Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline and a low-cost airline among them, is no stranger to bad publicity. It ranks among the worst short-haul airlines, offering limited benefits to customers unless they pay (including water bills).
The airline, which at one stage notoriously considered charging for toilet use, is currently at loggerheads over its decision to introduce a new fee for families to sit together.
But O’Leary argues that negative press isn’t all that bad.
“The funny thing we’ve learned over the years is that bad publicity actually sells far more seats than good publicity,” O’Leary said. wall street journal. He added that he encourages people to research the company and discover the lowest prices in the process.
Ryanair’s way of dealing with customer disapproval is simple: a cheeky response on social media. The CEO was famously punched in the face by climate change activists, which caused an uproar on social media, in which Ryanair’s I could have bought a plane ticket.”
Instead of buying a cream pie, I could have bought a plane ticket to Belgium for the same price 😏 pic.twitter.com/8jruYI3ZxE
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) September 7, 2023
The Irish low-cost airline also regularly responds to passenger concerns on its platform with harsh statements. When her customer complained about the lack of windows on her seat on the Ryanair plane heading for her honeymoon, Ryanair posted to I regret it,” he said.
She regrets marrying someone who can’t read the fine print https://t.co/GMjelExn0s
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) May 3, 2023
O’Leary himself is known for never mincing his words. Last summer, he criticized the British Air Traffic Authority’s report after thousands of flights were disrupted due to technical glitches, calling it “rubbish”. When aircraft maker Boeing postponed aircraft deliveries to 2022, O’Leary called the company’s top leadership a group of “headless chickens” who needed to “reboot, or start up the a**.” is.
Despite the harsh comments, Ryanair bosses say they love the airline’s customers who “play by the rules”. The company has allocated about $20 million to marketing, but O’Leary doesn’t know much about marketing, he admits. Ryanair has active TikTok, Instagram, and X accounts, all of which share lighthearted and funny posts.
“I have no idea what the hell they’re doing, but the kids say our TikTok account is really cool,” O’Leary said. “We let them say and do whatever they want. We don’t care who they offend, abuse, insult or make fun of. .”
profit above all
Ryanair has seen travel demand slowly but surely recover. It flew more passengers in September than the same month in 2022 or even before the pandemic, showing solid demand despite economic uncertainty.
The time is ripe for Ryanair to expand into new horizons, and Mr O’Leary said he expected it to grow from 20% to 30% of the European market over the next 10 years. journal.
But his focus isn’t just on making the Irish company a giant in the aviation market.
“I’m not really interested in whether we’re the biggest airline in the world, as long as we’re the most profitable,” he said.
O’Leary, who was CEO of the Dublin-based airline for 30 years, built it from an unknown to Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers. Profit remains a priority for Ryanair, but O’Leary’s dispute with travel platforms has hurt its full-year profit forecast.
In January, Ryanair cut its November profit forecast by 5% to 1.85 billion euros (2 billion euros) after travel agents stopped listing flights and was forced to cut fares to fill seats. USD) to EUR 1.95 billion (USD 2.13 billion).
Full-year financial results for the year ending March are scheduled to be announced in May.
Ryanair did not return immediately. luckThis is a comment request from .