BBC "Watchdog" Survey
One of the most significant findings, for me, of BBC television's airline survey for the Watchdog programme was that around 19% of the approximately 24,000 who chose to take part said that Ryanair is the airline they would not fly with again.
Bearing in mind that not all 24,000 would have flown Ryanair, this strikes me as a very high figure and, if valid, would appear to provide evidence for the view that the company needs, in particular, to think about how it treats passengers when things go wrong. Some of the comments on the "airline quality" website, if true, reinforce this.
I fly Ryanair a lot and although nothing significant has ever gone wrong I do have a slight anxiety when I travel that I might find myself stranded.
Perhaps Ryanair thinks that it doesn't matter if some passengers never return because there will always be "new" ones to replace them. I believe this to be shortsighted and not simply because the supply of "new" passengers is not limitless. I will no longer fly with a small number of airlines because of poor customer service and I tell others. I know people who will not fly Ryanair but who have never flown with the airline. Indeed, until a couple of years ago I was one such person.
Ryanair has significant strengths (e.g., fares, boarding experience (compared with rival easyJet), onboard service, punctuality, newish 'planes). If it addressed its weaknesses it could be truly great. I do not want the day to arrive when I, too, say that I will never fly Ryanair again.