I have decided to run a Ryanair watch. As well as being a very effective low fare carrier and Europe’s largest airline, the company is really entertaining to watch. Not necessarily to fly but to watch and in many ways CEO Michael O'Leary is the best humorous speaker out there. He provides THE best entertainment in the airline business.
Some people say O’Leary is a few seats short of a full aircraft but I think he’d be OK with that description as the plane would be lighter, fuel consumption less and he’d get to his destination faster and cheaper. That’s all the guy promises. He breaks so many customer service rules – abusing customers, talking down to them (sometimes throwing in the f-bomb), refusing to provide free wheelchair service for disabled passengers. The list goes on and on.
But he keeps one promise so well that almost sixty million people fly the airline annually. He provides THE lowest cost fares in the business – by miles (which is probably one of the reasons he doesn’t offer frequent flyer miles!! Sorry my little effort to bolster my reputation as a humorous inspirational motivational speaker!)
O’Leary is at it again. Last week he got enormous press for threatening to charge for use of aircraft toilets. (See below for some great puns from media reports.) Now Ryanair is to stop using airport check-in desks!
The company expects EVERY passenger to check in online from October 1st. Passengers with bags – which they will pay extra for – will be expected to drop them at one of Ryanair’s drop desks “before proceeding through airport security to the boarding gate. This will free passengers from wasting hours at airports prior to departure and will dramatically reduce travel times for all Ryanair passengers.” What a thoughtful company!
This is lunatic or is it? The airline will save significant costs by not paying for airport space and presumably reduce personnel costs also. Currently 75% of Ryanair passengers check in online (cost $5 each time) so it should not be that difficult to push the number up substantially.
However, what happens when Grandma arrives at the airport without checking in? Worse scenario for Ryanair staff – what happens when Grandma’s grandson arrives at Doncaster airport after a stag weekend, hung over, tired and hungry and he has not checked in? God help Ryanair staff then.
I say the man is nuts, but he is brilliant.
Some potty humor generated by the furor over pay to pee (sounds like Illinois politics!)
“If you only have dollars, can you still euro-nate?” –Washington Post
“Flush with interest in the idea of mounting credit card-operated toilets.” – numerous
“Crap PR from Ryanair.” IrishmanSpeaks Blog
I hate to spoil a good story with the truth, but Michael O’Leary has since admitted that charging “a pound to spend a penny” is not realistic. He told a hugely entertained tourism conference in Dublin a few days later that it was a “new visionary strategy and a wonderful idea,” but conceded that it could be construed as “taking the piss”.
He went on to say, “Boeing can put people on the moon, design fighter aircraft and smart bombs, but they can’t design a bloody mechanism to go on doors that will accept coins. It is not likely to happen, but it makes for interesting and very cheap PR.”
The man is nuts, but he is brilliant.
Showing posts with label Customer service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Customer service. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Crap PR from Ryanair
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.
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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