The Ryan Air model has become a lauded case study for business schools around the world.  It´s low-cost structure, offering a bare-bone basic product which the customer can tailor with paid-for add-ons gives the consumer better choice in their desired service needs and cost level.

Ryan Air´s founder Michael Leary praises this new system by saying ”only by continuously challenging accepted conventions and questioning costs can we continue to lower costs and fares”.

The question is how far should they go?  At what point does offering the lowest-cost most basic product not become the priority but instead maintaining some of those accepted conventions which consumers have come to cherish?

Call a spade a spade

The price advertised for a low fare airline nowadays seldom equates to the price you will pay.  There are additional fees, many even obligatory, which must be calculated into the price to make them a true and far comparison against what you will spend.

Treat us like customers not money machines

Ryan Air specifically employees people (or so it seems) at the gate to check the size of carry-on bags.  Ryan Air´s bag size allowance is smaller than the majority (or accepted convention) for carry-on luggage although the planes appear the same size.  This allows more opportunity to prey on customers miscalculations, charging on-spot fines of 35€ for anyone with a slightly larger bag then there arbitrary size.   As a coach I coach businesses to focus on extra revenue sources but I have to ask is this more of a swindle or brilliant extra revenue sourcing?

4 hours before the flight or you pay

Traditionally (or perhaps conventionally) you may print out your boarding pass and check you have “passport, tickets, money” just before you leave for the airport.  If you try that with Ryan Air you may be fined 40€.  Why, because you are unable to print your boarding pass within 4 hours of flying and it costs 40€ for them to print it for you. Why four hours?  Fortunately a Spanish judge has ruled this illegal in Spain and that Ryan Air must print the boarding passes for free.  But is this another example of the airline going too far in its pursuit for profits at the expense of an honest passenger?

How far do you go to make a buck?

Ok, so we are a captive audience, I get it. But does this mean that airlines have the right to continuously sell to us?

A Ryan Air flight I was on recently had a crew member walk up and down the cabin twice holding packs and advertising “cigarettes, cigarettes for sale”.  Now I know I will be quickly reminded by some that they are smoke-less cigarettes; I agree however, they still include nicotine, still cannot be sold to minors so why are they being openly advertised.  Cigarette sponsorship has been banned in many sports because they are not allowed to advertise cigarettes due to the health risks of becoming addicted to nicotine. So why is an airline allowed to aggressively sell cigarettes on a captive audience including minors?  It just seems strange to me and goes against all the hard-fought legislation for getting nicotine and cigarettes out of the minds of children. Even with the “smokeless cigarettes help stop smoking” argument it still begs the question, “how far should an airline go just to make a buck?”.

Ryan Air is a great case-study for how we do business in the future but it could become another one for a different reason: how to lose customers.

My worry is that low-cost structure companies are taking the liberty to offer any addition (product feature) as a paid-for addition and sometimes ignoring the true needs of the consumer.

Therefore the balance may have swung. Well done for combating high-fares and creating a low-cost option opening up air travel to many who couldn´t previously afford it. However, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves and become too smug with the low-cost structure.  The needs and desires of the consumer must remain as the driving force behind business innovation.  Those needs are forever changing and businesses must remain dynamic and continuously adapt their offerings to fit them.  As a business you must keep a pulse on the customer through research and feedback.

Through more research, perhaps, Ryan Air may find that the customer need of being respected, valued, not swindled or felt like being a money machine is high up on our list of desires.  I personally look forward to that day and will try and avoid Ryan Air in the meantime.

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