Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Ryanair: Paying to Pee

Well, Michael O'Leary has done it. O'Leary's airline, Ryanair, will indeed be charging customers to use the bathroom - an idea it first floated last year. At the same time, the firm will be removing several of the bathrooms on board its planes to make room for a few additional seats. Everyone knows that the airline business has high fixed costs and very low marginal costs. With each new effort to reduce costs and find new sources of on-board revenue, Ryanair continues the move toward a day when the marginal cost of a passenger on board one of its planes might be zero. For those not familiar with O'Leary, take a look at this video:

2 comments:

Jagadeesh Venugopal said...

I'm waiting for the day when "standing room only" becomes a ticket option.

I think Ryanair's strategy here will, if anything, win it brickbats. Apart from the question of basic human courtesy, the other issue becomes the obvious negative externality if a passenger cannot or will not find the cash to open the door.

Anonymous said...

just a PR stunt, check the Irish times of march 2009, he said that it was just to seek free advertising!