Skift Take
Just before this pilot issue broke, Skift went to Europe to speak with Ryanair's chief marketing officer about how he improved the airline's customer service. Recent events will almost certainly set Ryanair back, but we think it can recover — if only because people like cheap fares.
On a Friday night earlier this month, Ryanair issued a vague statement telling passengers it would cancel 40 to 50 flights per day for six weeks because it didn't have enough pilots. It didn't immediately say which flights would be affected, nor provide advice on what travelers should do.
It was behavior passengers have come to expect from Ryanair, Europe's leading discounter. Over more than three decades, Ryanair earned a reputation for two things: low fares and disdain for customers. Some wondered if Ryanair management cared about passengers at all.
They had reason to wonder. For years, Ryanair's CEO, Michael O'Leary, often made outlandish comments. "Are we going to say sorry for our lack of customer service?" he once asked. "Absolutely not." In interviews, he would ask whether Ryanair should charge for bathrooms, or if the airline might ask passengers to stand, rather than sit.
That was supposed to be the old Ryanair. During the past three years, Ryanair customers didn't hear that stuff much from O'Leary, who instead focused his ire on governments he believed were thwarting Ryanair's growth strategy. Meanwhile, Ryanair sought to position itself into an airline people want to fly, albeit one with bare-bones service. Passengers would no longer be treated as the enemy.
This was not about altruism. By 2013, Ryanair had alienated some potentially lucrative passenger segments, including families and business travelers, with many willing to spend a few more euros for a more pleasant experience on another airline. Even EasyJet, another no-frills airline, had a better reputation.
In earlier years, Ryanair didn't mind passengers flying competitors, but by 2013 the carrier planned to expand to some of Europe's biggest airports. If it wasn't nicer, O'Leary and the airline's board feared, big-city passengers might avoid it.
By most accounts, the strategy has worked. But now, the airline's reputation has again taken a hit, even though the airline claims pilot-related cancelations affect fewer than 2 percent of customers and will reduce revenues by about only 25 million euros, or $30 million.
"It just confirms everyone's worst fears," Neil Wilson, analyst at ETX Capital, said in an interview. "You have that niggle in the back of your mind — t
