Some of these seats could have been free in Ryanair's promotion
On Oct 12th, the BBC aired a documentary called “Why Hate Ryanair?” The documentary heavily criticized the airline, saying they had no respect or dignity for pilots or cabin crew, that ’œpeople feel cheated by Ryanair’ and that its chief Michael O’Leary ’œis a bully’.
Ryanair strongly denies the claims and says they are all lies. To show how friendly RyanAir is, they gave away 100,000 free tickets for every lie that the documentary said (11 of them). After 1.1 million tickets were quickly taken, the airline gave out another 500,000.
The BBC stands by its documentary and I am sure that O’Leary and Ryanair is always happy to get any publicity (I actually think they prefer the negative kind).
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Source: news.com.au Image: allybeag
Taking away the glory
On July 1st, I was so excited to give out my first “More Crazy Than Ryanair” medal to Spring Airlines for the idea of having people stand on the plane instead of having seats.
Well, Ryanair is now stating they have been in talks with Boeing about creating their own “standing room only” section.
I hereby have to rescind my medal given to Spring Airlines. I wonder if there ever will be an airline that is crazier than Ryanair?!
There is a lot of grumbling (and some good jokes out there) dealing with riding on a modern airliner is like being in a cattle car. Airlines are looking to cut costs and bring in profits at the expense of passenger comfort.
Ryanair normally steals the spot light for crazy ideas, but Spring Airlines takes the cake on this one. They are looking at cutting out seats and putting barstool type seats. It would allow for 40% more passengers and cut costs by 20%.
Spring Airlines gets the first ever MORE CRAZY THAN RYANAIR award for coming up with an idea even crazier than one from Ryanair.
Boeing 737 landing.
Ryanair announced they want to be rid of checked bags. Reading the blogosphere about this (mostly the comments), it seems fliers are upset they wouldn’t be able to check bags and will probably somehow get charged more.
But is this really thatcrazy? I think this concept will save Ryanair money which will in turn should save passengers money. Here are some reasons I think it might be a good idea:
#1: No need for ticket counters. If you can check in at home (and be charged for it no doubt) and you can’t check in bags, why do you need a counter? Maybe one or two customer service people (that you can pay to talk to) at the airport, but this means no counter rental, staff, equipment, etc.
#2: No bag carrousel needed. If there are no checked bags, there is no need to have the carrousel. Not only does this save money but saves you a lot of time not having to wait for your bag.
#3: No baggage personnel. Ryanair doesn’t have to pay people to take bags on/off the flight, drive them to the airport, etc.
#4: No vehicles needed to transport luggage and no gas, insurance, upkeep on those vehicles.
#5: Don’t have to pay for lost luggage. People can’t lose it if they don’t check it. The airline would have no need for customer service representatives for lost baggage, and they don’t have to pay to hunt it down, ship it, or return it.
#6: Reduces the need for fuel. With the plane weighing less it would take less fuel to get from point A to B.
#7: It works. Take a look at Horizon Air, they give you the option for ’œAla Cart Service’ where passengers can put bags on a cart before entering the plane, they put the bags in the cargo hold, and have them on a cart for you when you get off. It might be more difficult with a larger plane, but the concept can work.
Yes, there are some downsides to this, and they will lose checked baggage fees, but I think overall they will walk away with more money in the pocket and able to provide even cheaper fares.
Although many fliers complain when changes like this occur, their memory seems to be erased when they can see how much money they can save on an airline ticket. Right or wrong, good idea or bad, I am interested to see how this works out.
What do you think? Is this a good idea? Will it work? Will Ryanair pass on their savings?
Image: jordi757
Ryanair Boeing 737-800 in March 2005 showing off the airline's first winglets
Normally one has to take whatever Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary says with a grain of salt. He says a lot of crazy things, most likely to get a few news stories written about him. When he first started talking about charging passengers to use the bathroom, I thought it was another crazy publicity stunt, but…
Ryanair plans to add credit card readers to the bathrooms in their Boeing 737-800 jets and even remove two of the three bathrooms to provide more seats. O’Leary is quoted as saying, “We are flying aircraft on an average flight time of one hour around Europe.” Is it crazy for this to start making a little sense to me now? I mean, some people ride buses and trains without bathrooms for longer than an hour on a daily basis.
The airline plans to charge about $1.50 for each bathroom usage and no word on emergency situations for people without credit cards. They plan to have the new system in place within 2 years.
Source: NYT Image: jordi757