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AVIATION - EASYJET VS RYAINAIR |
EasyJet fights Ryanair in mid-air fight
Europe's No.2 low-budget airline easyJet locked in a a catfight with No.1 Ryanair.
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BY OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
31 August, 2005: The easyJet-Ryanair slanging match took an interesting turn recently, with easyJet 'gifting' a copy of "Internet for Dummies" to its rival firm's PR manager so that they could perhaps learn a bit of website design! The immediate provocation for easyJet was a statement by Ryanair that easyJet had reduced its flights to Ryanair home base in Ireland.
easyJet said: "In response to Ryanair's most recent infantile babblings (taking the form of a "news release" on their website) easyJet have today sent Ryanair’s PR Manager a copy of "Internet for Dummies" to help Ryanair navigate their way around a website. A couple of weeks ago Ryanair put out a factually incorrect “news release” which mislead people into thinking that we had reduced our flights to the Republic of Ireland - in fact, we have maintained the same number of flights and grabbed a large part of Ryanair's market share. Today, they are trying to claim that we have removed our punctuality statistics from our website.
easyJet went on to say that the practice of putting punctuality statistics online was started by easyJet and later copied by Ryanair. “Ryanair conveniently forget that they copied from easyJet the idea of making punctuality statistics available online in the first place," easyJet said. The easyJet statement went to claim that coming from Ryanair, this was not at all surprising, since" almost every aspect of their website is a direct copy of easyJet.com."
For good effect, the easyJet release added: “easyJet would like to thank Peter Sherrard of Ryanair for his continued interest in our website. A copy of 'Internet for Dummies' is on its way to him - what better way to learn about properly navigating a website. This will shortly to be followed by a lorry load of toys to replace the ones missing from his pram.”
Dogfights for the discount tickets market are nothing new in continental Europe, where airlines churn out stinging advertisements showing rivals in poor light. A few years back, when Ryanair started its Brussels flights, the advertisement featured a urinating mannequin, which said: "Pissed off at Sabena's high fares?" The dig was at Sabena Airlines which Ryanair wanted to paint with a tar brush. This time, it is easyJet's turn.
One of the largest low-budget airlines in Europe offering cheap flights, easyjet was founded by Stelios Haji-Ioannou. The main base of easyjet is at easyLand in London's Luton.
Like many other low-budget discount airlines, easyjet manages its cheap flight fares through a variety of techniques. It uses Internet flight ticket bookings to minimise operational costs. This means that easyjet does not have to keep as many office staff and supporting infrastructure. Currently, 95% of all easyjet tickets are sold over the Internet through online ticket bookings and reservations.
Each easyJet aircraft is made to work maximum for the company, by increasing their utilisation. This reduces the unit cost per aircraft.
Ticketless travel takes on a new meaning at easyjet, and is always the norm! Before you get it wrong, easyJet internet ticket passengers get an email from the airline detailing their travel details and booking reference when they make an online flight ticket booking. This directly slashes the expenses incurred for issuing, distributing, processing and canceling millions of tickets every year.
Some discount airlines completely scrap in-flight food or snacks, while for others, it is optional - you can pay more and have food. However, free lunch is not part of easyJet low-budget menu. Dropping free on-board catering has significantly reduced costs for easyJet, just like many other low-budget airlines. However, you can optionally have food, if you do want.
Flying to secondary airports near major airports is another tactic employed by budget airlines all across the world. Bigger airports charge more, which makes many discount fliers choosing secondary runways. easyjet too follows this principle.
Paperless operations at its offices means that easyJet can reduce the costs associated with stationery and handling. A lot of money is saved this way.
EASYJET FLIGHTS HISTORY
1995: easyJet incorporated to start low-cost flights in 1995. the discount airline is based at London Luton. First flight from Luton to Edinburgh, Glasgow.
1996: Flights from Luton to Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Nice and Barcelona. website launched.
1997: Liverpool-Amsterdam, Luton-Geneva flights started.
1998: easyJet buys 40% of a Swiss charter airline TEA Basel AG. First easyJet online internet flight ticket sale.
1999: Liverpool established as base airport. TEA renamed as easyJet Switzerland and moved to Geneva. Geneva becomes third base airport for easyjet. easyJet Switzerland starts flights to Nice, Amsterdam and Barcelona from Geneva. gets into tiff with Swiss Air in Geneva, which wants the upstart airline out of its territory. Stelios voted London Entrepreneur of the Year at the London Electricity Londoner of the Year Awards.
2000: Online easyjet discounts hiked to £2.50 for a single trip - a higher level of permanent discount than any other airline. Flight arrivals information starts appearing on easyJet website. easyJet shares listed on LSE. Stelios in Guinness Book of Records by for being the world's youngest international scheduled airline chairman when he launched easyJet in 1995 at 28.
2001: Amsterdam to Belfast, Edinburgh and Nice flights started. Geneva-Barcelona flights restarted. Amsterdam to Barcelona and Glasgow, Belfast to Edinburgh and Glasgow, and London Gatwick to Nice flights started. Amsterdam-London Gatwick flights opened. Other new routes in 2001: Belfast-Glasgow, Belfast-Edinburgh, Amsterdam-Glasgow, Amsterdam-Barcelona, Gatwick-Barcelona, besides flights from London Gatwick to Edinburgh, Malaga, Majorca and Zurich.
2002: More Paris flights. Starts flying to four UK destinations from Paris Charles De Gaulle and Paris Orly. London-Gatwick and London-Athens services opened. easyJet buys Go, the British Airways subsidiary. Stelios stands down as Chairman of easyJet.
2003: more expansion in flights to France. New flights from Paris Orly to Barcelona, Marseille, Milan Linate, Nice and Toulouse. New base at Berlin Schönefeld.
2004: Flight expansion at Cologne/Bonn. Flights from Berlin base to Liverpool and London Luton. Major expansion out of London Gatwick. Flights to Budapest, Cologne/Bonn, Murcia, Rome, and Venice. More services to Budapest, Krakow, and Warsaw. Also added are routes to Almeria, Bratislava, Turin, and Valencia. Five new routes from London Gatwick to three new destinations in the Republic of Ireland: Cork, Knock, and Shannon. Further expansion with the announcement of two new routes from London Luton to Krakow and Turin, and a new route from London Stansted to Grenoble.easyJet expands its Italian operation by adding four new routes: London Gatwick to Olbia, London Luton to Cagliari, and Berlin to Olbia and Pisa.
2005: Start of routes to Berlin and Rome. Luton to Grenoble and Stansted to Asturias flights started. Airline extends its network out of Berlin Schoenefeld by announcing a route to Maastricht Aachen. The airline’s base at Berlin Schoenefeld is expanded further with the announcement of three new routes to London Gatwick, Milan, and Rome. easyJet announces it will base three brand new A319 aircraft at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg this summer and introduce five new destinations; Alicante, Barcelona, Nice, Palma, and Rome.
BY OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
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