What United can learn from Ryanair
Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:33 pm
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... d-airlines
In 2013, Ryanair was considered to have “the worst customer service out of Britain’s 100 biggest brands” in a survey of the readers of Which? magazine. In the same year, two profit warnings showed Ryanair failing to keep up with its rivals, including easyJet, whose friendlier image had attracted flyers. O’Leary’s company recorded a £28.7m loss in the final three months of 2013.
In 2014, though, this rightwing bruiser with the runaway mouth had a Damascene conversion. O’Leary decided that Nice wasn’t just a Ryanair destination, but must be his airline’s new corporate philosophy. “If I’d only learned in college that being nice was good for business, I’d have done it years ago,” he told Bloomberg TV. ...
The results? A spectacular 66% leap in profits to €867m (£623m) in the first full year since O’Leary mutated into Mr Nice. True, those figures were buoyed by factors such as bad north-European weather and – this was 2015 – a strong pound. And yes, its nasty reputation over workers’ rights didn’t change (Copenhagen’s mayor, for instance, accused it of “social dumping” because of low wages).
But the success story continues. ...