Easyjet

[cosworth211]

Hi, firstly mods, if this is in the wrong place please move, I've scanned the forums and reckon this is the best place. If its not, sorry.

I am undertaking a study of Easyjet as a commercial airline (not its subsidaries) for my marketing strategy module at university. My brief is to study the existing strategy, and suggest improvements.

Obviously primary research would be of great benefit, and I cannot think of a better place to ask a few questions if some of you would be so kind to answer for me. In this instance I am trying to collect qualitative data, ie opinions and sentences not yes/no 1,2 or 3 type answers.

Please note, I really appreciate any answers I get, but if people are so kind to answer please could no one else question their answers.

1/ IYO who are the top three low cost carriers in Europe (based a) from perspective of a customer and b) if applicable the perspective of someone within the aviation industry)

2/ Please could you list upto 3 things Easyjet do RIGHT as an airline.

3/ Please could you list upto 3 things Easyjet do WRONG as an airline.

4/ Any other comments on Easyjet.


Yours hopefully
:ok:

Most complete answer wins a captains position on a 747;)

[cessna l plate]

Just to be boring, I'll give you a sensible answer to some of your questions

Top 3 Lo-Co's From a pax/marketing perspective

1. BMI baby
2. Easy
3. Ryanair

Where SLF is concerned, price is the deciding factor, followed very closely by locality.

BMI are top of my list as I live nearer to MAN than to LPL, and the prices are very similar.

Be aware though that some long established carriers such as Monarch are also in the game and do compare price wise.

From a marketing point of view in my opinion turn the above list upside down.

Like, or more likely hate him, Michael O'Leary is a genius at making money. Remove all the general hatred for him in the industry, and look purely at what he is at Ryanair to do (make money and lots of it) he is good at it.
By flying into an airport 40 miles away, he keeps his fares low, and as I said before that is the major point in who you book with.
All his recent shenanigins may be questionable in another or even this forum, but there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Easy on the other hand lost their greatest marketing tool the day Stelios left the fold. That said he is still associated with the brand, and in addition there is the TV programme as well.

Finally, at the bottom of the heap comes BMI, crew are efficient, but at times can seem to be without that human touch. Marketing is what you would expect as the industry standard, lots of posters (near airports) and a mainline radio ad campaign. They do also send e-mail flyers if you are registered.

Hope this helps, but as this is Jet Blast, standby for a rabid assault on MOL, baby crew defending themselves and a generally oversized dig at me coming right up!!!!!!!

[cosworth211]

Cessna, thanks for being the first to take this seriously and answering my post. I appreciate its quite a boring post, but any genuine replies will really help me with my primary research for my university work. I would appreciate any more replies, and as Cessna said, I would appreciate it if no one commented on his post. Thanks very much :ok: :ok:

[The Real Slim Shady]

It may also be worth looking at the product differentiation each employs:

Ryanair - We are the cheapest.
Easy - We are the cool, hip and groovy bunch.
Baby - We are the kid next door.

The need to buy an airline ticket is a derived need; very few, other than the odd anorak, buy a ticket just to fly. The destination holds the lure normally, so choice of a carrier is determined firstly by destination, then by departure airport ( not much point of trying to fly from Liverpool if you want to go to say, Helsinki and the route doesn't exist) then by price.

Oddly enough part of your marketing strategy could be to operate from the same hub as your main rivals e.g. Stansted, but to destinations in the same region but without competing directly. An example, not necessarily reflected in reality, would be easyJet flying STN - FCO (Rome) and Ryan flying STN - CIA (Rome). That way if Jimmy trys to buy a ticket with Ryan, but can't get a seat easy will pick up a fall out passenger, and vice versa.

[Bealzebub]

It is difficult to say who are the top 3 loco's because you have to have a perspective from which to make such an assesment.

The airline has to fly from where you want to fly from, to a destination which is also where you want to fly to. On most routes there are probably at best 2 such carriers and any subjective assessment can only provide a like for like comparison when comparing in this context.

Easyjet certainly has a comprehensive and growing route structure. It operates a modern fleet of short haul jets. One thing that is definetaly in its favour is its booking engine. The fares quoted are only subject to taxes, not to taxes and eh fuel surcharges and eh security charges and eh well anything else we can vaguely think of to more than double the fare. they are almost unique in this respect and it is a big selling point.

On the other hand that dreadful TV programme and its precocious "stars" do nothing to promote the image of a professional modern company ( which they are). I suppose it has at least given the brand name a higher profile at low cost, so maybe there is some justification ?

Another plus for Easyjet is that they ( for the most part) do fly to the city airport they advertise. for example Venice is Marco polo airport not Treviso ( another town completely), etc.

Flying from Gatwick, I have travelled on Easyjet and Ryanair, though not to destinations where they compete. Ryanair to Dublin use a tatty and tired 737-200 which projects the image of a tired and tatty company ( perhaps unfairly, but that is their choice!) The cheap internet fare is of course doubled by all the add ons. The taxy speed on occaisions would have resulted in a failed line check in my own environment had it occurred in such circumstances. On the other hand the flights have been largely on time and as advertised. Easyjet I have used to Rome, Malaga, Cologne and Dortmund ( the latter from Rome). Modern A319, flights on time, well operated, cheap advance booked fares with only the real taxes added on usually only £5 or so, compared to £37 on BA !

In summary Easyjet is modern, efficient, no nasty surprises or the feeling you have been conned. But if they don't fly where you want to go the comparison is limited in scope.

[PAXboy]

I am undertaking a study of Easyjet as a commercial airline (not its subsidaries) Selecting Pedant mode As far as I know, EZY does not have any subsidiaries? You may be thinking of easy (http://easy.com) Their home pages lists 15 subsidiaries. Deselecting Pedant mode ;)

As to the choices, the others have said it all. I might get cheaper fares from Stansted but that is 51 miles away, whereas Luton is only 17. Time and money makes LTN a winner, even if fares are higher. No marketing can change that - only if the required destination is not available from my local field.

--------------------
"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any different." Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

[panda-k-bear]

Originally tried to post this yesterday but the website went down just as I pressed the fire button - but this is more a comment on the business perspective rather than the marketing side:

You'll get as many opinions as there are posters. However, from an aviation industry point of view:

Ryanair, easyJet and the probably Air Berlin but possibly germanwings. Why? Financial stability, access to cash, profitability. In short, value. That's not to say they're the best to work for!

What they have right:

1) easyJet operate a frequency based model - good for attracting higher yield business class pax on trips from and to the larger cities. Smaller aircraft size gives good frequency - so unit size is right for their model. They fly to the right airports! Not miles from city centres. Good strategy, well applied.

2) They've got turnround times down to excellent minima. That means they can get extra utilisation out of their aircraft, so the productivity of the crews and the aircraft is excellent - way better than a legacy carrier. Great way to get costs out of the system.

3) Good yield management system that is very adaptive to market conditions and ensures that overbooking is minimised (eliminated is perhaps going a bit far!).

A very smart thing is that you won't find them competing with Ryanair directly on any routes other than those inherited from Go. easy know that their cost base is very low, but that Ryanair have a cost base that is lower. That means that Ryanair can always beat them...

I've got to fly so I'll let everyone else have a turn - I'm sure there are others who disagree with my opinion and there are those who will certainly want to give you the reasons they think easyJet has it all wrong!

[UPSAirOps]

Might also be worth looking at Southwest - an airline most of our lowcost carriers try to emulate. Doganis has published an excellent book for this "The Airline Business In The 21st Century" and "Flying Off Course". Both books I've used when I did ATM at uni.

[Maude Charlee]

Just a quick response to an earlier post regarding the short turnaround times on easyjet. They have a model for their 'classic' 20 minute turnaround. I've rarely seen such rubbish. Cabin security checks are scheduled to begin and end during embarkation and disembarkation, baggage searches are initiated barely half way through boarding before you can possibly know which passengers are missing, and boarding times are totally unrealistic for the facilities in use at most of their airports.

Complete tosh written by some desk-bound weenie who has probably never seen a turnaround in their life.

[panda-k-bear]

An interesting statment MC, However, whether the procedure is followed or not, their departures seem to be on time for the most part, so a scheduled 20 minute turn is actually achieved in 20 minutes. I've time dthem quite a few times and I've seen it done in less. Sometimes much less - and with quite high pax load factors... (best I ever saw was with about 145 pax off and 135 or so pax on on an A319 done in 17 minutes flat).

[bealine]

I have to agree, Maude Charlee, safety and security is the big issue with these LoCos and their short-cutting will eventually be their downfall!

Easy is trying to escape the LoCo fold, however. If you check out their fares, they are not so cheap any more and they are targetting Business traffic more and more.

To keep Business Travellers sweet, you must be safe, secure and reliable and do the decent thing if you delay/cancel a flight. Additionally, is it reasonable to expect Business Travellers to get up at 4am, drive 40-50 miles to the airport, fly at the crack of dawn, put in a full day's work and return late in the evening with no sustenance? (Or does his company give "subsistence allowances" which add to the supposedly "low cost" fare?)

Easy are going to have a problem in this area! I would agree, without Stelios, EZY have lost their vision!

[LYKA]

To keep Business Travellers sweet, you must be safe, secure and reliable and do the decent thing if you delay/cancel a flight. Additionally, is it reasonable to expect Business Travellers to get up at 4am, drive 40-50 miles to the airport, fly at the crack of dawn, put in a full day's work and return late in the evening with no sustenance? (Or does his company give "subsistence allowances" which add to the supposedly "low cost" fare?)

Blimey, care to back it up with some facts about a lack of safety, security and reliability? If you have to get up at 4 am to get a flight....well boo ho, get a hotel thats closer to the airport or fly from a more convenient airport. At the end of the day "you pays your money and you takes your choice".:mad:

[manintheback]

quote:
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I have to agree, Maude Charlee, safety and security is the big issue with these LoCos and their short-cutting will eventually be their downfall!

Easy is trying to escape the LoCo fold, however. If you check out their fares, they are not so cheap any more and they are targetting Business traffic more and more.

To keep Business Travellers sweet, you must be safe, secure and reliable and do the decent thing if you delay/cancel a flight. Additionally, is it reasonable to expect Business Travellers to get up at 4am, drive 40-50 miles to the airport, fly at the crack of dawn, put in a full day's work and return late in the evening with no sustenance? (Or does his company give "subsistence allowances" which add to the supposedly "low cost" fare?)

Easy are going to have a problem in this area! I would agree, without Stelios, EZY have lost their vision!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Wow - thats certainly going some.

LoCos have an excellent safety and security record. Reliabilty - the majors out of the UK into Europe last year were pretty poor at times, (the stats bear this out) - enough to stop me from paying the £600 odd quid after 9 delays in 10 weeks of over 2 hours on a Friday night. Ended up with one of the locos for £120 simply because it got me home at the time it said it would and between 2 major airports.

"Do the decent thing if you delay or cancel a flight?" you mean staff disappearing from the first class and bus class lounges during the walkout at LHR last year or not giving me another flight for 3 days out of Paris when mine was cancelled as they were all full? Thats on an unrestricted bus class ticket?. Accommodation offered - yeah right!.

Stelios is still the largest individual shareholder in Easy and wields considerable influence over there.

[bealine]

LoCos have an excellent safety and security record

.......So far! However, 20 minutes to clear an aircraft, perform security checks, pilots to perform walkaround safety checks and re-fuel and re-board passengers just ain't long enough - even if you're talking ATR 42 seat territory! For EZY and FR to work the 20 minute turnaround with Boeing 737's is "doing the impossible" so shortcuts are being taken.

How the hell can cabin security checks be properly carried out while disembarking passengers are still in the cabin! The security check is obviously a farce!!!

Mark my words - it's only a matter of time!

[LYKA]

.......So far! However, 20 minutes to clear an aircraft, perform security checks, pilots to perform walkaround safety checks and re-fuel and re-board passengers just ain't long enough - even if you're talking ATR 42 seat territory! For EZY and FR to work the 20 minute turnaround with Boeing 737's is "doing the impossible" so shortcuts are being taken.

Do you work for a Loco? If not, your remarks are just iinflammatory and show your lack of knowledge in this area - not very helpful to the person seaking accurate information is it:}

[ivor tug]

bealine,
you dont have a clue my Granny with her frame could walk around the a/c in 10mins. Seriously, there are two flightdeck you know! Doesn't take long to put the route in the FMC. Half way around the outside you meet the Fueller, tell him how much you want and continue around. Even at French Airports (where you may have to do the fuel switches yourself). There is still time to help the CC with the tidy up. The biggest problem is withe SLF, acting like sheep, fan**ing around, missing from the gate, making phone call on the way out, not having their boardig cards ready etc etc
I T

[manintheback]

Back on Topic
2/ Please could you list upto 3 things Easyjet do RIGHT as an airline.
3/ Please could you list upto 3 things Easyjet do WRONG as an airline.

Good
Easy website for bookings
Friendly and helpful airport staff groundside and on the plane
Generally very reliable


Bad
Rubbish boarding
Same small bottle of champagne costs an outrageous 3 quid more the BA charge!
A bit prone to dropping destinations

[batninth]

Cosworth211 - Check your PM

Regards

[Horsham027]

Hi Cosworth

First of all, i want to dispell the rumours that some popel are putting on here that turn arounds are completed to quick to be secure, ALL turnarounds however wucik you think they are all quick but efficeint with full security checks, do you relise easy do not get catering etc or get full cleaners on, when u look at BA or other airlines they now do turn arounds in 30-45 mins, but they have cleaners to complete full cleaning, catering uplifts etc but no mention to them about securuty etc. I feel that EASy and FR although yes do quick turnarounds, you always find the plane clean tidy, always get stuff back you leave in pockets etc rather then u do with some airlines.

Easyjet have their drawbacks yes, the no seat does cause some irriattion for pax and crew, times of flights are excellent for bus travellers to GO to a city leave early in for early morning europe time, but they do not have any first flights into UK from say BCN, MAD etc, which is where they loose out to others such as BA who can get bus travellers from spain etc.

Although the TV programme actually looks bad to people watching it, bokings in the time after GO UP!!!

Cosworth i have studied similar and done a marketing kinda of thing a few yeas ago in Airline Airport managment so if want to Pm help your self or ask further question!!

[TightSlot]

Good Morning Horsham027

Thank you for your thoughts, posted at 02:05 - was it a late night or an early morning. I'm guessing a late night, after the odd sherbert?

:p :O :D

[accountant]

Sorry, but some of you have missed the point.

To improve punctuality stats, the loco's inflate the booked timings. Eg GLA - STN timetable 1h25min, actual time 1h 5min. If they leave on time, no delays enroute, they get extra 20 mins turnround. If they leave up to 20 mins late they still arrive "on time". When this happens turnround time is squeezed but the actuality is the next flight is late departing. Hopefully they catch up at some point. Or not - I've seen morning GLA-STN an hour late, evening STN-GLA 2hrs late, things got worse during the day!

[manintheback]

I think you will find that inflating flight times was a trick the locos learned from the majors. Look how much longer it takes BA to fly to Paris these days compared to 30 years ago!

[GwynM]

Another way to look at Easyjet is to think who the competition is. It's not always the other airlines, but also railways and coaches in the UK, (and Eurostar for short haul Europe).

If you want to travel from Bristol to Newcastle, or Nottingham to Edinbugh (or even Newcastle to Essex), then previously you had the trains or coaches. Think of the M5/M42/M1/M18/A1M and the jams / accidents / stress, and compare that to flying. Alternatively, if you live in Chelmsford / Cambridge, think of the train to London, crossing from Liverpool St. to Kings+ and then standing for 4 hours.

London to Paris, fly or Eurostar, which is cheaper and quicker? Which is more convenient?

(the marketing concept is strategic space, also look at Porter's 5 forces to analyse the competition)

When I visit my inlaws half way beteen Glasgow and Edinburgh, I can fly up first flight from Luton and be there for 10.30, and leave just after Sunday lunch, and still get back home to watch a bit of TV and enjoy a galss of wine. A one night visit is impossible any other way.

[Wannabe Flyboy]

Look how much longer it takes BA to fly to Paris these days compared to 30 years ago!

Look how much longer is takes to taxi and hold at LHR and CDG these days compared to 30 years ago!

[CaptainProp]

bealine - Your comments regarding low cost airlines and safety is TOTAL B****T!! How the hell can you make a statement like that??!! You have NO idea what you're talking about!!
If you REALLY wanna know what the real world looks like, just check the stat's and compare "traditional" airlines with low cost ones and YOU will be surprised.... For the rest of us, it’s just something we already knew...

Do you really think that the CAA would just sit back and watch "us" while we were an accident about to happen??
As stated before here, the only reason we can't turn around in LESS time (My GOD, did I say LESS??) is because you can't get 300 people in and out of a tube full of seats in much less time then that! And IF, for some reason, we are NOT ready to board to make on time dep. Well, then we wait until we ARE READY! Simple as that!! I would NEVER accept boarding if the CC told me "We are not ready yet" and I think this goes for ALL of my fellow colleagues!

You see bealine, the fact that we are low cost operators makes the public and authorities much more critical when writing about us, keeping audits etc. IF "we" have an incident it’s always looked upon as "a result of driving down costs, resulting in safety issues" BUT if the same thing happens to for example BA, Lufthansa, Air France etc. then it seems to be considered "a flaw in a safety orientated system, something that "we have to accept" something that "WILL happen when doing xxxx flights per day, year" blablabla...
"WE" cannot afford to be cheap when it comes to safety! PERIOD!! I’m not saying that low cost airlines are perfect...FAR FROM THAT! But I know, at least when it comes to the orange world, that safety is something that is considered very important and that costs are never to affect safety...

A few weeks ago I was travelling back to the UK after visiting friends and during the flight I started talking to the person sitting next to me. After a while we got into talking about work.... I was asked "So, what do you work with?", I told this person I was a pilot and blabla....just the usual chatting... This person was quite interested, excited and started to ask a few q´s and stuff... After a while I was asked "What airline do you work for?" I answered and got a "Ohh...ok... Do you have the same training as other pilots then?" :E

bealine - Was that you sitting next to me????? :E :}

[redfield]

Cosworth211:
Easyjet:
Some things they do right:
1) The website is easy to use
2) Friendly cabin crews and relaxed on-board atmosphere
3) On occasion, comedy announcements that make the passengers laugh!
4) Decent fares (and sometimes free seats!) if you book early enough.
5) The leg room is adequate even for me, and I'm over 6ft 5in tall!

Some things they do wrong:
1) Boarding procedures need some attention (mentioned elsewhere) especially if using buses on remote stands.
2) 20 minute turn-round times = more potential for delays.
3) Reference the TV program, practically every episode features irate passengers ranting on about how crap Easyjet are. I don't agree with Easy's apparent view that any publicity is good publicity!
4) From a purely financial viewpoint, Easy's policy is that they don't carry cargo. Why not? There's money in it!

Of all the locos I reckon Easy have the best overall business model. It seems to work - few flights have less than 90-100 passengers on board, so they're doing something right!

Hope this helps - I can't think of anything else at the minute!