"Am I wasting my time trying to book the 1p flights on Ryanair's website? Every time I go through the order form, the system throws a wobbler saying it is too busy at the end of the process."
You are now wasting your time: the 1p all-in deal has now finished. But you shouldnt normally have a problem: I have purchased many such tickets without incident. One exception was last night: I did have one problem - my card wouldn't be processed - but within a few minutes it was fine and I then booked STN-OPO-MAD-CIA-STN as a daytrip for 4p all-in. In previous such deals I booked BRS-DUB-BRS for 2p all-in and STN-SVQ-STN for 2p all-in.
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http://www.uk-airport-news.info/stan...ws-260707a.htm"
That's comparatively interesting but not surprising: everyone should by now realise that the generation of ancillary revenue is of fundamental importance to Ryanair. Indeed, but for considerable amounts thereof, it wouldn't be able to offer the aforementioned extraordinary specials, for which ancillary revenue supplements ticket revenue - and to a major extent, as the article shows. Which isn't to say that Ryanair has always had the right products or service: it often refines its offerings to better-suit its strategy. Remember Ryanair mortgages? 'Nuff said.
It is perhaps surprising that Ryanair hasn't yet adapted Ryanair.com to enable quick and simple, e.g. at a tick of a box, hotel and car hire purchases while you're purchasing your flights. Presently, it has the inconvenient book-it-all-separately approach rather than in a single tranaction, Expedia-style, that dissuades significant amounts of people from booking such ancillary products. That integration would, I think, help to increase hotel and car hire bookings, so long as the booking facility on Ryanair.com remains easy and user-friendly.
I would go so far as to say that but for considerable ancillary revenue discount airlines, such as Ryanair and easyJet, wouldn't be able to offer anywhere near the level of low fares, even though low fares obviously stimulate markets and then generate large volumes and thus obviously enable considerable ticket revenue generation. In short, ancillary revenue is essential both to the airlines and to consumers who want low fares.
I also believe that in general the endless pursuit of ancillary revenue often inspire and enable choice: you often don't have to have what they're selling. For example, I, for one, very rarely take checked-in luggage; I normally pay by debit card, so I don't pay much as card fees; I don't buy car hire, hotels, insurance on Ryanair.com; and I rarely buy speedy boarding. I do, however, occasionally buy tea onboard. I could, of course, buy everything on offer - and that too would be choice.
One relatively insightful point in the article was that so-called "hidden" ancillary revenue constituted 60% of easyJet's total ancillary revenue compared to 40% of Ryanair's. I wouldn't read much into that, other than to further prove the fundamental nature of that revenue stream to discount airlines.
So, I'd expect to see more new ancillary products and services to take full advantage of opportunities to still further increase total revenue, but also to see some disappear as portfolios modify to keep abreast of demand and strategic requirements.