Ryanair - 6

[CAT1 REVERSION]

£10 a trip.............

Economically Impossible, do the Math!

Like his free flights, ALL loaded up to the hilt by the time you come to pay the final amount. We'll see eh!

[preduk]

OLD! Not true either apparently.

[daria-ox]

Impossible?!

[ItsAjob]

Great, image sitting sandwiched up next to a fresh smelling ryanair passenger for 8 hours, seat fixed upright with a coin slot for the in flight movie.
All in the safety of a broken English fresh cadet navigating you across the atlantic!

Pikey Atlantic.
Watch out Branson!

[Skipness One Echo]

Morons with unsustainable business models got us into this mess ( banks ). What makes you think that this business model is any more sensible. I mean you'd have to be really desperate to use Pikey Air across the pond !!! I'm hardly a millionaire and even I find economy to the US to be a pretty fair deal all in as things are !

[KENNEDY TOWER]

£10 RYR tickets to the U.S.

Well in 1986 when RYANAIR started operations the doomsday people said they wont last with the big boys, well here we are 22 years later and RYR will carryin excess of 62 MILLION passengers in the coming year. You guys think its impossible, its obvious youall dont know the Great 0ne very well

[FlyingOfficerKite]

Another 'Great One' fed the five thousand with a few fish and loaves of bread, turned water into wine and walked on water!

Well if 'He' can do it, I'm sure MO'L will have no problem with £10 transatlantic fares!

Just so long as it's not his 'planes that are being parked in the desert.

A well-known website has just posted an article describing 22 ways to beat the credit crunch. Number 16 is as follows:

16. Summer holidays
Now is not the best time to be heading overseas. The pound has fallen in price against almost every world currency (except the dollar) making foreign travel more costly - especially to continental Europe. However, a savvy traveller can still holiday for less - and there are some great holiday destinations in the UK. But if you are really in trouble with debts, flying abroad for a week or two at peak summer prices is one luxury you can do without.

The bigger you are, the harder you fall.

FOK

[CaptKremin]

Not this old recycled ****e again???
I must look up the thread on Airlines&Airports from last year - the one where a few thicko's insisted O'LearyAtlantic was imminent. Yes, any day now...stop laughing. Seriously, it's coming any day. Any day....

The FR share price dropped below 2 euro this week, hit 1.90 at its low point, and I predict further falls on Monday. Micko is grasping at any straw in the wind now to try and bluster up a rally. One of his pet journo's in the Sunday Indo two weeks ago called Mick Air's share price 'seriously undervalued' and wondered 'when the silly punters' would cop on to it....pity the idiots who took HIS advice at 2.50 and are now sitting on a loss of 25%.

O'Leary's world sure is full of suckers.

[Romeo India Xray]

I suggest that those who say there is no possibility of 10 pounds/euro one way Atlantic are the same individuals who have only a very loose apreciation of how the LCC model works. It is a very do-able proposition when properly yield managed however it will also be a big wake up call for Joe Public to see how much of his/her transatlantic fare consists of tax and "other charges and fees".

I suspect that when a true analysis of Pikey Pond Jumpers fares is conducted, the mean fare will be close to the existing full service transatlantic economy. Joe will swallow MoL's ticket price because of the perception of value, because they have all had over a decade of MoL telling them that this is dirt cheap and you wont go for less - that is the brand, that is the illusion and that is (sometimes) the truth - yield manage it correctly and NE USA and Canada are do-able.

RIX

[RED WINGS]

Let me guess £10 there, £1000 if you want a return!

If MOL is so sure the economic downturn is good for business why is he parking planes, and forcing his crews into a month plus of unpaid leave? Not sure in the legality in that but then I dont know anything about Irish employment law.

Also why is it word around more than one airport is his not been paying his bills and on notice? Rumour or fact, anyone know for sure?

I for one think FR are going to be in a spot of bother before long.

[JDB1052]

400 seats crammed into a firesale 787 bought for cash so appreciating every day, burning say 20 tons on a transatlantic sector costing around £10,000 in fuel. Do a deal with some rural US airport (Boston North aka Bangor, Maine) and an equally rural UK one (Manston or Prestwick come to mind) for a wedge of hello money and get paid per passenger with no airport fees in return for bringing bods through the airport and giving the locals a job. Paint some big brand on the side of the jet for a bit of sponsorship, ratchet up the prices of the inflight a la carte michelin four star trolley menu, pay per the mile for baggage, check-in fees, slot machines for IFE, pay per use toilets, oxygen etc , crews on sector pay only, CC on sales commission only, stick to the east coast to get roundtrip from a daily crew. On the downside only one insurance and hotel sale per passenger but not signfiincant.

Do the maths. It may be a PR Agent's wet dream of a £10 fare to push, but with the average passenger paying in total less than £100 each way, a bargain, it's not inconceviable that someone with Ryanairs market power could pull this off. At £30 to £40,000 per sector - would it work?

[5tarbuck]

You'd probably get people who'd try it once.
Repeat business would be, er, problematic......

[cyclops16]

As a non pilot. But I have an interest in FR as my mother lives in Spain, so comes over to LPL from GRX on a regular basis. She was aghast when her baggage costs more than the flight,taxes,etc. All is not what it seems,as they seem to not want hold baggage to keep the costs down. But this would be unavoidable on a transatlantic trip.
If I went over the pond with FR, the way I am looking at their operation is that I would have to travel with no baggage,etc. as I would be hammered by the 'add-on's'. I wouldn't even contemplate it with myself,g/f and 3 kids as the charges would be way through the roof.

[preduk]

Seriously guys... I can't believe you actually debating this... It's nonsense! Ignore this stupid story.

cyclops16,

You obviously haven't seen the benefit to these addons, so let me introduce you to them.

I was going to Dublin last week on business, with BA it was costing £150 plus 1 stop off and a total of 5hours. I was forced to pay credit card fees, fuel surcharge, baggage fees etc even though I wasn't carrying any of it.

I decided to fly with ryanair, carried hand luggage (never cost anything) check in online reducing the paper waste and made things quicker (never cost anything) used a VISA electron card (never cost anything) and got the flights for £1 each way incl taxes

How can you complain about paying £3 for a bag!!!!

[Skipness One Echo]

Since these £1 only fares with tax included in no way cover the cost of flying you, perhaps you'd like to thank everyone else who had to carry luggage in the hold for paying the price of your carriage for you.........

Since when do BA charge you baggage fees for not carrying baggage? The VISA Electron must be the only method that is free with Ryanair becasue every other method I have used with Pikey Air has cost me at least a fiver to pay them the bloody air fare. Stop comparing apples and oranges. BA do what they do, Ryanair do theirs.

Selective stories from fans and cheerleaders is just pointless (!)

[Romeo India Xray]

Stop comparing apples and oranges. BA do what they do, Ryanair do theirs.

This is (almost) not a case of apples and oranges. Firstly ANY yield managed airline has a proportion of passengers "subsidising" the travel of a proportion of the other passengers. BA do it, FR do it, the just go about it in a different way. While FR hide nothing about their yield management (although dont advertise it either for obvious reasons), it remains quite obvious for all to see that it is indeed in operation at FR:

• Rapidly increasing ticket prices as you get closer to departure day.
• Baggage fees
• Credit Card fees
• Check in fees
• On-board sales

The idea (of FR management) is that you should get each person to pay the maximum the possibly can, while trumping an excellent deal, propped up by the few people on board who have genuinely managed to get one of your 1 Euro (or free) tickets.

Fast forward to BA and you find things are not too different although BA chooses to hide it under as much camoflage as possible. I have not travelled BA for years so am willing to be corrected on this point but do they also not use:

• Increasing fares as you get closer to departure day
• Higher fares at school holiday times
• Fuel Sur-charges
• Business class passengers who are paying 3 - 5 times more for only 1.5 - 3 times more space
• First Class PAX paying 10 times more for only 5 times more space
• Various other add-on sales through partnerships and alliances

(there are probably a lot more but I now very little about BA these days so I will not stab in the dark)

What this amounts to is BA using exactly the same techniques as FR except with a glossy cover. The LCC will give you the option of whittling down your fare price if you are someone who is conversant with the system and knows how to "play" it. On a trans Atlantic route this may not be the most comfortable proposition, but it may work for some few:

• Book early
• Be flexible with your travel dates
• Take LOTS of sandwiches
• Take a few empty water botttles through security and fill up at the fountains
• Use an Electron card when you book
• Travel light so get away with hand baggage only.

FR know that very few people will be able to commit to this so they will get more revenue - SIMPLE.

So.....FR and BA are essentially similar, just each put a different gloss on the surface of what they do.

[Mister Geezer]

So who thinks that the crew will have to pay for their own HOTAC when away in the US? Either that or we will see crew plodding through terminals looking disheveled after spending a night in a sleeping bag!!!

[eidah]

If airlines can fly Heathrow to Melbourne without stopping which they will do next year and the crew doing those hours(dont work for a long haul carrier so not sure how they will work the hours/limitations) I am sure a quick trip to say new york and back from Stansted can do without an overnight in a hotel.

[eu01]

Big cities

Actually there are a few more European capital cities planning to have new low-cost terminals or airports. One of them is Budapest.

Hungary's building authorities have given the green light for the start of construction at the Alba Airport, near Szekesfehervar, Biggeorge's, which is building the airport together with the local councils of Szekesfehervar and Aba, told MTI on Monday. The airport will start serving international low-fare and charter flights in H1 2010. It will be the country's second-biggest airport after Ferihegy, in the capital.
Biggeorge's also plans to build a business and industrial park at the site.

From: realdeal.hu (23.09.2008)

To my understanding, this Alba Airport will be situated at the site of the present Börgönd Airfield, close to the highway and railway line, some 60km South-West from Budapest and 40km from the Balaton lake. Not bad at all.

[Coquelet]

At Ryanair, you don't always get the best price when booking early; especially at this time of the year, there are special sales with tickets beeing sold cheaper than a few weeks ago.
And there are good deals to be made. For instance, I got a Charleroi-Treviso return for 8,02 euros total paid. I consider it a good price by any standard.
How can it be done ? That is not my problem.