Biting the hand that feeds you

A row has blown-up over Ryanair’s decision to implement a ‘one bag per passenger policy’, with Airports Council International (ACI) claiming passengers will make fewer duty-free purchases, undermining airport revenues. James Gordon investigates.

It’s a fierce debate that has set Europe’s largest low cost carrier against the Continents’ largest airport trade body, and it’s an argument that could shape the future landscape of European airports.

Bags of money

Billed as the original low-cost carrier, Ryanair, yesterday announced a new rule limiting passengers to one piece of baggage. The airline says that passengers boarding Ryanair planes must be able to fit their duty free shopping into a 22-pound bag. It will charge passengers €30 (US$38) for every extra bag passengers take on board.

However, Airport Council International (ACI), which counts several hundred regional European airports among its members, says the ‘one-bag’ rule will, “severely undermine the commercial basis upon which airports are levying charges from airlines” (see: ACI slates Ryanair’s one bag rule).

Oliver Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe, says, “There is no question that airlines are free to set their own rules when it comes to cabin bag allowances. However, such rules should not interfere with the ability of airports to sell duty-free to passengers before they board their plane.”

What passengers want

Ryanair officials dismiss ACI’s argument that the airline’s ‘one-bag rule’ will prohibit duty-free shopping.  Stephen McNamara, a spokesman for the airline, says, “Passengers have no interest in airport shopping. They simply want to get through airport terminals and on to their aircraft with the shortest possible queuing time and inconvenience.”

But this isn’t a debate about duty-free shopping. It’s an argument between airports and airlines and one that is brought into sharper focus by the tough global economic climate.

Ryanair remains committed to the no-frills business model that has served it so well to date. During the past two decades it has grown strong because it has been able to persuade many airports to pay host to its services at below cost price in exchange for the high volumes of passengers it attracts.

As Jankovec says, airports have been able to sustain these arrangements in the good times thanks to non-aeronautical revenues, such as duty-free.

Dwindling returns

Now the economics have shifted markedly, those revenues are dwindling and airports can ill afford for them to diminish further.

With its new bag fee, Ryanair may have found a handy new way to generate revenue, but in the process, it is in danger of alienating many of the partners that have helped it to such success.

Of course, the airline is characteristically forthright in its response to ACI, claiming the organization’s members “include some of the biggest, most expensive, least efficient monopoly airports in the world.”

Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara adds that the ACI needs to pay more attention to the needs of passengers. “If Mr Jankovec and his members spent more time reducing queues at their expensive airports, then perhaps their passenger traffic would be growing, rather than falling at present.”

Off queue

But hold on a minute – in the lengthening list of problems afflicting airports at present, queuing barely rates a mention. And how many people do you know who are choosing not to fly because of the awful congestion at airports?

The world has moved on, the economic landscape has changed, and Ryanair ignores this at its peril.

Airports and airlines are as one in hoping that better times lie ahead, but for the moment, the aviation industry must work together if it is to survive.


 

There are currently no comments.