Non-essential travel is banned!
Bailing out airlines and other businesses
- Thread starter Brendan Burgess
- Start date
Non-essential travel is banned!
In Ryanair's early days they were competing against Aer Lingus who were receiving huge subsidies from the taxpayer at the time. There is a good argument that they were using them to try and put Ryanair out of business. The government made a couple of minor interventions to try to balance this.
It's a bit of a long shot to blame Aer Lingus's later financial problems on this, other than the fact that the breaking of Aer Lingus's monopoly meant that they had to reduce their grossly overpriced fares.
Brendan Burgess
Founder
- Messages
- 52,116
That was a terrible thing to do.
Look at the damage that Ryanair has done to the Irish and European economy since then!
It has made low fairs commonplace so that people can take €19 flights to other European capitals. And we have been flooded with tourists in Ireland thanks to their low fairs.
The government should have made sure that Aer Lingus crushed them. Aer Lingus would now have much higher fares and those of us who want to go on holidays could take the boat train as we used to do in the 70s.
We should go back to the way we were where flying was limited to business people and the very wealthy.
Brendan
Ryanair shareholder
Baby boomer
Registered User
- Messages
- 735
You misrepresent my argument!
So we had a state monopoly up to 1990 or thereabouts. The answer is to open up the market to competition on a level playing field basis - no preferential treatment for anybody. The answer is not to create ANOTHER state-enforced monopoly to compete with the first one. If the state confers a monopoly on a private company it should extract a licence fee or an equity stake. Ryanair wouldn't be the multi-million organization it is today without that initial state intervention to distort the market in its favour.
It's not like Ryanair did us a favour from the goodness of their hearts! If they hadn't come along another low-cost operator would have done so. easyJet, probably! We'd have had the same low prices, but far nicer customer service and a more pleasant flying experience.
Brendan Burgess
Founder
- Messages
- 52,116
Ah, I was wondering what your problem was.
The real problem is that you just don't like Ryanair. You don't like airlines which fly on time. You don't like cheap flights. You prefer to pay higher prices and get a cup of tea.
The reality is that Ryanair, motivated by profit, shook up the state monopoly of Aer Lingus and these days, I can fly for a day to London or many other European cities and not worry too much about the price.
Brendan
Ryanair shareholder
Baby boomer
Registered User
- Messages
- 735
Trust me Brendan, I like cheap prices! I really do. But I don't think that requires shoddy service and a sneering attitude to customers. What I really like is value for money. (I don't particularly like airline food, free or paid for, that's not an issue. Anyway, Aer Lingus don't do free tea these days!) I am prepared to pay a small premium for Aer Lingus over Ryanair. Just for the feeling of being treated like a wanted customer. And sometimes, Aer Lingus are actually cheaper. Kinda like shopping in Superquinn for the nice stuff back in the day. But I'd still go to Tesco or Lidl for the bulk shopping. Just like I'll fly Ryanair if the cost or flight times make it a value proposition. But it's never going to be my favourite airline and I'll avoid it if there's any decent option to do so. Does that make sense?
Have you ever had to try resolve a complaint with AL? They go further than most airlines to make you feel like you don't even exist!
I used to travel a lot, about 100 flights a year. The worst experience, by far, was Aer Lingus Regional. €380 for a return flight to Aberdeen on a noisy turbo-prop and no proper cabin service. After that Ryanair and Aer Lingus were much the same; older Ryanair planes were the worst and the newest Ryanair planes were the best. Customer service from both was rubbish. No frequent flier points with Ryanair and none with Aer Lingus Regional. Nothing makes you feel like a second class customer more than spending more than €12,000 a year with an airline, taking about 60 flights, and not even getting access to their lounge.
So no, Aer Lingus are not better than Ryanair. Aer Lingus are Ryanair in Green with older planes, slower turnaround times and notions about themselves.
Ryanair are successful and well capitalised and no less worthy of a bailout than some former flag carrier which is now owned by British Airways' holding company.