Originally Posted by
ripago
I agree, a lot of pax fly RyanAir for the cheap prices, not for O'Leary. But, in order to see that the prices are so low, you need to hear about them before, right? So, you either hear of them from paid publicity, or from the free publicity (including word of mouth).
Of course, the free publicity may be favorable or not. Unfortunatelly, the bad publicity is quite as effective as the good one, but it spreads much faster and more..
Valid points. More valid when they were in the start up phase and they needed to get their name and concept known. Now everyone knows about RA and at some point (when other airlines get close to them in price) positive branding will be important to them.
O'leary has also turned off a lot of people from trying RA who would be willing to fly with a LCC. I don't think it's the "outrageous" ideas that turn people off so much, rather his gratuitous nastiness.