You have to hand it to Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary. He has built the Irish airline into the most popular (in terms of passengers flown) airline in Europe while basically breaking almost every customer service rule in the book.
O’Leary promises one thing – to be the lowest fare airline. Nothing else. He doesn’t promise and doesn’t provide great airplane environment, great food or a feel good customer relationship. But he does keep his promise to be the lowest fare airline by keeping his costs to the minimum and charging you for ancillary services.
Ryanair has flown 58 million passengers in the last year with a load factor of 81% and has the best on time record of any European airline. Although it recently reported a quarterly loss of €101m, it is promising strong profits for 2009. O’Leary keeps his promises.
He is a brilliant PR artist who generates thousands of pages of free publicity by often making ludicrous often inflammatory statements. The man has probably abused every European Union official that has anything to do with the industry. He is often humorous, rarely inspirational or motivational but is a speaker you would go a long way to hear. He is also the only CEO who has suggested his airline might offer (jokingly) sexual favors on long haul flights! You think I’m joking? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfIY24BErBE
His most recent stroke of PR genius is to suggest that Ryanair will operate coin operated toilets in planes. The comment was mentioned in passing during a BBC interview and has garnered worldwide attention. Google “Ryanair pay for toilets” and you get 129,000 references. Who knows if O’Leary is serious about this one? He does like to mess with people’s heads but he does not mess around in running one of the most successful airlines in the world (OK, he doesn’t have much competition).
Marcus Buckingham wrote a fine book some years ago titled Break all the Rules. It could have been the Michael O’Leary autobiography.
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