Ryanair CEO Offers up a Future Free of Fares
Jackie Reddy November 24, 2016
CEO Michael O’Leary believes that, in the near distant future, his airline will be making money from revenue sharing, allowing it to offer free fares.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has revealed his forward vision for the carrier and that future, it turns out, is completely free of fares.
Addressing the Airport Operators Association Conference in London this week, he said that his goal was to keep air fares low and, ultimately, to give flights away for free. He was quoted by The Guardian as saying that, “I have this vision that in the next five to 10 years that the air fares on Ryanair will be free, in which case the flights will be full.”
Fleshing out his vision, O’Leary added that, “We will be making our money out of sharing the airport revenues; of all the people who will be running through airports, and getting a share of the shopping and the retail revenues at airports.”
The low-cost carrier, which operates from 200 airports in 33 different countries, forecasts that it will carry 119 million passengers this year and its capacity is due to exceed 200 million by 2024.
O’Leary believes that most of this new growth will happen as Ryanair attracts, “…price sensitive passengers off incumbents like Air Berlin in Germany, LOT in Poland and Alitalia in Italy”.
While the kind of growth that O’Leary is seeking may not occur at larger European hubs, he has attested that other airports are already actively looking to grow by lowering their fees and charges.
For O’Leary, the levying of Air Passenger Duty is a case in point.
He was quoted by the paper as reasoning that, “If [Air Passenger Duty] is gone: at many airports I’m paying more than £20 ($24.8) already with APD and fees, if I start getting that back, why not? I’m doing seat sales this week at £4 ($4.9) and I’m paying the £13 APD ($16.1) – I’m paying you to fly with me.”
[Photo: Ryanair/Handout]
