Ancillary Revenue and In-flight Service
Twenty percent of Ryanair's revenue is generated from ancillary revenue, that is income from sources other than ticket fares. In 2009 ancillary revenue was at €598 million, compared to a total revenue of €2,942 million.
Ryanair has been described by the consumer magazine Holiday Which? as being the worst offender for charging for optional extras. As part of the low-cost business model the airline charges fees, these can be related to alternative services like using airport check-in facilities instead of the online service fee and using non-preferred methods of payment. It also charges for extra services like checked in luggage and it offers food and drinks for purchase as part of a buy on board programme. Ryanair argues that it charges for a large number of optional extras in order to allow those passengers who do not require baggage, priority boarding or other premium services to travel for the lowest possible price by giving customers the flexibility to choose what they pay for.
In 2009, Ryanair abolished airport check-in and replaced it with a fast bag drop for those passengers checking in bags. The option of checking in at the airport for €10 has been discontinued, and all passengers are required to check-in online and print their own boarding pass. Passengers arriving at the airport without a pre-printed online check-in will have to pay €40 (now €60/£60 May 2012) for their boarding pass to be re-issued, whilst customers unable to check-in luggage online are asked to pay a €100 fee to do so at the airport (as of June 2012). Ryanair has also replaced the free online check-in with a €6 online check-in fee which is charged per person, per flight. Although this fee is waived on "Free", "€1" and "€5" promotional fares, it has been criticised as being a non-optional extra charge which should be included in the headline fare.
Famous quotes containing the words revenue and/or service:
“If you tax too high, the revenue will yield nothing.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Night City was like a deranged experiment in Social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb permanently on the fast-forward button. Stop hustling and you sank without a trace, but move a little too swiftly and you’d break the fragile surface tension of the black market; either way, you were gone ... though heart or lungs or kidneys might survive in the service of some stranger with New Yen for the clinic tanks.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)