Panorama last night - The Ryanair Effect

Ok, just wondering who watched it and what they thought of it.

I am going to guess that certain people refused to because of their prejudice against Ryanair, or others will say O'Leary is this and that just because they have in their own minds an idea that his business is evil.

For what its worth, I struggled to find quite what point Panorama were trying to make with this programme. It started off with the usual dissing Ryanair for people missing flights when the online check in started, extra costs when booking flights, highish priced on board refreshments, and complaints from the odd member of staff about being targeted for sales and pilots having to plan flights in their own time.

It then went on to complete the picture by covering the facts that Ryanair is now officially the worlds largest airline in terms of passenger numbers, that it has one of the best safety and punctuality records in the business, fewer lost bags than any of its rivals, and that they still offer the cheapest fares in Europe.

The BBC reporter then went and got himself into a right mess when trying to interview Mr O'leary, who wanted an unedited and uncut interview to be shown or he would not be prepared to give one, as he did not want BBC clipping it to suit their own personal agenda. I believe he has a point, which he made nicely when he said Ryanair fly more people than watch the BBC, and that meant they were more popular than the BBC and that the BBC wanted to run their agenda of hidden costs all the time because maybe the BBC are not quite so popular with the public. Again, I think he has a point.

He also rightly pointed out the facts, which some people always seem to overlook; which are that no one is forced to fly with Ryanair, no one can book a seat without knowing what their overall cost is, all extra charges are explained on the website and are not secretly added in (like them or not), and that the T&Cs which EVERYONE has to agree to before proceeding clearly state that you need to check in online and bring the printout or face a stiff charge at the airport. Whilst we may not agree with being charged £5 for printing out our own boarding pass on our own printer in our own ink, we all do it and no one forces us to.

Likewise with baggage, we know what the restrictions are, yet the people who complain are the ones who abuse the restrictions and try to pull a fast one by not adhering to the rules.

Like him or hate him for whatever reason, you have to admire O'Leary. He is an astute business man, who drives a hard bargain, and provides a simple and efficient service to millions of people who want/need it. It is not a quality product, that you know when you book, hence the low costs. I personally don't like the fact they charge heavily for ski carriage, but I dont use them for ski holidays, so its not a problem for me. Anyway, O'Leary is a clever bloke, and I respect him for that. He bought a brand new fleet of 200 Boeing 737'a just after 9/11 when other airlines were pulling out of orders so he got a fantastic deal, although the details were not made public. He also annoyed Airbus by not placing the order with them and playing them off against Boeing, but thats what buyers do with suppliers, they find the best deal and use one against the other to get the best deal. He then stripped everything out of the planes, not to make the less comfortable but to make them lighter so that they were more economical. He is not stupid. Airbus wont do business with him until he offers more money per aircraft, but he is not going to pay what they want, and therefore they will not sell a single unit to him, whereas if they lowered their price they would do a multi billion euro deal with the worlds biggest airline, and get one over on their major rivals. They too are running a business, but they dont have the same philosophy. Thats up to them.

Anyway, in summary, I take my hat off to Mr O'Leary. I agree with him that no one is forced to fly with Ryanair, but millions do, and keep coming back time and time again. Its not a quality product, but its reliable and cheap, fact. There are no hidden costs, just extra costs which people dont like having to cough up for.
I actually thought the way he dealt with the BBC reporter was spot on and the poor old reporter didnt know how to take him at all. Lots of "erm, ummm, hmmm" going on!

Oh, and if you go to bbc.co.uk/panorama they claim to show the whole live interview uncut. Guess what - there is a break 3/4 of the way through, which they refer to as "changing the tape".

I know who I trust more.

I watched it a clever business man maybe ......... but I'm still not flying with them 8)

Nice summary Tony, I refused to watch it on the basis of being a fan of O'Leary and his no-nonsense approach. As Ryanair rightly state no one is pressured into flying with them, people are aware of all charges before they book and they are provided with the T and C's under which they book. Think am right in saying the only thing that O'Leary says keeps him awake at night is the safety aspect, and obviously that's a main priority as the business would suffer massively if they were to have a catastrophic accident. Ryanair have actually published their correspondence with the Beeb over the offer of unedited interviews etc http://www.ryanair.com/site/news/releases/2009/docs/Panorama%20Correspond.pdf and it's worth a read if anyone has time - seems to show how upfront Ryanair appear to be whilst they accuse the Beeb of planning a hatchet job ...

Tony,
Great summary. Glad you typed it, must've taken ages!

I did watch it, I found it interesting and it's true no one is forced to fly with them.

You've summed up how we felt about the programme.

Some of the costs do appear a bit sneaky, but when it comes to paying there's nothing actually hidden.

I'd fly with them, but I'd know what I was getting. Cheap, no frills. (Any hopefully my luggage at the right place/right time)

I have in fact been with them skiing, for a short break. We had no issues whatsoever.
Wouldn't fly any of the budget airlines for a weeks skiing. I'd drive or package tour.

I think some of you guys must earn too much money, I do not think any of the budget airlines are cheap any more, the price has been creeping up over the last couple of years, and I never quite understand the " No frills " thing most of planes are new and comfortable and you no longer get a microwaved meal they are no different to any package carrier.
On what I saw last night as I have never seen " him " before, did I like him, was he carismatic, was he some one to look up to,would I trust him, I'm afaid the answer is no on all counts :evil:

I think most of you have failed to see exactly what O'Learys real genius is.

Stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap......to start with
Raise you're prices to a level just below the competition
Make the pricing ambiguous to cause contraversy
Have you're most costly expense paid for by your detractors

Marketing is King in the service sector, Ryanair don't pay a penny.

Sorry Tony, your no doubt well written entry was too daunting for me. However, I have just watched the programme on iplayer and thought it was a very badly presented one-sided non story. Which is pretty typical of the BBC I hasten to add.

I had no real opinion of Ryanair prior to the programme - in my opinion they are what they are and people have the benefit of personal choice.

Having watched the programme, the reporter Vivian White came across as some kind of Crusader without a Cross, desperately trying to shock with facts already in the public domain. Bit of a tw*t actually.

Ryanair I felt were portrayed as a shrewdly run business in a highly competitive market place, and if that was Panorama's aim, then they succeeded.

O'Leary must love the free marketing provided by the BBC.

Ian Wickham wrote:I think some of you guys must earn too much money, I do not think any of the budget airlines are cheap any more, the price has been creeping up over the last couple of years, and I never quite understand the " No frills " thing most of planes are new and comfortable and you no longer get a microwaved meal they are no different to any package carrier.
On what I saw last night as I have never seen " him " before, did I like him, was he carismatic, was he some one to look up to,would I trust him, I'm afaid the answer is no on all counts :evil:

Because I DON'T earn too much money I'd look at Ryanair to see if the flights were affordable.

If they were the cheapest I'd go with them. Simple.