Word: ryanair
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Airlines keep coming up with creative ways to tick people off. Spirit Airlines announced this month that it will start charging passengers as much as $45 to bring a carry-on bag. RyanAir is getting ready to install coin-operated toilets. But there may be at least one upside to the current extra-fee-ganza: better airline food. (See pictures of what the world eats...
...Haji-Ioannou didn't take the bait. But easyJet did publish an ad mocking Dublin-based Ryanair by comparing the airports it serves with those easyJet flies to. Focusing on four metropolitan areas - Paris, Barcelona, Milan and Venice - it boasted that it flies to the cities themselves, while Ryanair flies to obscure towns that are hours outside the cities. "Who loves flying you to the place you actually booked?" a banner message at the top of the ad asks. Ryanair quickly asked the Advertising Standards Authority to ban the ads on the grounds they are misleading and denigrating. The advertising...
...Analysts say the tit for tat illustrates the different styles of the companies. "[O'Leary] is a strong believer in getting any sort of publicity for Ryanair," says John Strickland, a London-based aviation consultant. "EasyJet's position has changed. When it was born it was relatively cheeky as well. ... Now it's taking more of a sober approach. Stelios is not going to take O'Leary up on his sumo wrestling offer." Still, Strickland says, both companies are well aware that a healthy rivalry can be good for business: "It certainly raises the profiles of both companies." (Read...
...Despite the threat of a lawsuit, Ryanair sees the back and forth as all in good fun. "People expect airlines to poke fun at each other. We make comments about Stelios and he makes comments about us. That's just the way the world works," says Stephen McNamara, spokesman for the airline. Did things go too far this time? McNamara doesn't think so: "Pinocchio is a much-loved character. ... It's probably increased Stelios' profile quite a bit." EasyJet, however, doesn't believe the ad was harmless. "I don't think that's the way it's been interpreted...
...fees. The numbers suggest that travelers have been happy enough to continue flying with them - their annual passenger load has increased dramatically from a combined 13 million customers in 2000 to more than 100 million today. But passenger complaints have spiked in recent years, too. Since 2005, Ryanair's complaints have increased by 70% and easyJet's are up by a third, according to a report released earlier this month by the London-based Air Transport Users' Council (AUC). Ryanair, in particular, has been derided for its penny-pinching ways - O'Leary even suggested last year that he may start...