Sub headline could read...

"Gatwick becomes more attractive overnight"

Matt?

I'm trying to visualise an airport run as a low-cost operation. Just imagine things such as paying an extra £5 to go to the front of the security queue, £1 to have your shoes x-rayed, £2 to use the little train between terminals (seeing as those terminals would be used by the competition), £1 to have your passport checked at arrivals, £2 for a baggage trolley, 50p to stand at the best part of the baggage carousel...

"O'Leary International Airport" does have a ring to it....;)

What does a low-cost airport look like
 

What if instead you looked at how you could take all the "frills" out of a terminal.

What if you took Stanstead and you repackaged it to meet the minimum need and then added the frills that pay for themselves.

What if an airport was run by the airlines and not by entrepreneurs.

What if an airport was run by a user group (e.g. passengers).

MOL may be agressive but he does focus on leaving cash in my pocket.

I suggest the real issue is that when you do the above (except user ownership) you find that it has been done and the rest is pure profit at our collective expense.

That said, someone took the "risk" of building the airport.

maybe someone should tell the emperor that he is wearing no clothes!!!

Yet again more free publicity to get the brand out there at a time when their share price hit an all time low last week. It's never going to happen yet the media jump at it. And the cost of it all. Absolutely nothing!!

Transporting SLF from A to B
 

MOL has a point, assuming it is indeed valid.

Some of us spend part of our time as SLF and would prefer to park our car at the door of our aircraft. We accept this is not always possible and are ready to accept an additional cost to allow SLF to pay for what they expect.

MOL has many very-low cost airports. He understands the model and it ain't complicated.

"I'm trying to visualise an airport run as a low-cost operation. Just imagine things such as paying an extra £5 to go to the front of the security queue, £1 to have your shoes x-rayed, £2 to use the little train between terminals (seeing as those terminals would be used by the competition), £1 to have your passport checked at arrivals, £2 for a baggage trolley, 50p to stand at the best part of the baggage carousel... "



Funnily enough I think that's what many are visualising the future as anyway ... it's just slow getting from "here" to "there" so as not to alienate the travelling public .... MOL won't worry about that bit.. he'll just do it anyway :E

llondel
 

you have hit the nail on the head.

Get focussed pls - pay per use of airport facilities
 

I suggest this is exactly the opposite of what SLF expects.

What SLF has a problem with is paying "charges" when all we want to do is show our boarding EMail print, have our PC checked and then sit down in seat 12A, in both directions.

And we may well have paid a flex fare.

And we never carry anything remotely "dangerous" and even if we would never use it as all we are interested in is getting to our destination on time and returning as planned.

This is a mindset issue and MOL understands.

daikilo

I meant it's what airport operators are visualising not the "users" ..

funnily enough instigated by MOL's standard line telling airport owners to

"make their money from the hundreds of punters he brings them each day and not FR!"


I think you'll find all airport operators are very focussed on just that, even those that don't currently have FR as a customer.

Hence the emphasis on shopping/car parking for example.

As an example:

Why do you think MAN has revamped all it's shopping/car parking recently and is currently constructing an area of concrete adjacent to T3 .. no a/bridges etc... just concrete for parking......




If you think MOL wouldn't want to charge for trolleys etc I feel that would be in error.....

FR encourage no hold luggage .. so why do want a trolley?? ..... if you choose to have hold luggage then you simply pay FR/Apt the fee...

Quote daikilo

And the nominations for this year's Darwin awards are..... :cool:

MOL, the Mother Theresa and patron saint of travellers; now there's a laugh. :E

Newsflash: O'Leary focusses on every contrived, devious, pernicious means possible to relieve you of every spare cent in your pocket.

But of course, if you wish to believe he actually makes money by charging €ZERO for tickets, who am I to burst your Utopian flier's bubble. :ugh:

Focus on what matters
 

I think you prove my point, and that of MOL.

But that will not stop me using e.g. Gatwick if costs remain reasonable. MOL, pls do what you can to keep LGW honest.

The FR profit equation
 

As I understand, he does make net profit, on average.

What exactly do guys like you focus on? Flying aircraft and SLF from A-B or more extravagent visions? This is PPrune!

....£5 an hour to consume a 79% Nitrogen/21% Oxygen mix during the time you are in the terminal, 8p per step in the terminal to compensate for floor erosion, £5 per visit to the toilets....

If MOL really wants to own an airport and play at being god/baa then let him build a new one. Can I suggest somewhere in Ireland?

Ad in yr post
 

The ad in left column of yr post was for Rayan Air? PPrune regulators may wish to intervene.

That said, why aggress MOL. We need to minimise our ground cost structure and he has hit the headlines.

IATA: MOL, ICAO: EMOL.

MOL certainly does not like middle men getting some of the action.
It is reported tonight that as of Monday, Ryanair will not honour any tickets booked through a price comparison website.
Anyone know why?

no price comparison ?
 

Simple.

Ryanair is not THE low cost airline, it is AN aggressively marketed airline trading on the principal that if you shout loud enough often enough people will believe the message.
The alternatives more often than not work out cheaper as our recent holiday demonstrated clearly.

Even without all the hidden charges FR was 3 TIMES the price of the booked seat, wine with meal, 30kg baggage allowance alternative.

Price comparison sites do what they say they do and the last thing Ryanair want is the truth coming out.

Headline fares of 0.01 euro one way are fine, but dig deeper and the picture is not always as Ryanair would have everyone believe.

"I'm trying to visualise an airport run as a low-cost operation. Just imagine things such as paying an extra £5 to go to the front of the security queue, £1 to have your shoes x-rayed, £2 to use the little train between terminals (seeing as those terminals would be used by the competition), £1 to have your passport checked at arrivals, £2 for a baggage trolley, 50p to stand at the best part of the baggage carousel..."

Try to understand the fact that you already pay for these things through the price of the ticket. The difference with Ryanair is you would only pay for what you use.

Yes do imagine O'Leary international where you pay £10 to go through fast track security, £5 to get a train rather then walk between terminals, £2 for a baggage trolley (largest coin), £20 for access to a premium lounge and £5 for priority boarding. This gives you most aspects of a business class product for the price of the average fuel surcharge.