Not the most popular opinion, granted. But I read a piece in the paper the other day where Michael O'Leary basically said that passengers would be covering the cost of compensation the company are having to pay to the people affected by the Icelandic volcano eruption last year, through the rising of fares by something like £2 per passenger.
What I love about Ryanair's business model is that it's so utterly brazen. Unlike a lot of other airlines, or even just companies in general, there is no pretence that "the customer is always right" (a phrase I've never liked; I think it was Guy Browning who said that most people aren't right all the time in any other area of their lives so why are they suddenly omnipotent when they go shopping?) Though maybe my hatred of that phrase comes from when I worked at WHSmith in the High Street, endlessly badgered by humourless members of the public for envelopes with the sticky backs and the latest Cliff Richard calendar. But anyway...
...I admire Ryanair for being upfront regarding what they actually are: an incredibly cheap way to get around by air, no frills attached. I read another article by a journalist moaning about the fact that in this day and age, foreign travel is a right and that the whole experience needs to be smartened up a bit. But surely the only reason people do consider foreign travel to be a right these days is because no-frills companies like Ryanair and EasyJet exist? Foreign travel isn't a right, anyway, just like nobody really has a right to anything in life. Instead cheap air travel is available, as is expensive air travel, or indeed none at all. Take your pick. If you go for the cheap, don't moan if you don't get compensation or wonderful customer service. If you go for the expensive and you don't get those things, moan away! (is that why very rich people tend, in my experience, to make the worst kind of customers?)
I am probably one of the world's worst fliers. When I was about ten we went on a family holiday to Portugal and I pretty much screamed the entire way there. My Dad was forced to give me valium tablets washed down with white wine. Now I'm older I've calmed down a bit (though I still remember an incredibly turbulent flight from Las Vegas a few years ago during which I cried my eyes out whilst two kids sitting behind me played quietly with their Nintendo DS), but I'm still petrified of it and if I've had to fly somewhere I never truly relax until I'm home again. That is the reason I probably won't ever fly Ryanair; although I've just said how much I admire their business model I can't help wondering if they take any sneaky cost-cutting measures to safety, which while I'm sure they don't because the industry is heavily regulated, I won't be able to stop my troubled little mind niggling me about it, and I don't need any more 'niggling' reasons, especially while I'm 30,000 feet in the air!
It's strange, though, how being in luxurious surroundings can make you feel invincible. That was one of the theories for the sinking of the Titanic, and I've flown plenty of times with 'budget' airlines in standard seats and been terrified, but the best flight I've ever been on was for my honeymoon in New York. My husband and I had saved for ages and splashed out on First Class tickets for the flight. When we boarded the plane, our luxurious bed-seats were opposite, not next to, one another. "I'll need to sit next to her..." my husband told the stewardess... "she's terrified of flying" "Actually" I said to them both from the comfort of my new bed "I think I'll be alright!" And I was. In fact, not only did I hardly feel the take-off but I also felt confident enough to watch 'The Aviator' on my personal movie-player, a film that involves multiple plane crashes.
So in summary, seeing how I've suffered over the years from the effects of budget flights, surely luxury air travel should be my right? I really think I ought to write to my local MP about it.
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