Oh Ryan Air… bless you. Or not.

A Which! survey has just found that despite seemingly cheap ticket prices, they simply hide more hidden costs than other airlines. Their charges increased by a massive 61 per cent (MORE than Bmibaby, Jet 2 and easyJet).

Why is this relevant for a Social Media blog? Because Social Media is all about personality.

How do you engage people, what is your online personality like, do people actually like you? This is equally (arguably more) important for brands as it is for individuals. And Ryanair has always maintained an… unapologetic online persona.

But with these findings showing they aren’t so cheap after all, might they need to improve their brand image to continue competing? Will it force a change in Ryanair’s external ‘persona’ and how they conduct their online – and offline – engagement?

Lunatic bloggers

Unless you’ve been in a cave pondering Platonian shadow dancers, you’ll know the appalling track record that Ryan Air has in terms of its online presence and engagement. If not, you can read more about their history of abusing bloggers and the like here.

If you haven’t got time to read a catch up, this quote from a friend sums up how many people feel perfectly:

I wouldn’t spend a second with a person who behaved like that – why would I spend any time (or money) with a brand like that?

Ryanair worst for ‘hidden costs’ that ramp up ticket prices

The findings of the Which! survey show Ryanair quoted £82 for a return flight for two to Paris but this increased by £50 to £132 with charges.

The brand isn’t yet showing any concern that this might affect business – in typical Ryanair fashion, spokesman Stephen McNamara said: “Nobody pays attention to Which? surveys and we’re not going to either.”

But with the knowledge that their hidden charges are higher than all of their competitors in the cheap air travel market, might that soon have to change?

I’m not going to hold my breath, but it would be nice to see something dent their ego a little.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Social media, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.