That was very much my own understanding.

Given the nature of the author’s previous high-level experience within the industry, my first inclination was to assume that he would have an expert grasp of the issues covered, and that there would be little cause to question his reasoning. And yet I ultimately found his analysis / conclusions rather unconvincing.

His casual dismissal of the revenue from the various onboard sales (comprising F&B, scratch cards, ‘duty-free’) seems to make little sense when one considers that Ryanair are the masters of maximising profitability by any means possible.

He says that “to be chasing about £700 of incidental revenue per flight looks really weird”. But does it ….. ?? I feel sure it doesn’t seem weird at Ryanair HQ. The airline can fly as many as 3,000 sectors each day, based on recent stats from European ATC agency Eurocontrol. £700 ‘incidental revenue’ from each of those flights is a healthy sum …… one which becomes a huge number when calculated over a full year’s operation.