is key to attracting customers.
Yet Ryanair — a European low-cost carrier — operates on a different business model: It prospers by being nasty to its passengers. And it is getting nastier still.
Ryanair has just announced that its customers will no longer be able to board aircraft unless they check themselves in online. Passengers will also have to lug all their suitcases to the plane. In future, they may also have to pay for every mid-flight visit to the toilet.
There is no doubt that Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's boss, has revolutionised the airline industry. When the 48-year-old got into the business, an economy-class return fare between Britain and his home country Ireland cost the equivalent of S$900 (RM2,160), because the route was monopolised by two national flag carriers.
He blew the system apart by copying an American model which is now familiar: Internet sales, no in-flight service, and a fleet of aircraft which is easy to maintain, all resulting in vastly lower fares.
“The other airlines are asking how they can put up fares; we are asking how we could get rid of them,” O'Leary promised when he took over the company. Although the business model was subsequently copied by many others, Ryanair retained its dominance — it is Europe's biggest low-cost carrier.
However, O'Leary has a personality just as big as his airline. He passes himself as an enemy of the wealthy, although he is a multimillionaire. His foul language is often unprintable: He once described Europe's regulators as “morons” and called airport operators “overcharging rapists”.
But the worst is usually reserved for Ryanair's customers. A passenger paralysed by cerebral palsy was once charged S$43 to get his wheelchair on the plane. When the passenger took the airline to court and won, O'Leary was untroubled: He simply slapped an additional “wheelchair levy” of 84 cents on everyone's fare.
Passengers who complain about delayed flights are often advised to take their business elsewhere. And a woman who won a prize of free flights for life with Ryanair was subsequently told that this meant only one free flight a year because the prize was, allegedly, against the law. O'Leary lost this argument as well, but no apologies were forthcoming.
Behind this intemperate behaviour lurk some savvy marketing techniques.
Ryanair's philosophy is that passengers care only about low fares. The company also believes that money can be made from anything.
On average, passengers pay S$6 each for food they purchase on board; water alone costs almost S$10 a litre. And a large suitcase checked in for the flight can cost up to S$400 in extra fees.
New money-making wheezes are being constantly invented. O'Leary proposed the scrapping of window blinds and seat pockets, and the introduction of on-board gambling machines. Forcing passengers to lug their suitcases to the plane also dispenses with airport baggage handlers.
The suggestion that passengers should pay a fee of S$2.40 for every visit to the aircraft's toilet offers another income stream.
“Passengers have the option of not using the toilet on board,” a company spokesman explained. He did not say what that “option” is, but it is possible that the plastic cups which Ryanair supplies may acquire a new purpose.
For years, the strategy worked — more than 36 million passengers subject themselves to the Ryanair “experience” yearly.
Yet the backlash against the company is rising. Media commentaries are often unfavourable, and horror stories abound.
On the other hand, some full-service airlines — such as British Airways — are hitting back. The British flag carrier has started posting on its website a list of all the charges Ryanair levies; the message is that no-frills airlines are not cheap when all their hidden costs are factored in.
Ryanair immediately retorted with its own publicity, which claims that it misplaces far fewer suitcases than full-service carriers, and that its flights are more punctual.
But, business experts were quick to point out, Ryanair is not comparing like with like. O'Leary's company flies to secondary airports away from city centres, where traffic is light. It is almost impossible to lose suitcases in such airports, and relatively easy to keep to timetables. Other companies, however, fly into congested hubs, where mishaps are more likely to happen.
British Airways, which is suffering from the severe economic downturn, has just persuaded its staff to take a pay cut in order to maintain its service levels. Ryanair, however, has opted to cut its already meagre services even further. The question is which model will triumph.
O'Leary, who believes that his customers will put up with any indignity, has no doubts.
But, whatever happens, Ryanair's boss will be unrepentant. “I don't give a s*** if nobody likes me,” he once claimed with relish. — Straits Times
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