Ryanair is one of the great success stories in the aviation industry, so why does it divide opinion so much, asks Vivian White, and why do people who don’t like it still use itLike Marmite, Ryanair is the airline people either love or hate.
The very mention of the name of its high-profile and strident chief executive Michael O’Leary, who is the human embodiment of the airline, provokes strong reactions among travellers at Dublin airport.
“Obnoxious - that’s the one word I think of when I think of that man,” says one smartly-dressed young woman who gets straight to the point.
“Michael O’Leary’s a mighty man!” a cheery looking gentleman says, while another lady says Mr O’Leary “should be running the country”. She seems buoyed at the very thought of it.
FIND OUT MORE…
- Panorama: Why Hate Ryanair BBC One, Monday, 12 October at 2030BST
- Or watch it later on theiPlayer
Ryanair is now one of the biggest airlines in Europe, which signals that it is doing something right - a point stressed in a steady flow of e-mails from consumers to the BBC.
The no-frills carrier definitely has its friends as well as its foes. Tom Ward e-mailed to say he is trying to visit a different European country every month of the year.
“There’s no way I’d be able to afford to go and see all the places I have without the special offers that Ryanair have had on,” he says, boldly declaring: “I love Ryanair”.
He’s not alone. Meet the ultimate Ryanair customer. He is plane-mad, luggage-light and crouched over the computer ready to pounce on the latest “damn-near free” offer that Mr O’Leary has on tap.
He is 16-year-old Alex Reid and he lives in Garforth near Leeds. Alex goes on Ryanair day trips from Leeds-Bradford airport to Dublin on a regular basis along with his mates. He has gone for as little as 2p, while other times he has splashed out and spent as much as a fiver. (Though airport taxes inevitably bump up the final price.)
Bad air day
But there are plenty of opposing views as well.
Antony Byrne of London currently resides firmly in the “hate 'em” camp.
Mr Byrne had a very bad air day at Stansted airport in August when Ryanair did not have enough bag-drop desks to deal with the number of passengers who had been hoping to go on holidays that day.
Ryanair had eliminated dedicated bag-drop desks for separate flights and Mr Byrne and his family were among more than 700 passengers who did not make their flight.
“By eliminating costs they are also eliminating certain services that customers demand,” says Mr Byrne. In his case, the service that Mr Byrne did not get ended up being his actual flight.
Ryanair recognised that something went very wrong on that day, apologised to the passengers who were grounded and Mr Byrne was reimbursed.
At every point along your Ryanair journey there is a little extra saving to be made, or extra revenue to be gained, a point reinforced from the minute you click on its website.
First there is the online booking fee of £5, per flight per person, unless there is a promotional offer.
You must print out your own boarding pass and bring it along, otherwise printing it at the airport will cost you £40. Again, that is per person, per flight.
The airline says there are no “hidden charges”, stressing that all of these fees are spelled out on the website.
But could these fees somehow risk the company’s reputation
‘Psychological contract’
Gary Davies, professor of corporate reputation at Manchester Business School, says Ryanair has a strong brand - there is a high level of awareness and it has significant associations like low cost and Irishness.
His research three years ago suggested that Ryanair, like Microsoft and News International, was a company that people in Ireland viewed as “ruthless” but not to the extent that they would stop using it.
But since then, Mr Davies detects a slight erosion of that position, as more people perceive the airline to be “cheating” with some of its charges.
"More recently, the complaints we hear about are to do with the psychological contract between customer and company. It’s not something on paper but it’s there in your mind, an expectation of fair dealing.
“I would expect Ryanair to be sensitive to this and avoid it, because it’s a precipice”
Gary Davies
B*****ng expert
“Quite often, Ryanair seems to be doing things that people think are unfair, then the media picks it up and it becomes a story.”
If that contract is broken, says Mr Davies, then Ryanair is in trouble, because if people lose belief in its competence then they may hesitate before buying.
“There’s a tipping point and I would expect Ryanair to be sensitive to this and avoid it, because it’s a precipice. Once you go over it, it’s terribly difficult to climb back, as Marks & Spencer found out.”
Ryanair can avert that happening, he says, by being a little more flexible on charges. But going upmarket would be their death knell, because cheap is what Ryanair is all about.
“That’s what an advertising man would describe as brand essence, that’s the heart of the organisation.”
Mr O’Leary doesn’t set out to be disliked, he says, but his priority is to be loved by shareholders.
‘Darling of the industry’
Talking to the BBC in a car park in Dublin, Mr O’Leary says: “We guarantee the lowest air fares in Europe, we’re the only airline to guarantee no fuel surcharges no matter what the price of oil and we do that because we are tough with suppliers.”
Ryanair is Britain’s favourite airline and will carry 67 million passengers in the coming year, he says.
It is indeed the darling of the industry, the European success story of the last 15 years, says aviation analyst Tim Coombs. It is not in the business of being loved.
“I don’t think they go out of their way to make enemies, they just go out of their way to be the most efficient carrier they possibly can be.”
People who book a Ryanair flight do so because of the price, he says, which they often believe to be the cheapest on offer.
On board, there is no recline button on the seats and a sandwich costs £4.50, a cup of coffee £2.70.
Another competitive advantage is its speedy turnaround. Ryanair rejects airbridges - those extending jetties that connect the terminal to the plane door - in favour of a set of stairs. In 25 minutes, a Ryanair plane can land, disgorge its passengers and be ready to take off again.
The cabin crew work partly on commission, and about half of their staff work for an employment agency rather than the airline directly.
One Ryanair captain said that while he had been given a good career opportunity at a young age, when asked to describe Mr O’Leary, he responded “bully”.
It is yet one more strong view about Ryanair and Mr O’Leary love 'em or hate 'em.
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