COMMENT: PR game is too easy for airline boss
Irish low-cost airline Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary pulled off another PR coup last week when, in an interview with the BBC, he floated the idea of charging passengers £1 (just over $2) to use the toilet.
Cue lots of righteous indignation from travel industry commentators, with Which? Holiday head of research Rochelle Turner thundering: “It seems Ryanair is prepared to plumb any depth to make a fast buck and, once again, is putting profit before the comfort of its customers. Charging people to go to the toilet might result in fewer people buying overpriced drinks on board, though – that would serve Ryanair right.”
Sadly, her hopes are likely to be dashed, for one simple reason – it’ll probably never happen.
As Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara himself said:
Many good puns could come of this sort of PR, but I’d suggest most that could turn their hand to it, couldn’t give….
Would you see Ryanair doubling the number of toilets on planes, and then feeding their passengers fig biscuits, and other loosening pleasantries?
All of a sudden, Ryanair’s making an extra 2 quid per passenger per flight. I guess the only thing would be trade off in cleaning/pumping costs.
Now, do airplanes really dump their waste in the air or was that simply banter from years gone by.
More silliness abounds.
Australia needs a hate figure like this – somone who’s happy to be a dick if it means everyone sees it as his brand versus the world.
Sol? Sol!?!