FR: Guess which PrePaid Mastercard is going to be VERY expensive to use?

... Correct. Once again, Ryanair strikes again.

According to an article posted at MSN Money UK

We all know of the new method of payment - use a Ryanair Prepaid card to pay avoid the purchasing fee. However what are the fees on this card?

Well it comes as no surprise that it's TravelEx who are issuing the card. Lets get down to the nitty gritty of the fees:

• Want to buy off the card in a Foreign Country? That's 5.75% per transaction. (A Visa Credit Card will normally levy 2.75%~3%)
• ATM Charge? That's £2 per withdrawal.
• Inactivity over 6 months? Another £2.50 per month.
• Want to Withdraw Cash from it? That's a £4 withdrawal charge
• Oh and to top it off... a 50p transaction fee from April 2012 per transaction excluding Ryanair.
• And to cancel the card.. that's £6 too.

Whilst the card is "free", one has to purchase it for £6 and get a £6 voucher for Ryanair as a refund to be used on Ryanair flights.

I believe this is what is called "business and profitability" in some places... and in others "Taking the mick". I'll leave you to work out which is which.

FR: Confuses "Popularity" with "Volume" and makes a PR of it.

Ryanair has released a press release saying loud and proud that "IATA CONFIRMS RYANAIR IS THE WORLD'S FAVOURITE AIRLINE"

Page - Ryanair.com

Oooooooooook.

They go on to mention the Volumes of passengers they carry.

Hold up on second there Friends of The Odious Little Man. What is the definition of the word "Favourite"?

According to dictionary.com....

Definition: dictionary.com

Unless Ryanair have a different dictionary, volume of customers carrier does not equal to favouritism. Rather it is an indication how many people are carried.

And I notice Satisfaction is not listed in this IATA survey. Funny that.

FR: Ryanair annouces profilts up, slams APD rises.

It's earnings reporting seasons, with Ryanair annoucing it's numbers today, with a 17 percent increase in first half net profit with 450millon euros in the bank.
 
Guidance has been issued that full year profits are yield  from 380 million to 400 million euros. Which not a bad number.

However, the Odious Little Man has been on BBC Breakfast today moaning about a subject that I'm covering in detail today - Air Passenger Duty, and how Ryanair will shift routes away from the UK because of the rise (as well as how they've reduced routes out of Germany too)

To start with, he's on a Security rant about how much overdoing of cargo security and how much agencies are over reacting (as well as the media).

He's then onto the "joy" of APD. And surprisingly, he's not impressed. With the effect being tourisim dropping hard, and growth in the UK - as visitors are heading elsewhere.

Of course, there is the argument of unbundling, and to those who don't want to pay OLCI fees - shift to a date when you can find a cheap fare that offers free OLCI. 

Inside the mind of the Odious Little Man

If for some bizzare reason you want to get inside the mind of Micheal O'Leary of Ryanair fame, there's an excellent article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-02/ryanair-s-o-leary-ponders-pay-toilets-standing-passengers-in-profit-quest.html

However, standing seats? Ever the publicity whore....

FR/U2: Ryanair in shock action - Makes an apology.

When you're going to put an advert out, always make sure your backside isn't going to be sued. Although Ryanair tends to "Shove 'em out, worry about it later" attitude doesn't overly help in this direction.

Yesterday Michael O'Leary had apologised "unreservedly" to Easyjet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

Ryanair decided it would be good for business to run adverts depicting Stelios as Pinocchio - and implying he was lying about Easyjet's punctuality.

O'Leary has apologised to Stelious as he is not personally responsible for Easyjet not publishing weekly details of their on-time performance.

The libel suit was settled out of court.

Or to put in a blunt way from Stelios himself:

"It is not very often that someone as arrogant and as powerful as O'Leary is forced to apologise to someone else in public and in writing”


"I took this legal action to protect my reputation. I am not a liar and that statement was libellous.

Ryanair ran of series of Pinocchio adverts regarding EasyJets's ontime performance stats, calling him "Easyjet's - Mr Late Again" in the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian during the beginning of the year. In the end, Ryanair has been forced to to run full page apologies, and not use this advert again

Of course, O'Leary was in court to apologise for once. To quote to ODM:

"We are happy to apologise to Stelios for including his photograph and referring to him personally in the advert about Easyjet's missing weekly punctuality stats,"

"Since he was not responsible for Easyjet's decision to stop publishing these on-time statistics, I think it is only fair and reasonable that we say sorry and pay him damages and his legal costs, rather than waste court time on this issue."

Sometimes, people have to remember that sorry is the hardest word - especially in the spats that they enjoy having in the airline industry between two of it's eagerest rivals.

Will it stop Ryanair's behaviour though? I very much doubt it...

Ryanair makes a profit... and then the ODM bitches.

Well, it makes a difference to talk about someone than BA who are on Day 3 of their third (or is it forth... I loose track)

Lets talk about everyone's "favourite" Low Cost Carrier - Ryanair, who has reported a nifty pre-tax profit of €341m, recovering from a loss last year, thanks in no small part to the reduced price of fuel.

The airline reported revenue was up 2%, and passengers numbers were up 14%. The numbers of course do not involve any volcano ash in them, which is about €50m.

Of course, Ryanair's ancillary revenue helps its cost base an awful lot, as they've put up baggage from £15 to £20 a bag. Which means use the hand luggage limits and don't go over them.

Of course, the Odious Little Man had a little outburst at the Volcano incident and how much they're liable under EC/261

To quote him:

"These regulations weren't designed for the catastrophic closure of European airspace for 18 days, they were designed for a fog event over one night at one airport," he said.

"These regulations have got to be changed."

Well the regulations are there I'm afraid, so it's time to suffer. And there to protect the consumers too. After all what's €50m between friends? It's not as if Ryanair are expanding their fleet as it is...

At least an airline is making a profit in these murkey times....

It seems Ryanair will tart with anyone....

One of the things that you're drilled into that you've got to keep within your 10kg hand luggage allowance before you start paying hand over fist for choosing Ryanair.

Well to help you, they've worked with Samsonite to create... a compliant bag.

To quote:

To encourage more passengers to switch to carry-on bags Ryanair and Samsonite have designed a quality, durable, lightweight carry-on bag which (when properly packed*) complies with Ryanair’s approved carry-on bag dimensions.

You'll note the term "properly packed" - as it's a softsided bag, it's overpackable. Overpack it, it won't fit in the sizers. If it doesn't fit, then it's time to open your wallet up again.

And the price for this privilege? £69 or €79. Which is about a Ryanair fare when you price everything together.

Obligatory picture:

Whilst it might suit some people, I'll happily stick to my little rucksacks... (Which are substantially less), or head to Primark...

Ryanair and ODM: We made a mistake.

Really? I mean Really? O'Leary and Ryanair admit to a mistake?

Apparently so!

In a climbdown over yesterdays position to limit the liablity to the cost of the ticket, Ryanair will now cover all "reasonable" expenses.

In the usual tirade, The Odious Little Man described EU261 (the rules for passenger care) as flawed

In quotes...

"The events of the last seven days, under which Europe's airlines were prevented from flying by the closure of European airspace, highlight how absurd and discriminatory the EU261 regulations are towards Europe's airlines," 

Diddums. That's why they're there!

"While competitor ferry, coach and train operators are obliged to reimburse passengers' reasonable expenses, this reimbursement is limited to the ticket price paid to those operators.
"Yet the airlines are required by regulation to meet potentially unlimited expenses, in circumstances where there has been a catastrophic closure of European airspace over the past seven days, as EU governments and regulators wrongly applied a blanket ban on flights over European airspace. 

Well you could always set up RyanFerries if you want those rules.

"We will continue to work through the European Low Fares Airlines Association and other industry bodies to persuade the European Commission and the European Parliament to alter this regulation to put this reasonable limit on these reimbursement claims." 

Temper temper mon Capitan! The rules whilst may not be ideal are there to protect the consumer in situations that call for it.

This is an "exceptional" situation, and it's most likely there will be EU Compensation paid out. Like any expense - keep it reasonable and don't take the peanut - and you'll get compensated.

However this will put EC261 under pressure in the future...

BBC News

So who has been helping BA out? Step forward... umm.. Ryanair???

Sometimes airlines do see eye-to-eye.

To bring in capacity over the weekend since the first BA strike, British Airways turned to Ryanair of all companies to provide capacity.

And for once they were happy to help out!

Over the strike period, 24 flights a day (72 in total) were operated by Ryanair from London Gatwick.

The Odious Little Man, normally quick to snipe at anyone actually is in favour of BA Management's action.

To quote him:

"It doesn't happen often, but this time I entirely support Willie. It is insane for cabin crew to strike during a time of recession. The strike is stupid and insensitive and the staff should get back to work."

BA again will be chartering up to five aircraft for the next strike.

Is O'Leary softening, or is this just good business sense breaking out? Who knows....

The News Roundup

Sorry I haven't had a chance to do this this past two weeks - life at Kevin Towers has been close to a living hell. Those who know the words "Exchange Server Migration" will know where I'm coming from.  As last weeks news is more or less irrelevant like any news (ask the The Daily Mail after this weeks furoiri over the death of Steven Gately commentary piece by one of their so-called columnists), this is from last Saturday to today.


Lufthansa IFE - adds a C with the return of LONG HAUL KU BAND INTERNET SERVICES

This is a BIG thing as companies develop ways of getting out their holes. LH is once again going to have a go at delivering In-Flight Internet Services.  Originally delivered as Boeing Connexition, LH has signed a Deal with Panasonic eXConnect - for rollout in late 2010 on LH only - BMI, Austrian or Swiss need not apply - yet.

Delivered over the KU band this is satellite to aircraft mobile connectivity.  Along with Row 44 (who are equiping Southwest's 737 ENTIRE fleet) and Aircell, the battle of Internet Connectivity is starting to warm up...

Flight, Runway Girl, Cranky Flyer


Boeing 748-8F - Growing Pains. 
It seems Boeing is just not having ANY Luck with airframes with the first flight of the first 747-8F being pushed back from first flight on Dec 9th and delivery next year to Q3 2010. Delays have been placed firmly at the door of the minor engineering errors that have been missed thanks to the resource pulling to get the 787 out of the hanger.

Expect more delays here - I'm seeing nothing from Boeing to indicate this frame will be out of the barn on schedule.

Flight

Cathay Pacific - 2% traffic drop in September

Its still bad if you're a premium carrier as CX is proving. With a few "local" events, there is a small traffic upswing, but it is extremely tough going out there

Flight

Avianca-TACA tie up to go toe-to-toe with COPA.

It seems COPA Airlines will have a challenge shortly with the tie up of Avianca and Groupo TACA pooling their resources and joining forces. COPA says their network will be strong enough to resist.

I'm not sure - with COPA's exit from Skyteam on the 25th October, they'll be partnerless for a fair bit before entry to the Star Alliance is considered...

Avanica-TACA  don't want a flight it seems, as they wish to grow resources instead of going toe-to-toe with LAN or COPA.  We'll see on that front.

Flight

Blended winglets save cash - Air New Zealand.

Apart from getting neekid and doing the bodypaint thing, Air New Zealand appear to run airline services too, with good cash and fuel savings on the 767 fleet which have blended winglets.

Improved deployment has meant 19% fuel savings - or 7 Dillon liters of fuel a year. That's a lot of go-go juice - before you get the green crowd happy.

That and those blended winglets do look very cute on a plane. More on Winglets in a GhettoIFE.com article when I get round to finishing it.

Flight


Air India switches entirely to Boeing 777's from it's motley collection of aircraft. Also gets bailed out at the same time

All westbound flights from India have been switched to 777's - as well as Toyko. As well as that, Air India has been bailed out by it's home government to the tune of  US$1.1 Billion which is to be delivered in wages.

Alas, there are wage cut concerns  as well with this change with a previous strike the week before.  Expect further fireworks shortly...

Flight, BBC News

US Airways gets shot of its E-190's to... Oh guess who.

The fleapit of the Star Alliance has thrown in the towel with it's E-190 operations - and has flogged them to.. Republic (who incidednly helped US Purchase them in the first place). Initally the first four will go to Midwest Airlines.

Of course, this means more cuts and job losses at US...

Flight

Odious Little Man is at it again
See http://www.ghettoife.com/2009/10/once-again-bbc-and-odius-little-man.html

GhettoIFE.com, BBC News, TravelMole

Unions tell BA - Hold off on cuts

Unite has stomped its foot up and down telling BA to try and stave off the cuts that are needed. Further talks are upcoming on the 21/10.  However, if they don't go well, strike action is on the horizon..

BBC News

Mesa consider more CRJ-200's to GO! to the Hawaiian Islands.

After driving Aloha out of the market, Mesa is considering deploying a 6th CRJ-200 over to the islands, with Shuttle America E-170's moving out, and CRJ-200's moving in to meet size and requirments.

What a downgrade. More on the flying coffin that is the CRJ-200 in a few weeks.

717's head south of the border to Mexicana.

Mexicana is accelerating the collection of it's 717 fleet with the displacing of the Midwest 717s, with 10 currently in service, and the full collection in-sitiu before the end of 2010with delays down to pilot training if anything.

The 717 as readers know is basicly a warmed over MD-90 with new avionics - which although is a very good beast isn't compatible with the previous MD series or Boeings own 737 series.


It's good to see these birds still flying.


Air France considers PE Cabin on A380s and decides to copy other carriers. 


With the rapid introduction of Premium Voyageur shortly on 777's, they would like to deploy them on their new A380's... if they can actually consider the retrofit to the aircraft.

In better news, A380 traffic between Paris CDG - New York JFK is due to kick off on 23rd November.

That's your lot for this week. Next weeks news update will be delayed as I'm back in Chicago. Hopefully there should be *something* up...

Once again - BBC and Odius Little Man Lock horns

It's turning into straight BBC vs O'Liar fight now, thanks to the growing spat.

For those in the UK - watch http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_8285000/8285260.stm.

Of course, there's arguments of editorial bias, and downright arguments - FT Alphaville posted a wonderful transcript of the letter which Ryanair posted themselves (PDF)...

One page this document stands out...





It depends how you view it - do you view him as the great saviour of the industry ... or the sucm of the earth.  At every juncture where the interview was shown it was "Ryanair the best, Buy our share offering..." etc.

The safety concerns of the pilot are valid... 45 minutesto plan your flights for the day is not enough time... so you plop another 1:15 on top. And a lack of water onboard.


Not 100% dangerous, but I prefer the people aboard to be at least 1) Hydrated and 2) Briefed and planned with time allowed.

My views are clear - and the business model works for Ryanair - My main concern with Ryanair is how many more cuts can their be before there is a snapback? How can they keep their product without pushing consumers to the edge? How much more is the consumer going to take.

The industry and the consumer will decide. But decide for yourself please... after all - what else do you want to loose?

(Blog note - News Roundup for last week will appear shortly... I've been out of time...)

Auntie goes after the Odious Little Man... and makes a nice music video...

If there's one thing you can trust the BBC to do - and it's "Watchdog" programme - it's to go after companies.

Especially if Anne Robinson (of The Weakest Link) is at the helm.  This week it's the turn of the aviation industry's scum - Ryanair.

It's of course, an attack on Ryanair's so called cheap fares policy, and the idea of removing check-in desks and replacing them with fastdrop desks.

Of course, to grab more headlines, he wants to
- Charge extra for obese people
- Get rid of those pesky toilets or add a slot onto them

Now of course... how people can call Ryanair a Low Cost Carrier when you add in the fees up together is beyond me....

Perhaps the most telling lines are the final two sentences in the spoken in the interview:
Anne Robinson: Has he changed the minds of any of the anti-O'Leary's over there? Certainly not they say.
Michael O'Leary: I think my warm wit charm and engaging personality will win them all over.


Oh, and of course there was a nice little musical number too.



Those of you who have BBC iPlayer Access (UK Only) can see the episode and the Odious Little Man's Responses at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00n1842/Watchdog_01_10_2009/. Those who don't and need to look at the script see http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/10/ryanair_makes_airline_history.html.

As I've said time and before, Ryanair in its drive to turn everything into a cost centre is slicing away at a fare until the element is free and you're paying for everything. The trouble is that whatever pleasure that there was in air travel, thanks to Ryanair, a lot of these are going down the pan. Adding charge after charge isn't a good idea and show Ryanairs complete lack of respect for the consumer.  If that's the case, go back to just selling off the younger aircraft and become an aircraft lessor. You'd probably make more money that way....

Ryanair partially pulls out of MAN...

However, it isn't the end of the world.

Job losses: If there is one thing O'Leary loves, its hyping numbers - in this case the job lossses shouldn't be that many (and if anything - it's mostly ground handling crews so they should get redeployed by the handling company)

Services: Well well well. Lets look at these hotspots and work out whats happening Barcelona (Girona), Bremen, Brussels (Charleroi), Cagliari, Dusseldorf (Weeze), Frankfurt (Hahn), Marseille, Milan (Bergamo) and Shannon - all withdrawn. Wow. Top the line airports there - and lots of them I should add RyanAirports too..

Ryanairs Tactics: I'm sorry to say this, but they HAVEN'T paid off this time. Ryanair loves to bully airports into lowering cost base down, and thus played LBA, MAN and LPL against each other. Whilst Ryanair is one hell of a force, someone has stood up and said NO to O'Leary. Lets hope other airports can say no to him - and stop the pay as you go and get conned style of transport that is existing.

It's interesting to not that certain services (such as DUB) haven't been affected. Funny that. Cash cows are fine - yet services that are slightly under-performing are having the chop... and lets face it... heading over to Jimmy Savlie International or John Lennon International.

And so what if a few aircraft go into stores.. Ryanair can flog them on as part of the main profit drivers of the company...

Not a lot to see here alas

Another Day, Another O'Liar Rant. Someone change the channel please?

So its making it's way around the nets about Ryanair reducing its flights in and out of Stansted (STN) by 40%, and actual flights by 30% - or in real numbers - 4 less B737-800's.

4. Big whoop.

Of course. O'Liar doesn't want to highlight this. Instead, he chooses to bitch about BAA (form a queue - there's a lot of us who wish to moan about the Shopping mall with Airbridges operator) beacuase it costs Ryanair a lot of money to operate out of STN (and what about the other operators? They operate on scotch mist do they?) and Gordon Brown/Alistair Darling due to the rise in APD that has been covered on this blog (Different queue - no priority boarding O'Liar).

Now it is common knoweldge that the UK Avaiton industry (and most of the world aviation) is currently going down the pan - Ryanair's answer by cutting cutting and more cutting isn't the solution.

Marketing is about segments. And yes, there is a segment who will fly for nothing or close enough (as demonstrated by me earlier today). However, there are segements that want service, lounges, treatment like a human being, respect and SERVICE.

Sorry Michael O'Leary. I don't buy a single word you're saying here - only the opportunity for more free press for your airline.

Now if you really wanted to save money, how about getting shot of some of those spare 737-800s?

Soapbox: O'Leary Makes Comment about selling standing space...

... news networks go mad.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Ryanair-Low-Cost-Airline-May-Allow-Passenger-To-Stand-Up-For-Cheaper-Fare/Article/200907115330054?lpos=Business_Carousel_Region_4&lid=ARTICLE_15330054_Ryanair%3A_Low_Cost_Airline_May_Allow_Passenger_To_Stand_Up_For_Cheaper_Fare


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1197799/Ryanair-make-passengers-stand-bid-cram-board.html

Sigh.

As much as he has brought the price down in some instances of travel (although I have done journeys in the past that Ryanair are actually more expensive than it's competitors when putting the product together), having people stand0up during flying is just begging for a disaster.

Apart from "where the hell are they going to store their luggage", there are little things like evacuation protocols, restraint harnesses, etc that would be needed.

All from a man that seems to tart himself out to the media at any given opportunity (and I've probably given him and his airline some free publicity - however this is the soapbox...).

Now it's common knowledge that RyanAir works on an intresting business model:
1) It makes near enough nothing out of flights (the actual fare component)
2) Most of its additional revenue comes on of tacking on "additional features"
3) ... and oh yes... bulk buying and selling aircraft. Knock a 737-800 frame around for a few years, and flog it onto the next victim.

However, it seems that Michael O'Leary cannot keep his gob shut for 5 minutes, bashing other airlines, and trumpeting his own headline fares... when if you dig a little deeper, you'll find that going over the baggage limits by a few gramms can have a VERY costly effect on your wallet.

Kevin's Soapbox Comment: Can someone shut up this odious little man please?