Peter Vinthagen from Sweden expresses his opinion why people seem to love to hate Ryanair
Perhaps because that is all they are. Those that have gotten used to cheaper prices no longer remember the old days of £200 or bust flights from Stockholm to see the folks back in the UK.
Perhaps because they treat their passengers the same way they treat all the suppliers, customers and their competitors alike – with ill disguised contempt. They are the Chelsea FC of the skies – “No one likes us, we don’t care…”
There is no pool of goodwill.
For a long time it just didn’t matter, the paying customer would come back time and again anyway, feeling more and more cheated as extra is added upon extra, even the prospect of toilet charge surprising no one. Money talks, and as the dominant low-cost carrier, they could undercut everyone else.
The reaction to the announcement that Norwegian is opening more routes from Arlanda, and last week’s well-publicised spat between the Ryanair and Stockholm Skavsta, one can sense that the Irish airline may have to start to draw on a pool of customer loyalty that just does not exist – it has never existed.
Nyköping obviously enjoys the business opportunity and growth that Ryanair has given them, as do I am sure all the other backwater airports across Europe – but, given the choice, would they rather get their money from someone, anyone, else?
Ryanair is perhaps no better that the ‘fat cat’ airlines that it disparages and thus no more than a poor man’s monopoly. People fly with them for purely utilitarian reasons – they have to, not because they want to.
Like all empires, Ryanair’s will come to an end, but like a old punch drunk prize-fighter, will they see the upper cut before it is too late?
The Ryanair paradox – They may be the self-proclaimed “World’s Favourite Airline,” but the world, one feels, couldn’t care less either way.
Source:
The Local, Sweden