buy a ticket, and dont show up
I dont know how the no-show rates are with other airlines, but with FR we can quite often in the low season have 189 booked, but only 166 show up.
Thats 23 fares received by the copmany, INCLUDING THE AIRPORT TAXES, which dont have to be paid for by the company in fuel charges and passenger handling charges (AIRPORT TAX!!)
It all comes down to these 'massive seat sales' - people are compelled to buy really quickly, book about 3 flights for 3 consecutive days incase they cant make it, and be under the impression that doing so they arent losing that much money...and in many cases the total fare for all three flights combined may well be below that of a single flight with a full service carrier.
so its obvious they wont show up - unfortunately, RYR wont give the airport tax back tot he cancelled customer, even though it is legally his tendure once again, as the airport wont claim it from ryanair.
that may be a loss of 30 GBP for that person, but multiply 30 by the 23 empty seats in the last example, and we get GBP 690 instant, non-taxed profit on no-shows alone for a single flight...and this isnt factoring in the apparent fuel savings and MTOW savings yet either...
smart, that I grant them.
but it just shows that yes, they would be jumping for joy if 189 booked, and only 1 turned up.
ofcourse, bad word of mouth will dampen booking rates.
Serge, thanks for the info...My heart also goes out to his family. I didn't realise his condition was still this serious.
900 hours a year may very well be damaging...I think some universities are starting studies on cosmic radiation and it's affect on long term exposure of crew.