How to Make Ryanair Flights Cheaper

28th Jul 2009

How to Make Ryanair Flights Cheaper Danny Elbow Ryanair's new low cost pilots Ryanair issue headline grabbing press releases every so often suggesting yet another scheme to reduce costs, pack in more passengers or charge customers for services they took for granted all along. This usually results in blanket media coverage for a few days - often making the public broadcasters' radio and TV headlines ensuring massive publicity for the Ryanair brand. The latest drama involved the suggestion that Ryanair would somehow usurp current safety standards and install bar stools instead of 'coach' seating in an attempt to pack in more passengers. Before that the airline suggested it would be charging passengers for a tinkle in the toilet. Before that they claimed they were going after the obese. The list goes on. A brief furore, columnists' outrage and mountains of publicity later there's little or no move on many of these stories. The reality of course is that the value of thousands of free column inches in newspapers and reports on TV and radio far out weigh the revenue that might be generated from the paltry few who would be hit with the fat tax and so on. The routine is familiar and surprisingly the Irish mainstream media are only too happy to pedal the stories while Ryanair reinforce their cleverly engineered reputation as doing everything in their power to make our fares cheaper. Which to be fair they did. But now their reputation for spurious extras is beginning to outweigh their tag as purveyors of cheap prices. Let's see if we can guess what the roguish airline have planned to announce next'