Why is RyanAir so persistent?

[EYguy]

Dave, because of the industrial structure of Europe, most of my customer were based close to the major apos around Europe (say a stone's throw from the major apos).
If it happens that a RYR flight is landing close to a customer's place, I won't hesitate a second to catch that flight, as I've already done when going to Sweden.
But I can get the same service from EasyJet who doesn't trashtalk anyone, who give better information about its prices (no "1€ flight" when then you have so many additional taxes that will make the cost of the flight closer to 20€!) and you land in LHR, not in the middle of nowhere!

Moreover: comparative advertising is ok, until it becomes misleading. Comparing FR to LH is misleading IMO because they do not take in account that LH has a customer base of people connecting from other flights.
If the flight FRA-JFK is leaving 15 mins late that delay can be made up during flight. But if you have 30 pax of that flight coming from, say, ARL and the flight from there is delayed, do you think it would be better for LH to delay the flight from FRA or reroute those pax? Do you think it would be better for the pax? Do you think it will cause a cost for the airline? IMHO RYR is doing misleading ad because people do not know about these issues which actually are those aspects of the airline industry that MAKE THE DIFFERENCE between Ryanair and anu other flag carrier.

Then, again: how many complaints have you heard about flag carrier during the 2010 eruption? And how many about Ryanair?

Edo

[Dave4468]

Well, I just need to get to a volcano near Koblenz so it's Cologne Bonn airport if its anywhere. Which it now turns out Ryanair don't fly to. Its bmibaby or EasyJet, both of which fly there from places I will find very hard to get too!

And on your point about Ryanair and ash they have just been angering me over all that. First all this no refund stuff and all that and then flying no-where near high concentrations of ash and saying the Met-Office is lying. Someone should tell O'Leary about BA flight 9.

[EYguy]

Dave, that's why I do not like O'Leary... Every nerd here on AWS know the business bettern than he does!

[alexgv1]

(no "1€ flight" when then you have so many additional taxes that will make the cost of the flight closer to 20€!)

Well these things were such a possibility 5 years ago, with myself and many associates having caught these flights. But they are now impossible and a thing of the past, but this is not due to Ryanair, it's mainly to do with rising fuel prices and government/EU taxes being added. So you can blame the government (and maybe the arabs) for the distinct lack of bargain flights anymore. I still think it's wonderful that your average working class person can fly on holiday for under a hundred pounds. Before Ryanair the likes of BA and Aer Lingus charges whatever they liked (yes price fixing).

[[ATA] - lilius]

Just a couple of weeks ago I found plenty of RETURN tickets to Stansted from Gothenburg City for the TOTAL price of 250 SEK ( should be around 25-30 Euro). These prices were for flights in the middle of the summer.

[EYguy]

Alex what I meant to say was that those 1€ tickets are just junk. Easzjet doesn't advertise tickets selling for 1€ because they know they can't sell tickets for that price. It's not the arabs# fault, government or blah blah blah, but Alitalia, SWISS, Lufthansa, Air France advertise ticket for 99€ and in the end you'll be billed 99€ and not one cent more... That was, is and will be my point.

Edo

[[ATA] - lilius]

Alex what I meant to say was that those 1€ tickets are just junk. Easzjet doesn't advertise tickets selling for 1€ because they know they can't sell tickets for that price. It's not the arabs# fault, government or blah blah blah, but Alitalia, SWISS, Lufthansa, Air France advertise ticket for 99€ and in the end you'll be billed 99€ and not one cent more... That was, is and will be my point.

Edo

I can see why it is better with being given the "real" price from the beginning and I do prefer it also. Still it takes about 30 seconds to understand the cost structure of the Ryanair offer. My price for a return ticket to Stansted from Gothenburg City landed at 250 SEK (...and not a cent more ha ha ) The bargain they offered was 89 SEK per flight.

It is true that tickets are advertised for 99 Euro by those airlines but they are also very restricted and the offers are quite difficult to use.

[alexgv1]

Okay, one thing you can't do without someone like Ryanair (except maybe Easyjet).

Just booked a weekend holiday to Magaluf with the lads to celebrate the end of the uni year. Booked it under two weeks in advance and it cost £130 in total flying to Palma de Mallorca.

Surely we can all agree that LCCs are good thing, even if we have mixed opinions on certain ones??

[andriitis]

Most about RyanAir has already been said, but there is one aspect that is yet to be mentioned, and for which I am very thankful to RyanAir and other LCC's - the massive drop in flight ticket prices over the past decade. I am a Latvian who grew up in Stockholm, Sweden, so I have always been flying a lot to Riga, Latvia. It is a very short flight - between 45 and 70 minutes depending on winds and aircraft type. Before the rise of LCC's and RyanAir, it was common for a ticket to cost 3-400 EUR round trip. The same with tickets from Stockholm to Germany - they maybe were a bit cheaper, but still hard to find below 250 EUR round trip. Of course, there were always exceptions and sales, but it doesn't change that the average ticket prices were very high.

Since LCC's and RyanAir stepped up the competition, offering dirt-cheap fares, most other carriers have been forced to review their pricing policies as well. Maybe there are other factors as well, but I do feel that there is a strong correlation between lower ticket prices accross the board (especially compared with the 1990's) and airlines like RyanAir, for which I am very thankful for. For example, for Christmas me and my wife flew Riga-Frankfurt for 40 EUR p/p (AirBaltic), Münster-Osnabrück - Berlin for 60 EUR p/p (AirBerlin) and Berlin-Riga for 70 EUR p/p (AirBaltic). Earlier this year we flew to Belgrade from Riga for around 100 EUR round trip. Before RyanAir, all of these tickets would have cost at least the double amount.

This is what I like the best about RyanAir and other LCC's. If I have the chance, I avoid RyanAir since I don't like the feel of cattle transport which the airline has, but if the difference in price is significant, I'd rather spend my 1-2 hours on RyanAir and waste my money on dinner at a high-end restaurant.

All you have to know that if you fly with RyanAir, obey all of their rules, no matter how silly they might seem, because if you don't, there probably will be an employee looking to get a truckload of money from you for allowing you on the flight. If you do not want that, fly with another airline. As simple as that.

[EYguy]

Andri, I reckon you're right when you say that LCCs in general helped to squeeze the air fares and I'm thankful for that. But as I've already said, I just HATE the way RYR behaves with pax. If you read what I wrote in the last few months, you'll see that I often fly Easyjet, which is slightly more expensive than RYR but has a way better service level! And I hate the yellow color of RYR interiors, ahahah!
And, another thing are the crew members of RYR: they behave like homless trying to sell you anything, from smokeless cigarettes to phone cards and lottery tickets. Easyjet is not like that and, I'd say, they're more professional.
As you rightely wrote, RYR gives the feeling of being in "cattle class", but at least cattles are going to be killed at the end of the travel, while the average RYR pax agonizes during the whole flight and, if he has a roundtrip ticket, is going to be tortured on the way back too!

[Kadachiman]

LCC have been and continue to be great for the flying public regardless of whether you personally use them or not.

I am from Australia and until recently we have always had a two airline policy - TAA and Ansett for Domestic (Qantas for International), then Ansett and Qantas (Domestic) after TAA's demise....air travel within Aussie was very expensive.

Government changed the rules and along came Virgin as a budget carrier (and do you think Branson's 'free advertising' opportunities where any different than RyanAir), but Ansett and Qantas (Domestic) lowered fares where Virgin competed directly on their routes....flying public are winners.

Ansett fell by the wayside and Virgin became the 2nd carrier, prices went up (not to the Duopoly days, but still went up)...flying public lose again.

Tiger Airways comes in as the LCC and what do you know Qantas (Domestic) and Virgin lower prices and run specials.

So from my viewpoint ....bring in more LCC so that I can fly Qantas at a better rate for me  

PS - Qantas also brought in it's own LCC - Jetstar to compete directly with Virgin...so in effect Qantas competes with itself as Jetstar on many domestic routes ... have to love Government legislation.

[[ATA] - lilius]

Flew Göteborg City - Rome Ciampino this summer with RYR. Only thing that bothered me was the way you board the plane from front and from back. It always seems to end up in a mess when both queues collide in the middle and half of them wants to continue further. They should figure out a better way of boarding. Maybe a stewardess blocking the mid of the plane would be enough to not allow chaos.

[EYguy]

They would probably chare you somewhere between 5 and 15€ to give you a "no chaos boarding"... But it would just be one of their tricks to get money, because those who do not care about a chaotic boarding, would not pay for it, and since you need the collaboration of everybody, you'd just waste yor money with RYR once again!