UK Edition
How Ryanair became the rebel of the skies
The airline has just had its busiest month ever – but is going rogue its recipe for success?
Ryanair is an airline that courts the outrageous. Low-cost fares, seemingly counterintuitive business decisions and a controversial CEO: since its inception in 1984, the Irish airline has become a contentious titan of the skies.
Its unconventional methods alternately grate and delight, but it evidently works: it carried a record-breaking 18.7 million passengers across Europe in July, its busiest month ever.
We round up the ten most shocking ways Ryanair became the rebel of the skies.
1. Charging for everything
Ryanair changed the definition of low-cost flying. Its flight tickets are shockingly cheap – even if the “era of £10 flights are over” – with profits made from the add-ons. In 2006, they were one of the first airlines to do away with free airport check in, telling those worried by the change that “this isn’t the end of civilization as we know it”.
The ability to book a seat for free also disappeared, and anything larger than a small piece of hand luggage suddenly incurred an additional cost. Now, there are 32 different prices per flight, depending on which extras passengers choose.
Earlier this year, the airline allegedly attempted to charge a couple $100 (£79) for bringing two small pastries onto the plane – thus exceeding their baggage allowance. The pair apparently abandoned their snacks to avoid paying the fine.
2. Not providing pockets
The airline will not be beaten when it comes to frugality. Unlike in most Boeing 737s, passengers will not find a seatback pocket, apparently to reduce the time it takes to clean the cabin – helping achieve a quick turnaround which, according to Ryanair, contributes to the low fare (as does the fact that every flight speeds up disembarkation by using both front and rear doors).
The lack of additional furniture also likely makes the aircraft lighter, thus reducing the amount of fuel needed per flight. It also dissuades passengers from bringing anything beyond what will fit in their bags.
3. Teasing customers online
Ryanair’s reputation for straight-talking honesty flew in the face of corporate wisdom when the airline became prominent.
So much so, in fact, that in 2014 the airline claimed to have rebranded with a “friendlier” approach to public communications.
Despite this recommitment to the customer, its social media accounts have a reputation for (good naturedly) trolling its passengers, teasing them for expecting windows in window seats, for clapping when the plane lands, or for complaining about legroom.
Evidently, it doesn’t dissuade us from flying with them.
4. Ignoring natural disasters
As recent years have demonstrated, air traffic control strikes have the power to ground flights, regardless of their tenacity. Natural disasters, too, normally cease operations: the recent wildfires in Europe, for example, saw Jet2 and TUI essentially running rescue missions for stranded tourists.
Not so with Ryanair. The airline insisted it was business as usual, ferrying holidaymakers to and from Rhodes with barely a change in the schedule.
There’s a precedent for this, too: during the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull’s eruption in 2010, the airline was taken to court over its refusal to help passengers stuck in the country – it claimed the eruption went beyond the requirements usually defined as “extraordinary circumstances:.
The following year, a Ryanair flight even flew through an ash cloud caused by a similar event, undeterred by warnings (and many other airlines grounding flights).
5. Considering post-war tourism
Michael O’Leary has a similar attitude to the war in Ukraine. The closure of Russian airspace has not dissuaded the CEO from courting Ukraine as a potential market, arriving in Kyiv last month to pledge $3bn (£2.3bn) of investment in the country after the war. “The fastest way to rebuild and restore the Ukrainian economy will be with low-fare air travel,” he said.
6. Not worrying about the destination
Heading to a major European capital? You’re probably not going to land in the city’s primary airport if you’re flying with Ryanair. Flying to Milan, for example?
Not quite – you’ll and at Milan Bergamo, some 30 miles north-east of the city. It’s the same in Paris, with planes landing at Paris-Beauvais airport, 65 miles north.
And it’s about that distance again between Ryanair’s choice of Stockholm Skavsta and the Swedish capital. As long as it’s cheaper, we seem not to care.
7. Buying jets after 9/11 (and hiring more staff after Covid)
Ryanair’s rebellious streak sometimes manifests as canny business sense. After 9/11, the airline industry faced an uncertain future. Most were making extremely cautious financial decisions; Ryanair was ordering 155 new aircraft from Boeing at a heavily reduced price.
Two decades later, airlines were slow to rehire staff after Covid – but Ryanair quickly increased its recruiting, publicly declaring itself ready for a full summer schedule.
8. Offering its planes to celebrities as private jets
Despite its low-cost credentials, Ryanair also operates a private jet business – quite the contrast to their usual no-frills offering.
Ryanair has provided corporate jet services since 2016, with football teams, rugby teams and celebrities chartering its planes as event transport. This was extended substantially during the pandemic, with a spokesperson at the time saying they had seen “considerable demand from our loyal clients”.
9. Quitting the UK Aviation Council
Perhaps it was inevitable that the renegade airline would leave the UK Aviation Council. The group was created by Grant Shapps to “ensure that the UK retains one of the strongest and most successful aviation sectors in the world”, with members from all the major UK airlines and airports, including – until recently – Ryanair.
In May, Michael O’Leary lambasted the group for making “zero action and zero progress”, and promptly quit it. The airline said it would be willing to rejoin only if the group commits itself to “measurable improvements for UK aviation”.
10. Being very, very outspoken
All of this, really, comes down to having such an outspoken CEO. O’Leary has decried people who can’t find low fares on the Ryanair website as “morons”.
The key to a motivated staff? For O’Leary, it’s “fear”. And as for the airline’s image? It’s “a bit cheap and cheerful and overly nasty,” he has said, “and that reflects my personality”.
He’s decidedly not a buttoned-up exec – and that’s why he’s probably the only airline CEO known to the wider public by name.