Read Online Michael O'Leary by Alan Ruddock - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Alan Ruddock
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Ryanairâs low fares with cheap, if difficult to obtain, headline fares of its own; it increased capacity on key routes; and it used aggressive marketing. The depth of Tony Ryanâs pockets had kept Ryanair afloat, but Aer Lingus was determined to increase the pressure to breaking point.
OâNeill fought Aer Lingus with panache, positioning Ryanair as the cheeky, friendly alternative to the national monopoly and poking fun at it with effective advertising campaigns. Ryanairâs youth and exuberance were in stark contrast to the stodgy, corporate middle-aged world of Aer Lingus; there was a swagger about the company, a confidence that comes naturally to the young and to those who have not had their ideals quashed by the dead hand of bureaucratic management.
If carrying passengers was the ultimate measure of success, then OâNeill was doing well. New route launches in 1987 had opened up the CorkâLuton market (although for the first few months the service had to land, taxi and take off again in Dublin en route because the British government still had the power to object to the new service), as well as routes from Dublin to Cardiff and Dublin to Knock, a new airport in the west of Ireland. The Knock service had been won in direct competition with Aer Lingusâs new commuter service â a propeller-plane division which the airline established to compete with Ryanair â and the state airline responded by opening routes to the nearby airports of Sligo and Galway, a move that ratcheted up competition between the two airlines to a new, and more painful, level.
By the middle of 1987 OâNeillâs Ryanair had carried its 250,000th passenger and with the addition of the new routes managed to carry 318,000 passengers in the whole of 1987. Its fleet of aircraft had been boosted during the year by the addition of three BAC One-Eleven jet aircraft from Tarom, the Romanian carrier, which were delivered in the early summer. That April Cathal Ryan had told newspapers Ryanair was heading for a âsubstantial profitâ and was expecting to have a hundred flightsa week between Ireland and the UK by the summer of 1986, a fourfold increase on the summer of 1986. âThe public response has been incredible in Ireland,â he said.
OâNeillâs marketing skills won him recognition from the media â Ryanair won the
Sunday Tribune
âs advertisement of the year award in 1987 for a campaign against Aer Lingus â and the admiration of his staff. The customers, too, were happy â the service was often as chaotic as the airlineâs finances, but in a country gripped by recession Ryanairâs low prices won the airline many fans. Reservations, handled by phone and often scribbled on pieces of paper, were routinely lost, but the early Ryanair put a premium on customer relations.
âWe were so customer-focused in the very early days that if you were a flight steward or stewardess and you clocked in for your flight maybe an hour beforehand and the flight was delayed, youâd be sent up to the boarding gate, and youâd float around the boarding gate talking to passengers, apologizing profusely and buying them a cup of tea or coffee. So people loved it,â says Clifton. âIt was very touchy-feely. And, erm, pretty hopeless. People really liked that, but it was unsustainable.â
European expansion, however, remained elusive because of the governmentâs refusal to grant new route licences. Ryanairâs ambitions to get a foothold in the continental market were continually thwarted by the governmentâs willingness to protect Aer Lingus from further competition.
Frustrated by his failure to win licences to Paris and Amsterdam Tony Ryan had dabbled with European expansion by paying £630,000 for an 85 per cent stake in struggling Luton-based London European Airways in late 1986. Ryanâs original intention was to run LEA and Ryanair separately, with
OâNeill fought Aer Lingus with panache, positioning Ryanair as the cheeky, friendly alternative to the national monopoly and poking fun at it with effective advertising campaigns. Ryanairâs youth and exuberance were in stark contrast to the stodgy, corporate middle-aged world of Aer Lingus; there was a swagger about the company, a confidence that comes naturally to the young and to those who have not had their ideals quashed by the dead hand of bureaucratic management.
If carrying passengers was the ultimate measure of success, then OâNeill was doing well. New route launches in 1987 had opened up the CorkâLuton market (although for the first few months the service had to land, taxi and take off again in Dublin en route because the British government still had the power to object to the new service), as well as routes from Dublin to Cardiff and Dublin to Knock, a new airport in the west of Ireland. The Knock service had been won in direct competition with Aer Lingusâs new commuter service â a propeller-plane division which the airline established to compete with Ryanair â and the state airline responded by opening routes to the nearby airports of Sligo and Galway, a move that ratcheted up competition between the two airlines to a new, and more painful, level.
By the middle of 1987 OâNeillâs Ryanair had carried its 250,000th passenger and with the addition of the new routes managed to carry 318,000 passengers in the whole of 1987. Its fleet of aircraft had been boosted during the year by the addition of three BAC One-Eleven jet aircraft from Tarom, the Romanian carrier, which were delivered in the early summer. That April Cathal Ryan had told newspapers Ryanair was heading for a âsubstantial profitâ and was expecting to have a hundred flightsa week between Ireland and the UK by the summer of 1986, a fourfold increase on the summer of 1986. âThe public response has been incredible in Ireland,â he said.
OâNeillâs marketing skills won him recognition from the media â Ryanair won the
Sunday Tribune
âs advertisement of the year award in 1987 for a campaign against Aer Lingus â and the admiration of his staff. The customers, too, were happy â the service was often as chaotic as the airlineâs finances, but in a country gripped by recession Ryanairâs low prices won the airline many fans. Reservations, handled by phone and often scribbled on pieces of paper, were routinely lost, but the early Ryanair put a premium on customer relations.
âWe were so customer-focused in the very early days that if you were a flight steward or stewardess and you clocked in for your flight maybe an hour beforehand and the flight was delayed, youâd be sent up to the boarding gate, and youâd float around the boarding gate talking to passengers, apologizing profusely and buying them a cup of tea or coffee. So people loved it,â says Clifton. âIt was very touchy-feely. And, erm, pretty hopeless. People really liked that, but it was unsustainable.â
European expansion, however, remained elusive because of the governmentâs refusal to grant new route licences. Ryanairâs ambitions to get a foothold in the continental market were continually thwarted by the governmentâs willingness to protect Aer Lingus from further competition.
Frustrated by his failure to win licences to Paris and Amsterdam Tony Ryan had dabbled with European expansion by paying £630,000 for an 85 per cent stake in struggling Luton-based London European Airways in late 1986. Ryanâs original intention was to run LEA and Ryanair separately, with
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