Monday, November 16, 2009

Ryanair must be good

According to Euro Weekly, Alicante is bucking the trend for airports in Spain which saw a drop of 2.8% of passenger numbers last month. Even though the overall figures for the year are 5.4% down on last year, the monthly trend at El Altet is rising. A staggering 883,763 people used the airport in October making it the fifth busiest in Spain ahead of the Canary Islands in terms of passenger numbers.

The success of the airport is said to be due to the presence of Ryanair who fly to 50 different destinations  from Alicante. We have never flown with Ryanair so can’t comment but from the observations of others, they are the worst carrier out rivalled only by EasyJet in terms of customer service. I can only say they must be dong something right to be so successful.

2 comments:

Pete said...

Ryanair's success is both obvious and a mystery. I think their success is based on three things.

Firstly they use a lot of regional airports. This is often a negative when you go to a foreign city that's a thousand miles away from where it says it is, but on the UK side the smaller airports often make for a better experience.

Secondly, they go where the people who aren't on business travel want to fly. Whilst other airlines are shutting routes down, Ryanair are opening them.

Thirdly, they offer the illusion of being very, very cheap. This means that people who previously wouldn't fly will start to think about it with Ryanair.

Their customer service is fine as long as you go in with your eyes open and play the game to their rules. For me, flying Ryanair involves making compromises that I'm not thrilled about, and part of me is glad that they don't operate a Helsinki route. On the four Ryanair flights I've done though, the cabin service was good, the planes new or nearly new and the piloting very capable. Check in sucks though.

Petrus said...

I've flown a couple of times with Ryanair and have found the experience OK.

The seating is better than other similar carriers with plush seats and plenty of legroom ..