Lilius, the cost cutting, SHOWING OFF and business development of Mr. O'Leary can be discussed quite in detail.
Here are some examples of how he's just considering the accounting problem:
-he keeps killing routes when apo administration do not comply to his requests. From a point of view of business development this is not a good strategy and you know why? Because a good manager who really cares about business development looks for win-win solutions, not "I win, you get a kick in your butts" as O'Leary does.
-showing off: he keeps talking loud about competitors not behaving correctly (especially AZ on the Milan-Rome route) but then he wants people to stand during flight (suggestion dating back to 2009), addresses safety concerns about rival airlines (AZ, while merging with AP) one year after FR f/a were accused of not having been trained properly. While AZ is one of the safest airlines of the industry (at least one good thing about that crappy airline).
He keeps comparing his airline to other airlines while I've never seen Lufthansa, Air France or BA comparing themselves to Ryanair (nice move... Like comparing Mercedes to some crappy car).
He uses the stupidity of his customers to lure them catching his planes, while people do not understand that if Ryanair is one of the most on-time airlines in Europe is because they do not have connecting flights and, because they have you paying for your luggage, they have lower turn around times than regular airlines. But if you fly from BGY to BUV and from BUV to, say, SHA and your first flight is late, you'll miss the second one and no one will ever refund your ticket.
-cost cutting: I never heard the allegiations of fueling the a/c to the minimum required, as it happend with FR instead. I never heard f/a of other airlines telling me:"We're sorry, but the lavatory ran out of water and can't be used anymore". Me:"Why did it run out of water?" F/a:"We didn't have enough time to fill up the tank during turn around" WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!
Talking about other airlines: I always travel with luggage and, considering my PC case and business bag, I would be pay a fortune flying frigging Ryanair.
Then again: if I'm coming to your wonderful country for a meeting in Stockholm, it's better for me to travel from MXP and land in Arlanda, then catch the train from there to the town centre where I can meet my customer. But if I'm going to Jonkoeping, it's more convenient to fly from BGY to Skavsta. Flying to Skavsta even while flying to Stockholm is stupid because I have to pay a fortune for the bus and travel for almost 100kms to get in the towncentre.
Talking about time: if I had to calculate all the car rental invoices, check in luggage for a bag being 1kg overweight or the gate agent driving me mad for my business bag, I'd probably pay more for a Ryanair flight than a Lufthansa Italy flight.
Then I've my time: time is money, so all the time I spend doing nothing is wasted money. What O'Leary never says and what he never mentions is that he flies to bumf*** nowhere... I never complained about Easyjet, because they have the same routes and lower prices than other airlines.
What I hate about Ryanair is that continous whining of O'Leary and being a wisemouth (which I learned to consider a eat of most of the inhabitants of the Irish island), selling cheap marketing for a crappy airline, misleading customers (and Ryanair got busted several times by the EU, you should know that, for misleading ads!).
All the money I spend on a "free Coke" on Lufthansa is what I would probably pay for a rental car and a snack in a godforsaken apo in the middle of nowhere. Plus, I got my frequent flyer miles, I have my business class lounge access, fast track for security, no problem with luggage and so on... Oh, and I never fly business class in Europe or flights shorter than 6 hrs. I usually do that when going to USA, South Africa, Asia or like now that I'm going back to Europe from Australia.
I just do not understand those people who keep saying that FR is a good airline. Ok, it is a good airline provided that: you're travelling with your toothbrush and nothing more, you are not in a hurry to go anywhere, you want to leave from a godforsaken place at impossible hours, you like to travel in a seat that is smaller than one you could find on a bus, you can stand unprofessional FR f/a (not all of them, most), you do not need your PC and the power plug. For everything else, you have a Miles and More Mastercard!
