Airlines in a Crisis

According to frequent reports Ryanair has not managed to fit to CoVid19 their automatic seating algoritm that splits people on the same booking in the hope they will pay extra to sit together. This is a low even for Ryanair. They have in the last years upped their IT department with a factor of 10 and added dozens of programmers to have control over their systems. And still 6 months into a pandemic where every airline knows that only they on the same booking should sit together and everyone else should distance Ryanair management have not yet copped on. In addition at the same time they are seating non related and uknown people together it is reported they are laving some rows completely empty. Theis means they are not even trying to do anything to reduce contamination. It is time for some punishment and maybe the italians for once will be first already threatening a ban on Ryanair if they do not get their act together.

Don't exactly know what degrees Boeing top management have but it don't seem to be psychology, or pr for that sake. They think the most important thing is to get the 737 ExMax past the FAA scrutiny. And for that they are playing the stubborness card. As little change as they can get away with for as cheap as is possible. And that means software only. Reprogramming is cheap but it doesn't really give the press anything to take a picture off. And a picture is worth a thousand words. It is not the FAA that is going to pay to be passengers on the plane. That is the general public and they go by what the press says. And since the press have been touting for many months now that the plane is unsafe and aerodynamically flawed, the potentially flying public is expecting something to be done about it. And noen of them have any real belief in safe software thanks to Microsoft's work during the past 2 decades. They know it is always flawed and full of bugs and need to be rectif

Ryanair has done it again. Gone and dwcided that their hunt for profit is more important than peoples health and the world economy and taken the Irish government to court on a technicality in their handling of the CoVid19 pandemic emergency. It just show what type of selfcentered individuals runs Ryanair, and BA. They can really be compared with the landlords of old that sent their tenants away on coffin ships so they could exploit the land left behind for profit. Doesn't help that they try to pack it in with concerns about clarity or the freedom of the individual or as humanitarian and sympathetic. These are the same people that will only take pandemic precautions if it doesn't cost their own company anything. Others should provide the masks. Airports should do and pay for the temperature checks. Social distancing is to difficult a.s.o. And pushing the line that no advice is better than  unclear advice is just b****cks. Still waiting for what O'Leary's, and Wilson

This time it is an originally military airport Ryanair launched as a Low Fares hub for germans. For Hahn read Frankfurt as Ryanair has advertised it as since they forst started flying to Germany and it was their main foothold in the country. Ryanair is so focused on their crew and airport negotiations that they abandon bases and airports rather frequently. Including markets they have built up over years. Ths may be part of their move up the service ladders and into more established airport that is seen as the city's main place to fly to/from. Regardless of if its closer or further from the city. Advantage for newcomers is that these airports will now be in shock and receptable for any offer probably even low balls like they Ryanair first came with when they moved in all those years ago. After all most of them are pivately owned and open to negotiations. You don't either have to spend your own advertising money on explaining how they really are an airport of whatever ciety,

Looks like Wizz is fighting Ryanair over the use of the name Buzz for its Ryanair Sun operations claiming Buzz is to similar to Wizz. I doubt this similarity is conincidental but it is really Wzz that is on the backfoot. 2003 was a busy year in the Low Fares business. In the beginning months of that year Ryanair purchased a 4 year old airline called Buzz from its previous owner KLM. In the autumn of that same year Wizz was incorporated. So an ailine with the name Buzz existed long before Wizz started. Doubt that Wizz's name choice was that coincidental and there is proably merit in that they think the names are alike. They probably came up with Wizz exactly because it sounded like the already established airline Buzz. That Ryanair after continuing flying under the name Buzz before they concentrated on the name Ryanair and later rested the name for a few years is not that relevant. They always sat on the rights for the opportune moment. It is simply a case of what goes around

Last years plan of decorating the edges of the accounts with removing a few new non profitable routes seems like the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig. Much more needs doing and I doubt the current management are the ones to do it, except for some financial tinkering. They certainly do not  seem to have the airline experience needed, or from the right airlines, to know what makes a Low Fares carrier a Low Cost. Neither do the new ones added to the management team recently, who have absolutely no airline experience whatsoever. Are they trying to make Norwegian into a shopping mall or think the website rather than actually flying passengers and stuff is what will make the company profitable. There are certainly many steps the airline can do to make it more like the model of the industry Southwest. Where the principle of Low Fares Low Cost was first modelled and who have been profitable in nearly all of the years since, with very little industrial strife to boot. Take the best

In these CoVid19 times it is even more important to simplify the interior of your planes to create as few touch and other virus transfer points as possible. Norwegian still practices having a cloth piece where you lean your head on rather than just the leather seat. Leather is much easier to clean with disinfectant than cloth that ideally should be removed and washed after each flight, but ain't. They might look nice with the airline name on them but one would think that by the time the passengers find their seats they already know they are flying with Norwegian. The emergency procedures are still on a loose sheet, even if laminated. Sticking these permanently to the seatback in front removes the need of touching it. In all seat pockets is a contamination trap in these pandemic times. Away with them.  And while we are on the theme of seats. Leaning seatbacks. Away with them. They are an extra unnecessary cost and mostly a bone of contention that add very little to the comfort

Norwegian have tried to have a service level more like easyJet than Wizz, and that has not really worked out for them. Maybe they can never reach the really ULCC levels being based in a high cost country like Norway. But the loyalty from their core customer base is more based on regional belonging than a steadily eroding included service level through adapting the Ryanair way of everything is an additional extra. They should more try for bettering Ryanair by mimicking the early days of Ryanair when they where an ULCC Ultra Low Cost Carrier. There are definitely an alternative way forward for Norwegian with less frills freeing up many costs and more important removing distractions for the staff and management. Anything other than a single menu offering should sample be avoided. All cabin staff should serve the whole cabin that should be of a single type configuration even on long haul. Let other airlines take the premium segment and simplify the product offered. That would also give e

Never mind what Ryanair states in their annual presentations about the cost and price differences of the market. These umbers are usually adjusted for a purpose and often do not reflect all of neither revenue streams nor costs. A quick calculation of the 2019 numbers gives: (All numbers in Euros and per passenger) Company  -  Costs  -  Average Ticket Price Ryanair:  -  51.5  -  59.4 Wizz:  -  60.5  -  69.0 easyJet:  -  70.0  -  74.0 Norwegian:  118.5  -  116.0 So even though Ryanair's comparisons have the right order they do understate what is their average price for a ticket. And the difference between that and Wizz's cost are not that much. If the last grew to what Stelios says is the ideal size of 200 planes they could very possibly fight very competitively with Ryanair on a cost basis, as long as they stick with the concept. Ryanair is upping there's with constantly adding additional paid for service that increases the true cost of flying with them Norwegi

What some fresh airline ceo's with no relevant airline background don't seem to get is that airplane seats are fresh produce. When the plane have taken off the unsold seats are no longer sellable so spoilt. Actually even 2 hours before it takes off. That is why hibernation is a bad solution for an airline. You can hibernate the planes, at a cost, but not the potential seat kilometers those planes could have produced. Every day you have a potential for selling so and so many seats based on your resources available and they largely need to be sold before the day begins. It's like preselling strawberries you haven't picked yet. Every day you know there will be so and so many to sell and by the end of the day they are spoilt and thrown out. Even though fruit and veg are easier because some can be sold on sale tomorrow and in worst case sold as animal feed thereafter. Seats not sold and routes not flown, and where the plane haven't been utilized elsewhere, have no valu

We find now a number of airline chiefs actively working against different governments regarding their CoVod19 prevention activities. Some even go so far as stating or encouraging that some rules like quarantines won't be followed. Today O'Leary of Ryanair is reported to have said that people can go ahead and book because the from today UK government policy of mandatory 14 day quarantine on return from abroad will be abandoned. Well we all knows what happens to money paid to Ryanair for travels one after all won't be able to perform. They are very difficult to get back within any sort of reasonable timeframe. Should these chiefs be free to sprout whatever they want with their considerable media power. There is a thin line between expressing ones personal opinion and suggesting that others to break the law. This is not really about free speech but about already wealthy people for personal financial gain encouraging others to behave illegally. Time for some fines or time b

The Ryanair principle is all passengers are the same. However none of their basic principles seems so strong they can't be broken. Take the free seating. Fallen by the wayside. Single queueing always with families and they who needed help boarding first. Also gone. Anything to make an extra buck looks like their new way. Could this lead to a 2 or more class division of the cabin. After all full service airlines saw it as a cheap way of charging twice as much, or more, for the tickets. But when does it then stop to be a Low Cost and just becomes another full service with slightly lower fares. Norwegian is running a 2 class principle with more spacious seating in its premium cabin. But then it is more a Low Fare than a fully Low Cost competitor. Yes is tempting for those quite a few extra quid some are willing to pay for a little more be it space, food or service. But how much does it cost to have 2 sets of cabin standards, 2 types of meals and, 2 types of queues. And how distract

Most startups place their HQ at or near their main airport to keep a close eye on operations. It can also give combined advantages. Sample the DUB based flight crews used to meet up at the Ryanair hq and transport in a van directly to the planes, needing no extra office space within the terminal. Ryanair management used to walk or drive up to the airport complex frequently and many of their top management where known to be very hands on. Sample during the baggage handler strike of 98 they where all handling suitcases. In fact every male employee in the White House (nick name for then Ryanair HQ) was. And most of hq staff had airport airside passes hither and tither. Even after the move to larger premises the DUB airport main terminal is less than a 5 minute drive away. Airlines like Norwegian on the other hand seem to have missed that the Oslo airport have moved from Fornebu to Gardermoen at the opposit end of the city. Not only that but they are paying rent at what is rumoured to g

The Ryanair costbase have in the later years been steadily creeping upwards as they have added frills and abandoned smaller airports for more mainstream ones only sometimes closer to city centers. Yes they have charged extra for the extras but it have let an airline like Wizz creep up under its radar and end up with a lower costs per passenger, according to Ryanair's own presentations. Is a perceived segment of potential customers, the business traveller, worth going after so much you'd give up the single most important competitive advantage you have had within the industry for years. The one that let you gain market share and dominance by your most important marketing tool, lower prices than everybody else. Wizz abandoned Frankfurt when the initial discounted deal on airport fees ran out. Ryanair have moved their flights from nearby Hahn and have stayed put even when costs went up. Maybe the need for deeply discounted prices to entice people back into the air will require

An airline with less than 100 planes in their fleet are at constant risk of being taken over. A tempting proposal for shareholders knowing the risks associated with airline stocks and therefor suceptible to larger airlines wanting to quell sudden upstarts. More than 200 planes and you are becoming a real threat and can no longer hide your size. Unions beome focused and all of a sudden you are coming to the top of size statistics and a sharpened view from the established. Around 200 you are to large for a swept under the carpet buy out and can continue to play the I'm still catching up game without another airline going after every route you try. You are also still a manageable size where a small top managmenet team can have full control on all aspects and a CEO can get into the details and reach out to everyone where necessary. Ryanair have certainly not succeded profit wise with their expnsion. Their profit at 400 was hardly 20% more than when they had 200 planes. And in the m

Some years back both the Chief Pilot and the Director of Engineering disappeared from the MOL's Z table. Last year the Chief Operations Officer, representing both the aforementioned and the rest of operations left and was not replaced. This spring it was the Chief Marketing Officer after for Ryanair to be a relatively few years both at the company and at the top table. One would think Wilson after so many years in Ryanair would know it's resources and could quickly find some new Chiefs. Or is the airline a bit struck by MOL's role and struggling to find its footing as a multi airline group. Should O'Leary have his Chiefs table with all the Airline CEO's plus some legal and joint services like IT. Then Eddie could create his own Z table with managment controlling all the branches of the core Ryanair airline. They must be struggling now when 75% of the staff do not have direct leadership representation at the Monday morning meeting.

Some airlines are singing the poor man tune to their staff at the same time as they are announcing postivity about the future to the stock markets. Can their eagerness to plead the crisis to get support and cheap loans from governments combine with the need to keep their share prices high to please owners and secure the share price their own bonuses and share options depends on. The Ryanair unions are certainly copping on to that not every thing is like it seems and telling the airlines management they can't have it both ways. Themselves agreeing only to a 1 year cut in their own salaries while saying to their staff that they must take a 5 year cut. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-conornavirus-ryanair/unions-say-ryanair-exaggerating-covid-threat-to-undermine-conditions-idUKKBN22W1YZ This reminds me of how healthy a bonus the SAS CEO got out of negotiating down his staff terms and conditions while that airline was in a crisis a few years back. Even in a crisis the have

Let's take som quick math to Ryanair's O'Leary's claims that middle seat free is unsustainable. According to the Ryanair results presentation their average fare is 37 euro. Add 50% and it becomes 55.5 Still below Easyjet's current of 59 according to the same presentation. Will an extra 18 euro 50 cents really stop people from flying if it means they could be safer from viruses. It seems more of a pshycological problem for top brass rather than for any real economic reason, that airlines think they should be excempt from the physical distancing that every other business have to put up with. Some will always persist on squezing the last of capacity out of both materiel and staff, even at the cost of suffering, for others. The only thing a temporry 50% rise in ticket prices put an end to is O'Leary's plans about releasing a rush of Low Fares to get further market share from competitors, as long as they don't do just the same with borrowed money. I am su

Is Easyjet well served by getting on the wrong side of a 30% shareholder in difficult times. Is the continued concentration on growth for the benefit of the shareholders that take all the risk, or for increasing managements incentive packages. There are enough samples of corporate greed where top management walks away with millions even though the results tanks and staff ends up getting laid off. Easyjet management says an outside independent have looked at its dealings with Airbus and found nothing untoward. An independent company is only as independent as the one that pays their bill want them to be. Self-hiring an "independent" is a well known way of getting in ahead of an investigation instigated by somebody else.I am not saying anything will be hung on the current management of Easyjet, but smaybe something will stick on Airbus that could be used for negating the contract without penalties. Even more likely since they have already settled something similar. Easyjet ma

No matter if they have their planes on pay by the hour, should Norwegian circulate both planes and pilots to keep them in certification and at peek performance. Neither Norway nor Europe is a desert where you can just park you planes and think they are in the same condition after a few months. And pilots need a certain amount of take offs and landings to keep their certificates current. Rotate at least regularly all instructors on both types of aircraft. It isn't a coincidence that Ryanair is starting up again before 4 months has passed, and that they have been doing regular touch and go's at their bases.