The budget airline says that passenger numbers amounted to 10.4 million in August, another record for the company.
The August figures are 10% greater than they were in the same month last year and flights this August were reported to be 95% full.
The upturn in numbers is being pinned on Ryanair’s “Always Getting Better” charm offensive which has introduced new offers and improved services.
Launched in 2014, the campaign involved some €35 million in marketing costs and the axing of some of its punitive fees, such as €70 for failing to print a boarding card. The turn-around came after a board meeting when one member said the sight of people weeping at the check-in desk was unedifying. By that time, the airline had already accrued swathes of negative comments broadcast in the media.
“If I’d known being nicer to customers was going to work so well, I’d have done it ages ago,” said company boss Michael O’Leary when he announced the second phase of the campaign in March.
Ryanair is now predicting it will fly 103 million people this financial year, an increase over the 100 million it had anticipated earlier.
Changes still in the pipeline include another new website and mobile app, car hire service, new cabin interiors and crew uniforms, and inflight menus.
Access denied
O'Leary said today that Ryanair submitted a proposal to fly to the island of Terceira in the Açores which has been refused by the Government without explanation.
The Secretary of State for Transport said he did not know when the low cost airlines could start flying to Terceira, if at all.
New airport needed for Lisbon
O’Leary also said that that it now is urgent to have an additional airport in Montijo, Lisbon and accused Vinci, the French group which manages ANA, of limiting Ryanair’s capacity for growth.
“Lisbon can grow more. It is time to think about Montijo. We want to invest in Lisbon, but at the moment we are hampered by Portela airport."
Michael O'Leary said that Vinci, through ANA which operates Portugal’s airports, deliberately is limiting growth at Lisbon airport by imposing a limit of 40 movements per hour on the runway at peak hours whereas by comparison, Gatwick Airport caters for 54 movements per hour.
O’Leary claims that the airport management wants to prevent passenger numbers exceeding 22 million passengers so that it not forced to open up the overflow airport in Montijo.
Michael O'Leary argues that the second airport not only should be opened up as soon as possible, but should be managed by someone else so that there is some competition and hence some passenger growth and jobs for the area.
O'Leary claimed also that Vinci and ‘responsible entities’ in Lisbon do not want to offer a discounts system for new routes, nor do they want to work out cheaper off-peak hour deals as are arranged in many European airports.
Comments
In today's modern EU there needs to be sound reasons to deny a foreign airline landing rights - particularly if it is a successful budget airline. Successful because people value what it offers.
Any airline denied access to Heathrow has several others just 5 minutes away.