Ryanair alienates more people by proposing a toilet charge

It can sometimes be hard to understand the public face of Ryanair and its abrasive boss, Michael O’Leary. The firm seems to delight in its obnoxious image, something that has long puzzled me. There’s been plenty of Ryanair news recently, but the most recent proposal, the idea that passengers will be charged to visit the lavatory prompted me to jot down a few ideas.

Firstly: why the total disregard for what most people would consider a public relations blunder?

A recent survey by online travel service TripAdvisor polled 4,000 of its users on a range of subjects from airlines and airports, to worries and holiday hotspots. Ryanair was identified as ‘least liked airline’ though it was not the only low-cost carrier singled out for criticism, with Easyjet voted the second worst. But does this mean they offer a poor quality service?

From a business perspective, quality is about meeting the needs and expectations of customers effectively. In practical terms, this might mean the 80p bag of chips you get one night is of the highest quality – they taste great, they were cheap and it was a short queue at the chippy. Many customers think Primark is great, even if a garment doesn’t last long. That probably wasn’t the point of your last trip to Primark. Could the same principle be at work for Ryanair?

Ryanair don’t seem disappointed with the negative press coverage, but probably draw satisfaction in other areas, not least their booming business. They do pretty well on many customer-service indicators such as league tables of delayed or cancelled flights and lost luggage: the real irritants for most passengers.

In 2008 a spokeswoman said that Ryanair expected to carry 42 million people this year, “so we must be doing something right … Ryanair carries more UK passengers than any other airline because it has both lowest fares and the best punctuality and its passengers ignore irrelevant and baseless surveys. The public votes with its feet.”

The toilet charge idea (the Dublin-based carrier is said to be looking at maybe installing a “coin slot on the toilet door”) seems pretty loopy. See if you can come up with a business justification for it! (see BBC coverage).

It’s perhaps easier to see (from a cost perspective) the reasons for Ryanair’s proposed closure of its check-in desks. The Independent’s travel editor Simon Calder has some advice for Ryanair passengers and there’s a BBC article about abolishing check in desks.