Evidently Ryanair thinks it should be shutting down at least 10% of all routes it opens or it isn’t doing its job.  Its argument is that many of those routes have never been flown before and it is impossible to predict success for all of them. 

This makes considerable sense but it is also worth pointing out that Ryanair’s outsourcing model for ground support also allows them to contract away from unsuccessful routes without feeling pinned in by the costs to withdraw from a market.  In addition, its decisions on these routes are uninfluenced by other considerations such as regional flights feeding into these routes.

Other airlines could stand to be a bit more brutal over their routes as well.  All too often one set of routes is operated unprofitably to support the money it feeds into more successful routes.  The Ryanair model (and other LCC airlines as well) of insisting that route support itself is the better, more sustainble pathway to success.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
No Comments »