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Ryanair was founded in 1984 and is a low-cost airline which headquarters are in Swords, Dublin, Ireland. Dublin and London Stansted airports are their primary operational bases. Carrying over 130 million customers each year, theyve been voted Europes Number 1 airline. Ryanair connects 216 destinations in 37 countries, with more than 2,000 daily flights from 85 bases, on a fleet of 430 Boeing 737 aircrafts. As well as this, they have 240 more Boeing 737s on order. This will allow Ryanair to lower fares and reach numbers as high as 200 million customers each year. Ryanair has a team of over 13,000 well-trained and highly skilled staff in the aviation profession which means Ryanair can deliver Europes most on-time flights, and a 33-yer safety record which is industry leading and key part of their success.
The Internal, External and Competitive Environment of Ryanair
PESTLE
The PESTLE analysis is an effective way to analyse key features of the external environment. It is a strategic framework used to see how external factors impact a business.
Political
- Uncertainty surrounding Brexit will be challenging in the business environment
Due to the UKs geographical location being key in the airline network, the UK has the largest aviation industry in Europe. Around 80% of all North Atlantic traffic passes through the UK or Irish-controlled airspace. Having unfavorable outcomes from Brexit could cause negative impacts on not only Ryanair but also other low-cost airway operations in the UK. There is a high possibility that the UK wont remain in Open Skies agreement with the EU, so until the final terms are decided, uncertainty will occur. Therefore, Ryanair will have to focus on growth away from the UK until Brexit is complete.
- Terrorist attack risks will have negative effect on the demand for air travel which will impact Ryanair
There has been an increase in terrorist attacks in the recent two years, especially targeting countries such as the UK, France Germany. Due to this intelligence agencies and governments have increased their efforts to combat these. The increased risk of being caught in an attack has already affected tourism, although only in a small manner. If these attacks are to continue, the affect it has on the tourism industry will increase and this will cause the demand for air travel to decrease, impacting Ryanair.
Economical
- The lower value of the GBP after Brexit will put pressure on fare prices
If a recession was to occur after the UK completes its leave from the EU, the earning potential for low-cost airlines earning potential would decrease. There is a close correlation between the demand for leisure travel and economic performance. However, fewer travelers can help shorten security queues and more flights will leave on time. During the last recession in 2009, there was a 13% decrease in the number of people using UK airports.
- Oil prices being $50 a barrel is expected to remain
Due to rising fuel and labour costs, carriers are facing growing pressure. Jet fuel prices are expected to rise about 25% this year, as a result of strengthening crude oil prices. These have increased because of the booming global economy and increased geopolitical tensions such as Brexit and the withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal by the US.
- Airport charges and extra costs
Ryanairs extra prices on travel fares are calculated by referring to the airport taxes/charges and government taxes payable by Ryanair on the specific itinerary. Examples of these fees, taxes and charges are:
- UK Air Passenger Duty This tax is charged on each passenger on all flights that depart from UK airports.
Passenger Service Charge/ Airport Tax This is a charge made by the airport authority to an airline for the use of the terminal, runway, emergency services, security facilities etc. In some cases, this charge also includes the cost of passenger and ramp handling at the airport. This non-refundable charge is made on a per passenger basis and varies from airport to airport. (Ryanair.com, 2019)
If these charges were to increase, Ryanair would have to increase their prices to be able to cover the costs.
Social
- Generation Y have higher disposable incomes
The middle classes growth in disposable income and lifestyle changes has been the main attribute to low-cost airlines expansion. Generation Y travellers can afford multiple short-trips each year. Compared to travellers from previous generations, millennials expect to not have to pay a premium for a high level of customer service and prefer services that supply online services and technological based solutions to manage itineraries.
- On short-haul routes, consumers prefer high speed rail to airlines
Travelling by train is much simpler than travelling by plane as it is a largely uninterrupted experience. You dont have to put your electronic devices on airplane mode or have your seatbelts fastened. Trains are also a lot safer and baggage isnt often lost. Due to this, people are opting to get the train rather than small, short haul flights. The Eurostar to France is a lot busier than flights to France from airports. This is causing the railway market to expand and increase in profits. This could have implications on Ryanair who are mainly short-haul flights.
- Consumers are willing to spend more on ancillaries if ticket cost is less
Extra hidden prices are the main way Ryanair makes money. For example, customers print off their own boarding passes online but there is a fine if the boarding pass is: printed out in bad quality, the page is damaged, or part of the page is missing. This charge could be as high as £45 per person if theyve forgotten to check-in online. Ryanair charges the most for food and drink out of all the British and Irish airlines. A bottle of water costs £2.99 which is a high price. Passengers are willing to pay these extremely high prices for other services if they believe they got a really good deal on the fare price. In their mind, if theyre paying as little as £1 for a plane ticket, theyve got themselves a good deal even if the extra prices add up to high amounts such as £50.
- Controversial Advertising
Ryanair sparked a lot of controversy when their advertisement was said to encourage binge drinking as normal behaviour . The advertisement was captioned with ‘To all Leaving Cert and A-Level students: plan your dream summer holiday now so you have something to look forward to. Book on Ryanair.com in between ‘studying’ tonight. This could be you.’ This created a lot of negative publicity around Ryanair with charities that help those with drinking problems such as Dual Diagnoses Ireland and drinkware branding it as irresponsible and triggering to those struggling with drinking issues . Ryanair brushed off the comments and didnt publicly apologise which caused further upset.
Technological
- Improvements to digital platforms such as mobile and website will enhance customer experience
Airlines that can use digital channels in their distribution and marketing strategies will survive the social changes occurring in the airline industries as shown in growing evidence. Past generations werent as bothered about technology but for Generation Y, technology is highly important. They want to stay constantly connected to their social networking and airlines modernising to allow this is a key part to them reaching their target audience. Furthermore, increased use of social media has given airline companies an opportunity to gain a better and more detailed understanding of their customers behaviour by analysing customer data which is voluntarily shared on digital platforms such as Facebook.
Legal
- Ryanair could be in lawsuit by European Commission over receiving state aid at certain European Airports
The European Commission is investigating if Ryanair received illegal state aid from regional and local authorities in France. As reported by Ms Vestager, Ryanair received a substantial amount of payments from the Association for the Promotion of Touristic and Economic Flows after promoting Montpellier as a tourist destination on their website. The EU law bans state aid to businesses where it changes normal commercial competition and gives them an unfair advantage.
- Brexit may cause Ryanair to have to comply with dual, UK and EU regulations
The low-cost airlines will be affected by Brexit because their cheap flights are thanks to the EU since they created the single aviation area. There has been freedom for airlines to fly across Europe and opportunities for cross-border investments by European airlines. Brexit could mean renegotiation of these agreements and if competition is reduced, fares could increase. Having to increase fares means Ryanair could become no longer low-budget friendly.
Environmental
- EU regulation on emissions for airlines may increase costs for Ryanair
The EU has passed legislation which means airlines have to operate under the E.U Emissions Trading Scheme. If Ryanair goes over the granted CO2 allowances, the extra amount needs to be procured from the market or auctions are to be held by government agencies. If the EU changes the allowance grant, Ryanair will need to improve their environmental efficiently further to reduce emissions.
- Frequent heatwaves cause concern
Heatwaves are becoming a frequent occurrence which is causing concern for the industry as the temperatures are often reaching above aircraft maximum ground operations temperature. Due to this, airlines may have to seek an alternative operations strategy to adjust to climate change. There is a growing distress about the low-cost airlines such as Ryanairs contribution to carbon emissions.
- Maintains the lowest emissions among its competitors
Ryanair operates with a young fleet of Boeing 787 aircraft which has a fleet age under 6 years. Due to this, it maintains the lowest emissions among its competitors. Unlike other major airlines, Ryanair has only has one class of aircraft which helps them to reduce their maintenance cost. Ryanair has ordered the new aircraft and its due to be delivered in the next 3 years. It will be fitted with CFM LEAP 1B engines and Advanced Technology scimitar winglets as well as other lightweight materials. This will help them reduce fuel consumption further which will be a major strength for Ryanair as it will become one of the most environmentally friendly airlines.
- Strong focus on environmental initiatives
Any global company needs to focus on their carbon footprint as well as environmental conservation. This is even more important in the aviation sector. Online ticketing is now widely used by many businesses including trainlines and Ryanair was the first to change to this option. They also focus on being environmentally friendly in their offices by using solar power, LED lighting and recycling programmes. They launched a new Environmental policy in March 208 which aims to make the airlines plastic free within the next 5 years.
Corporate Culture
Corporate culture is the shared values, beliefs and norms of a business that affect every aspect of work life. (tutor2u, 2019)
The readers of the magazine Which? has recently voted Ryanair the worst of the 100 biggest brands in the UK market for their consumer relations. There was a vote against the top 100 British brands and Ryanair was voted as having the worst customers services. Only half of their customers were satisfied with the service they received from the business. Ryanair’s chief executive Michael OLeary was said to laugh off the feedback and didnt take it seriously. He instead insisted that Ryanair passengers have never heard of Which? and wouldnt have had the time to do the survey. He was therefore implying that the feedback wasnt accurate and didnt show what actual Ryanair passengers thought about the airline and the service they provide. This shows theres not a good environment within the airline.
Ryanair employs many of their pilots through temporary agency contracts as a mid to keep costs down. Due to the poor employment terms, pilots came together and wrote to those at the head of Ryanair asking for an improvement to be made. The group of pilots then called them a disgrace after the company missed a deadline to improve employment terms.
Ryanair made an announcement that for a period of six weeks, they were going to be cancelling about 40-50 flights per day to improve punctuality , but they didnt tell customers which particular flights in advance. The following day they said that when they were changing the holiday year from financial to calendar they messed up the holiday schedules of pilots. After this, stories had started to emerge that there was a shortage of pilots which the company completely denied. However, it was then said by Norwegian Air that theyd recruited 140 pilots from Ryanair that year. There was also another airline that said theyd hired 40 pilots with 32 coming from Ryanair. Ryanair decided instead of properly fixing the whole situation, theyd offer their pilots a bonus of £12,00 which as one-off if theyd agree to work extra hours as well as extra days and have a low level of absence due to sickness. This didnt go down well with the existing pilots who saw it as an attempt to skirt around the real issue. The company then responded by saying they were going to cancel part of their pilots holidays.
Employees have now come together and even have secret invite-only Facebook groups which has gathered over 3,400 members. The groups founder told the Guardian theyre preparing an open letter to the company demanding improved working conditions .
Ryanairs employees dont enjoy working for them and this shows in their customer reviews. Michael OLeary and other high members of the company seem to ignore the issues just for the sake of keeping prices low, so theyll make more profit. They seem driven by money rather than making valuable relationships with their workers and ensuring happiness within the company.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is when companies integrate social and environmental concerns into their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. (tutor2u, 2019)
Having good corporate social responsibility can have a lot of positive impacts on a company such as: being a good member of society, help to recruit and maintain employees, lower production costs and improved access to capital.
Ryanair has a bad reputation when it comes to their Corporate Social Responsibility. They have had a load of issues with them posting misleading information of their website such as about their claim that they only contribute 2% carbon dioxide emissions. The claim breached rules on truthfulness due to it not explaining that it was based on global rather than UK emissions.
The airline lacks social responsibility, and this shows since theyre mainly concentrating on making profits rather than the welfare of their customers. As quoted by Michael OLeary Ryanair guarantee to give you the lowest fare. You get a safe flight. You get a normally on time flight. Thats the package. We dont and wont, give you anything more. Are we going to say sorry for our lack of customer service? Absolutely not. If the plane is cancelled, will we put you up in a hotel overnight? Absolutely not If a plan is delayed will we give you a voucher for a restaurant? Absolutely not . This shows that to them so long as theyve got their customers to their destinations, it doesnt matter what service they receive before, during and after their flight. There are also allegations that the airline extorts customers by charging them for the use of toilet when on board, making payment for paying online and boarding luggage on board.
Ryanair has a history of reacting badly to criticism and these means Ryanair would react to any criticism on its CSR issues either by avoiding similar issues in the nearest feature or by trying to justify the companys stances on such issues.
Competition
Ryanairs main competitors are EasyJet, Monarch, Jet2 and British Airways.
EasyJet has an annual revenue of $7.7bn compared to Ryanairs which was $8.7bn in 2018. They have 14,000 employees.
The Effects of the Business Environment
Fiscal policy
Situational Analysis of Ryanair
5 CS
The Five Cs of Marketing are the five most important areas of marketing. When marketing executives make marketing decisions, they should consider the five Cs of marketing. The five Cs stand for Company, Customers, Collaborators, Competitors, and Climate. The five Cs act as a guideline when we are creating a marketing plan or devising a marketing strategy.
Porters 5 forces
Competitive Rivalry – Ryanair has high competitive rivalry with other low-cost airlines such as EasyJet and Jet2.
Supplier Power Ryanairs supplier power is shifting from low to high as they only have use of regional airports. These are now getting clogged up. The shift of suppliers from Boeing to airbus is high. There is no control over oil prices so if they increase Ryanair wouldnt have a choice about increasing their prices to cover the costs.
Buyer Power Although Ryanair is the cheapest in the market, customers are price sensitive and will switch to another airline if they believe they can get a better deal. Therefore, buyer power is high.
The threat of Substitution The threat of substitution against Ryanair is low because customers prefer the low prices they offer.
The threat of New Entry The treat of entry is moderate because creating an airline requires a lot of legislation and investment, there are limited routes and no space in the airports.
How the Business Environment affects Ryanair
Situational analysis
Situation analysis is defined as an analysis of the internal and external factors of a business. It clearly identifies a business’s capabilities, customers, potential customers and business environment, and their impact on the company. A situation analysis is an essential part of any business plan and should be reviewed periodically to ensure that it is current.
Strengths
Weaknesses
- First to launch low cost flights in Europe
- Innovative Leadership
- Size
- Management focus
- Brand perception
- Seasonality of earnings
Opportunities
Threats
- Improved customer service
- Business travellers
- New aircraft
- Accident
- Loss of focus
- Competitive response
How the Market Structure and Influences on Supply and Demand Affect the Pricing and Output Decisions of Ryanair
Perfect/imperfect competition
Due to the high amount of low-cost short haul airlines, Ryanair is perfect competition. With competitors such as Jet2 and EasyJet also focusing on having the cheapest prices, there are multiple airlines for customers wanting cheap flights to choose from.
Supply/demand
Ryanairs prices are based off the demand for the flight. A new system allows airline seats to be priced according to supply and demand and achieve high occupancy.
Price elastic demand means that demand increases when costs fall.
Price elasticy
Ryanair has high price elastic as the price of fares increase/decrease based of the demand for the flight. The more people that would want to travel on the particular flight, the more Ryanair can charge.
References
- Ryanair.com. (2019). Official Ryanair website | Book direct for the lowest fares | Ryanair.com. [online] Available at: https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/useful-info/about-ryanair/about-us [Accessed 22 Jan. 2019].
- Ryanair.com. (2019). Official Ryanair website | Book direct for the lowest fares | Ryanair.com. [online] Available at: https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/useful-info/help-centre/faq-overview/Making-a-reservation/What-taxes-fees-and-charges-may-be-charged-by-Ryanair [Accessed 31 Jan. 2019].
- tutor2u. (2019). Corporate Culture | tutor2u Business. [online] Available at: https://www.tutor2u.net/business/topics/corporate-culture [Accessed 31 Jan. 2019].
- tutor2u. (2019). Corporate Social Responsibility | tutor2u Economics. [online] Available at: https://www.tutor2u.net/economics/reference/corporate-social-responsibility [Accessed 31 Jan. 2019].
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