Budget Airline Ryanair - Love Them or Hate Them?

Many of us have of course enjoyed the ability to travel more frequently thanks to the budget airlines and their low cost fares. Ryanair has reported a huge increase in business and profits so far during 2007 – despite the fact that fuel and airport charges have continued to rise.   

Sorry, but I need to have a gripe.  Ryanair has continued to lead the way in finding new ways to squeeze more of that budget fare out of us.  First they started charging us for the privilege of paying them by charging a fee if we used a debit or credit card - which applied per person, each way – even if all passengers in a party were paid for on one credit card.  They got away with that one, so they started charging us for checking-in a piece of luggage at £5 per bag, for each leg of the trip – which means £10 for a round-trip.  They still only allow 15kg and charge £5.50 for each kg above the limit.  Easyjet allows 20kg, which makes such a difference and means you can comfortably pack the items you want to take without worrying about excess baggage charges.  I wish Ryanair would do the same, but not much hope of that.   

Then Ryanair started offering on-line check in for a £4 fee, which gave you the nice perk of being able to board first – but this applied to passengers with carry-on luggage only.  I don’t know many people who go on holiday and are able to get everything into one carry-on bag – do you?   I have, however, seen people avoid this by having one person do the on-line check in and just take a carry-on bag while packing most of their luggage in their companion’s case to be checked in as normal. It must be an awful squash though to get two people’s stuff into one 15kg bag.  The advantage is that at least one person avoids the scrum of those sweaty queues and racing to the aircraft – they can relax and secure a decent seat for themself and their companion. 

As of September 20th they changed that policy (supposedly to encourage more on-line check-ins) by dropping the £4 on-line check-in charge and instead adding a £2 charge, per person, for airport check-in!  (That’s on top of the £5 per bag charge, each way).  No doubt much more profitable - as the majority of people need to check in their luggage.  They know very well that an extra £2 charge is not going to discourage them!  Ryanair’s excuse was that it would allow them to cut airport staff and keep costs lower – but who are they fooling?  Being able to check-in your luggage at the airport has always been a necessary part of air travel.  Perhaps what they really want is for us to book lots of short trips with them so that we can pop home for a change of underwear?

There are rumours that Ryanair’s next money-making scheme will be charging for use of the onboard toilets.  Would we get a rebate for having a strong bladder or spending a penny at the airport before boarding?  Personally, I’d do anything to avoid the hassle of negotiating my way past the drinks trolley and squeezing into their claustrophobic and nasty aircraft toilet – including boycotting their drinks trolley! They had better think hard about this one.  If they plan to start charging for use of their toilets they’d better weigh up the gains against the potential loss of revenue from passengers who will stop buying their bladder-stretching cappuccinos.   

Personally, I wish Ryanair would just simplify their entire booking system, tack an additional £20 onto each fare - which includes everything - and stop all this silliness.  Then they could save money by firing the idiots who keep coming up with these irritating new money-making schemes! 

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 10:34 am and is filed under Airlines, Travel News .

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