BA fights back against LoCos... with a chart

[raffele]

This just rolled up on the BA website the last day or two, linked from a big banner on the homepage:

Value Calculator - Ryanair | Easyjet | British Airways (http://www.britishairways.com/travel/value-calculator/public/en_gb?openxzoneid=2&openxcampaign=value-calculator&openxbanner=value-calculator&openxtype=click)

I doubt though that it will pull that many punters away from the LoCos...

[Avman]

I doubt though that it will pull that many punters away from the LoCos...

Probably true. Then again, if they place full page adverts in such up market newspapers as the Sun/Mirror/NOTW/etc., it may just have some impact.

[Seat62K]

BA needs to add another row: Advance check in (BA 24 hours, Ryanair 15 days, easyJet 60 days).

P.S. "Avman", please cite your source for your snobbish comment on the social characteristics of Ryanair/easyJet passengers vs. BA shorthaul. I think you're making the mistake of assuming that passengers who are attracted to low fares must have low incomes. (By the way, I frequently choose Ryanair but I only fly Club World when travelling longhaul. Does that confuse your stereotyping mind?)

[Manual Braking]

Fuel Surcharge?

[eastern wiseguy]

Flying from your local airport....well yes if it is LHR. Sometimes those of us in the provinces have NO choice but to use the LoCo's.:uhoh:

[CornishFlyer]

The chart is wrong though. It states there is no charge to checkin online for FR where it now costs £5 for the privilege ;)

[Avman]

Seat62K, I think you're getting a little too excited and need to calm down a bit. I fly locos (not RYR) and Y class short haul, and Business Class long haul too. That has nothing to do with my statement. I do not state that all loco pax are low income earners. Seems to me that you are making making an issue of this. If I'm a snob than all I can say is that you have a mighty big chip on your shoulder. If BA want to get their message across to the avarage loco pax they will need to advertise in the tabloids. My reasoning is that a fair proportion of loco pax won't even come near to the BA website, as they already brainwashed into thinking that there cannot be anything cheaper than RYR or EZY.

[Seat62K]

"Avman",

Since you were unable/unwilling to cite any research on the social characteristics of "loco" passengers, let me do it for you.

The following refer to the social class of Ryanair's passengers in 1996:

Senior management/professional 6%
Middle management 33%
Junior management 39%
Skilled manual 12%
Semi-skilled 8%
No income/pensioners 2%

How many of these are Sun or News of the World readers, do you think? Why is it that Ryanair chooses to advertise in 'papers such as Daily Telegraph and The Independent? They're not stupid!

[Avman]

1996!!!!! :ugh: Hardly representative of 2009. RYR's fleet stood at 11 a/c then. There has since 1996 been a massive travel boom by lower income travellers and the fleet is presently in excess of 160. You really need to do better.

[hellsbrink]

"Avman", please cite your source for your snobbish comment on the social characteristics of Ryanair/easyJet passengers vs. BA shorthaul.

I didn't see anything about the "social characteristics of Ryanair/easyJet passengers vs. BA shorthaul" but I did see a comment about the very newspapers likely to have a full page Ryanair ad in them............

And that doesn't mean that those who read these papers are "chavs" or somehow of a lower class than those who fly BA or read the Times (yeah, like that's a high end newspaper nowadays) or the Torygraph, just that these tabloids are the ones most likely to have the ads for the Locos in them. As Avman says, if BA started putting ads in the same tabloids showing the differences they state in that table it might help them as far as getting more bums on seats goes.


(PS... Won't even comment on your post stating stats from 13 years ago)

[Seat62K]

The data were for 2006 (my mistake) and can be found here:

http://www.ryanair.com/site/about/aboutus/advertise/ExteriorBranding.pdf

[Skipness One Echo]

Wow 78% in management. Statistics indeed !

[easyboy22]

I dont think EZY will even respond, im sure FR will no doubt.

[Seat62K]

Anyone who believes that BA should avoid the "quality" press and instead target "such up market newspapers as the Sun/Mirror/NOTW etc" if it wants to reach Ryanair passengers in the UK should consider the following data from a 2007 survey of 1000 UK adults:

Composition of airlines' UK passengers and overall population -

BA "ABC1" (i.e., "middle class") 52%
Ryanair "ABC1" 59%
UK population "ABC1" 55%

BA "C2DE" (i.e., "working class") 48%
Ryanair "C2DE" 41%
UK population "C2DE" 45%

Source:
InviseoMedia - Press Releases (http://www.inviseomedia.com/dyn/news_press_releases.php?id=39&disp=single&lang=EN)


As another website states: "The research challenges the common perception that the airline [Ryanair] is used predominantly by a lower socio-economic group." (My parentheses.)
Ryanair receives ABC1 passenger boost | MIMS online (http://www.mims.co.uk/news/743042/Ryanair-receives-ABC1-passenger-boost/)


(I could provide data for the readership of the Sun/Mirror/News of the World categorised according to the ABC1 and C2DE market research categories but I don't think that's necessary.)

[Scott Diamond]

How do they manage to find out if people are semi-skilled or manual skilled? Do they ask them on the flights? Just out of curiosty, never travelled Ryanfair before :8

[Avman]

Seat62K: :zzz: :zzz: :zzz: Goodnight.

[bealine]

BA "ABC1" (i.e., "middle class") 52%
Ryanair "ABC1" 59%
UK population "ABC1" 55%

BA "C2DE" (i.e., "working class") 48%
Ryanair "C2DE" 41%
UK population "C2DE" 45%I thought we were supposed to be a "classless society".

Anyway, I dispute the middle class statistic as way too high.

Anyone who has to work for a living is working class. Given that we only have 2%, or thereabouts, of landowners who do not need to work, and a very small number of those with no visible signs of income (in whom the police are interested), approximately 97% of the UK population is "working class" - not your traditional cloth-capped, overall-wearing workman I grant yo, but working class nonetheless!


...........Which just goes to prove that 96% of statistics are probably made up! :sad:

[hellsbrink]

I'm still trying to figure out where Seat62K got the idea that avman was commenting on the social status of those who read the tabloids (which we know are "lower class" newspapers)......

[Dick Fisher]

Isn't the whole cost issue a non-question anyhow? It doesn't matter a jot to me if BA's flight to Malaga is cheaper than Ryanair or EasyJet's. Because I don't want to go there!

To be any use, a realistic cost comparison should compare like-for-like. I don't see many Ryanair flights departing Heathrow and I don't see many BA flights departing say, East Midlands.

The fact is, in the main, Ryanair flights are to destinations that BA don't fly to. I've not done the research, but suspect there can't be more than a handful of destinations that are served by both. So making comparisons like these are just wasteful of your time and effort.

What I, and many millions of others do know, is that I can now fly to a destination served by Ryanair, where even though they may be in a monopoly position, I can (usually) pay just a few pounds to travel - provided I circumnavigate the complexities of their charging methods and website correctly. Trust me, you only pay for Insurance once if you don't want/need it!

I can also state categorically, that in five years of regular travel - up to 16 flights p.a. - I have flown safely, on time and in a modern aircraft at prices I thought were impossible to achieve.

In all my experiences with other airlines, I have generally paid through the nose - especially where the carrier was also in a monopoly position. So, IMHO, BA are a little too late to start crowing about how "cheap" they are, when they've done absolutely nowt to grow the market, and where they have consistently and lazily relied on the first and business class cabins to provide the profits.

[Scumbag O'Riley]

Fuel Surcharge?Excellent point :D :D

[Michael SWS]

Excellent point :D :DNot really, as the "fuel surcharge", as unfair as it may be, is included in the headline fare from the outset and is not at any time added as an extra charge.

[wings folded]

Another factor.

FR and others go to places which BA, KLM, AF and so forth have never even heard of.

Happens to suit me.

When Ryanair can't be naffed in the winter to serve my frequent route, it takes 14 hours plus, and multiple times the cost (after paying for the ticket, paying for the bag, paying for the taxes, paying to pay, paying to check in, paying for insurance I don't want, if I am careless, on Ryanair) than using the train and paying their prices.