Saturday 21 February
Ryanair to abolish check-in desks [BBC]
Sunday 22 February
Ryanair passengers to pay £28.50 to take duty-free on the plane [Mirror.co.uk]
Monday 23 February
Ryanair cutting airport check-in, adding in-flight phone use [LA Times]
Tuesday 24 February
Ryanair doesn't want anything to do with 'lunatic' bloggers! [Travolution]
Thomas Cook charged 'fictitious' fuel surcharge on Ryanair ticket [Telegraph]
Wednesday 25 February
Ryanair: "Lunatic bloggers can keep the blogosphere" [Guardian]
Thursday 26 February
Ryanair insults a blogger [The Economist]
Friday 27 February
Ryanair mulls charge for toilets [BBC]
Now, admittedly, the blogger "lunatic" story was fuelled by us getting the Statement of the Year (TM) from Ryanair on Tuesday afternoon over RyanBlogGate, triggering literally heaps of coverage around the globe.
But look carefully at the above and you can see why the airline is probably quite happy for ANY sort of coverage to come out, simply because of the sheer number of high profile media outlets covering it.......... for seven days in a row.
And, let's admit it, begrudgingly, that today's Pay-To-Pee story is an absolute classic.
You can almost see O'Leary smirking in the BBC video interview - with, no doubt, comms guru Stephen McNamara probably standing to the side somewhere rubbing his hands in glee, thinking: "...and what a great week that was."
You know, as a travel PR I have to admit my admiration... I think you've got to hate Ryanair so much you love them. It 's a thin line, after all.
Not since the British all-business class airline Silverjet installed “women only loos,” was there anything to really discuss about taking a “powder” on board. Then today, Ryanair’s boss suggested that the potential for “spending a pound [sterling]” to go take care of your business might be a better way to go.”
The man is a PR Hound, and frankly between the annoucements about closng check-in desks, and the now famous exchange brought to us by this very site (Travolution!) between Ryanair IT Support and a customer showing just how low they can go- this man is just crying wolf!
See why we think O’Leary’s verbal incontinence should come to an end at:
http://www.twclimited.com//blog/
Couldn't agree more. I saw him do that interview as it was broadcast live and he was definitely smirking. Hate flying on his planes, would hate to work for him, but I do admire his attitude...
PR - great
Ancilliary revenue - usually great, but they have scored a total own goal by signing up to Adsense, and taking ads for just about all of their rivals!
As someone living in Asia and planning a holiday in Europe with intra-Europe flights, I will not touch Ryanair with a 10-foot pole. From what I read, the airline sucks and is not worth the hassle. What is the point of great "PR" if you turn off potential customers?
I too couldn't agree more - Ryanair and O'Leary in particular are PR geniuses - remember the "blowjobs in business class" press conference?! http://www.thebloggersguide.com/ryanair/in-defence-ryanair
Sorry to disagree with almost all of you. This is not great PR. OK, they got their name in the main media outlets, but what type of coverage.
For people who already know Ryanair pretty well, will their image of the company have improved after this coverage? don't think so.
And the few people that didn't know the company well, do you think they will consider starting to use the airline after hearing this? No way!
So yes, they got media attention, but the tone of the coverage was sooo bad, this doesn't do them any good.