now ladies and gentlemen I would like to
ask for everybody's attention please
low-cost airlines have revolutionized
the way we fly
easyJet now carries more passengers than
British Airways and the giant of the
low-cost carriers is Ryanair
see the wizard commercial visitor bombs
Michael O'Leary is its boss
the pheasant he may not look like a
tycoon but he's built a multi-billion
pound business that's all-time in
Amsterdam Georgia budget airlines are
private by making their planes and their
staff work harder for passengers to air
travel sometimes feels like hard work I
think people don't like being treated
like cattle even the cattle in their
lorries get free water and and they
don't have to cope with these things
well good evening music this is Talia
speaking how can I help
the Battle of the low-cost airlines has
been a clash of big personalities this
inside story our Greek and an Irishman
for to turn the airline industry on its
head
now have a chance to experience more of
the world than they used
but air travel has
the middle of its glamour
we do thank you very much indeed to your
attention ladies and gentlemen and we
hope you have a pleasant flight this
afternoon
easyJet has 200 planes each makes up to
four round trips every day their crews
meet up around 6:00 a.m. morning how are
we all alright Fitzroy yes outstanding
um three colleagues for the day and puts
them through their daily tasks of safety
Kevin you noticed a milky white buildup
on the wind what might we think that
this buildup is I would think that it's
a rime ice absolutely it's bought at the
table next to them their pilot and
co-pilot check their flight plans and
the weather is fine announced fam windy
into Gatwick and wind into Edinburgh
Gatwick is just one of 22 airports where
easyJet faces its planes right so Gavin
online yet morning so the issues this
morning clearly well the first flights
get underway at company headquarters at
the Luton Airport senior management meet
to review yesterday's operations ok so
we have a challenging weekend so
Saturday we've had eleven hundred and
twenty sectors flown we also have some
snow closures in the evening so the
daily ops meeting is the one place where
the right people get together who can
take decisions about the day-to-day
operation of the airline we've got about
five or six engineering issues during
the course of the day everyone knows
what they're doing why they're doing in
how they're doing in so it's an
operation I think that is wrong in a
militaristic fashion
stelios a Jaguar noon started easyJet
with five million pounds from his dad a
Greek Cypriot shipping tycoon
stelios no longer runs easyJet but he
still its biggest shareholder now all
told has been a great investment for me
I made about a billion pounds in the
process so it's a significant investment
I keep an eye on
today Stelios also keeps an eye on other
businesses he owns and charities he
bonds between them stelios a Greek
Cypriot and Michael O'Leary from rural
Ireland have transformed the way the
British fly it probably does take you
maybe their Greek mentality and an Irish
mentality to kind of come at it from a
slightly different angle I think you
know I think it was logical that
somebody growing a low fare airline
business would emerge out of Ireland I
think it's to be fair to Stelios it's
much more impressive that the son of a
Greek shipping billionaire who could if
he wanted to been spawning around the
world in executive jets has made another
fortune by offering reasonably priced
air travel it's just not as reasonably
priced as Ryan here the low-cost rivals
are fighting for traffic all over Europe
Katowice in Poland is getting a
lightning visit from O'Leary he's taking
in three Polish airports today getting
Ryanair's name in the media
I think what I like most today about
Poland is your rubbish football team
that are even more rubbish than the
Irish football team and that's setting
the bar pretty low in terms of rubbish
O'Leary has business in his blood he's
the son of an Irish entrepreneur who'd
had both successes and failures were you
ambitious to make money yes I think one
of the great things you learn if your
father has made money and lost money a
couple of times
the great lesson you learn is the not
having money and you don't remember the
good times you'll remember the times
when there wasn't money there and you
generally it breeds the determination
not to repeat that in your old life
Ryanair was founded by tony ryan in the
1980s ryan was a successful businessman
who hired O'Leary this is personal
assistant in the early days the airline
was small and very traditional it was
good old-fashioned customer service if
there was flight delays we give them
food and drink and all the rest work and
you get passengers coming up to you who
are not delayed had no delay at all and
they're queuing up for their food and
everything like that just thanking us
it's Ryanair it's feeding time at the
zoo
Ryanair was losing money but tony ryan
hoped that deregulation which had helped
American aviation would soon come to
Europe
he sent O'Leary to meet one of the
industry's pioneers he said we're gonna
have one last goal where I go to the
states meet Southwest Airlines he
arranged to meet he would Herb Kelleher
and it was the kind of road to Damascus
Morman
herb Keller has Southwest did everything
Airlines thought they shouldn't do that
they wanted to make money
ambassadors take any seat on the plane
just like on a bus or a train it didn't
serve full meals just drinks and snacks
it made its planes and its crews work
more flights per day
it just seemed to be blatantly obvious
that this was the way forward and that's
what started the revolution in low fare
air travel in Europe please go
immediately to gate 112 gate 1 1 2 back
at Gatwick at 7 a.m.
easyJet's first wave of flights
since elites and gentlemen a very good
morning to you all and a warm welcome on
board this easyJet flight to Amsterdam
do you have a special voice yes I do my
friends and family always ask me to do
my work voice and show them what I say
on board and they'll find it highly
amusing
the easyJet story began almost 20 years
ago travellers between Scotland and
London will now be able to make the trip
for as little as 29 pounds on a new
airline called appropriately enough
easyJet
but the airline's young founder business
wasn't
privileged upbringing
I was suffering from the rich Sun
syndrome so whatever I was doing people
said it really is really a father's
doing I'm eternally grateful that at the
age of 28 he actually gave me the
opportunity to do this amazing thing
yes son go and prove yourself and of
course it wasn't a guaranteed success
maybe wouldn't have worked it would have
been very embarrassing to go back and
say in a dad of lost it all
psycho leering Stelios made the
pilgrimage to Texas to find out how to
run
I had a big advantage because I've never
worked in an airline before so I
literally travelled a bit on Southwest
read a couple of books and the Harvard
Business School case study on it and
then said okay you know let's let's see
how we're gonna make this work Richard
Gooding was the manager of a small
unprofitable Airport north of London at
Luton when he got a visit from a keen
young man who said he wanted to start an
airline we had seen many people who
wanted to start Airlines and they had a
sort of common ingredient that they'd
been to the bank who'd laughed a lot and
then come to us to say but would we lend
them the money to get started and he was
less interested in planes than in
selling tickets he had a theory of
something called the ignition price and
his his view of the ignition prices if
you can get your price down to the what
that is the market will explode this was
very interesting innovative thinking for
us in aviation I know it had happened in
other retail industries but in aviation
we hadn't thought like that
stelios hired a couple of flames and
Lewton what would make easyJet different
was its branding
stelios felt he wanted to own a color he
wanted a color that nobody else was
using and orange was his idea and we sat
behind a computer screen until we
arrived at the most shocking vivid shade
of of orange we could find which was
Pantone zero to one see I think which is
using jet orange orange was telling us
his idea for selling tickets easyJet's
call center will take bookings direct
from its customers no longer would
travel agents get a hefty slice of every
airfare it was suddenly possible to cut
out the Commission of the travel agent
cut out all the accounting of tickets
and and save you know the best part of
20 percent I didn't know what I was
doing
remember it could have been possible
that I could open the airline say we
only take bookings over the telephone
and the planes could have been empty but
I was the right place at the right time
good evening is it judge this is tell
your speaking how can I help you the low
fares Revolution had begun
twenty years ago it would have been
unheard of for a group of lads to pop
off to Eastern Europe for a stag party
today it's nothing special going to Riga
in Latvia it's makes like do and cheaper
than Prague is so traps down so there
should be should be a good craic
don't forget lower fares have changed
attitudes to travel passengers there are
in many cases indifferent to where they
go so long as it's sunshine destination
or a historic destination depending on
what their personal preferences so if
it's Krakow or Prague it really doesn't
matter or if it's Alicante or Malaga it
doesn't matter it's the place that
determines that to man when you can
travel to somewhere like you know
flowers we're on a plane different
country different culture for the same
price it's at you to get up to somewhere
like Manchester or Liverpool then yeah
it's a bit of a no-brainer really
the arrival of low-cost airlines has
created work in Riga
not least the police soon as we had
Ryanair for example we had more and more
Brits coming here it's very easy to find
here some cheap entertainment that they
concern to go some striptease maybe even
prostitution and that it was easy
available that brought here a lot of
youngsters Riga responded to the influx
by setting up a special police
department just to deal with the new
tourists they were all taught English
which they would meet on their nightly
patrols the tourist police have learnt
how Brits like to enjoy themselves and
the night there are many Brits having
these tech parties there was one British
guy dressed as a spider-man it was like
fat spider-man
it's how they enjoy their time here
Richard and his friends are already
impressed with Regas nightlife
not going on lots of different ways you
can see it's really texture specifially
favorite box has been really good
many locals see the new tourists as a
gift from low-cost airlines local sales
have been doing really good thing
because they are bringing money here a
bunch of the tourists come just for the
weekends here and they are leaving
spending a enormous money only when dawn
breaks will the casualties be revealed
yes it usually happens some British guys
wake up somewhere they don't remember
where they've been where are their
friends where are they staying
so it takes takes and hours to find the
place where his thing
low-cost airlines are certainly a boost
to Regas economy but perhaps not the
kind that locals would have chosen all
these stag parties going to Eastern
European cities do you feel you owe any
apologies there I think you're look wait
we're in low fares airline we carry 80
million passengers a year the
overwhelming majority of the passengers
we carry each year are families going on
holidays businesspeople I think yet the
apocryphal stag or hen party is a tiny
proportion of the business and I think
you'll find that in most Eastern
European cities are in Dublin or in the
cities where we bring that stag party or
hen party business they're very grateful
for the business the stag parties have
to go somewhere
inspirational visit to Southwest
Airlines just over a year later Tony
Ryan offered him the top job as chief
executive of Ryanair I really didn't
want to do it I didn't want the the
profile of it and eventually you know I
was persuaded to do it
O'Leary got to work turning Ryanair into
a low-cost airline it was a very simple
choice close the airline or cut the
costs it was brutal
in terms of changing model but it
changed dramatically and quickly and
Michael was the driver behind that to be
low-cost you really have to eat sleep
drink and believe in low cost no more
stuff for free and when you took away
the free stuff
guess what lots of people started buying
a couple of litres and 200 bags even
better than cutting costs was turning a
cost into a profit it worked beautifully
with the orange juice Finch's orange
juice were trying to break into the UK
market so it was very valuable for them
even as a marketing tool for people
going from Ireland to the UK to be
drinking Finch's orange juice so at the
start we were buying that product from
them but we had to have a conversation
with them then we'll say we can't afford
to do this and they said ok well we
still want to be on board so we give it
to you for free and then we discovered
that this probably was a marketing
opportunity for them so they should pay
for the privilege and if they didn't
want to do it we get somebody else so
they said ok with papers and then we
said you can why don't you give us the
glasses as well
Ryanair was soon offering more flights
and lower prices of Ireland the fare
Lingus and British Airways high prices
have kept families apart so now even God
was back Ryanair Ryanair was really
surprised that they found a powerful
marketing agent in the Catholic Church
because the priest started preaching
from the pulpit reminding their
congregations that you know that now
they suddenly was cheap flights to
Ireland so if they did want to go home
and visit their families they could
afford to do it and that they should
check out Ryanair
today easyJet and Ryanair still follow
most of the original Southwest formula
for how to run a low-cost airline thanks
very much thank you thank you
Thank You Carly by day thank you very
much very welcome thank you about the
fight they both rely on quick return its
history
in a 25-minute stop there's no time for
cleaning staff to come on board so
that's up to the crew it's amazing what
gets left behind even easyJet's copilot
helps out more engine
this team has landed in Amsterdam but it
doesn't make much things to them that's
all time in Amsterdam ten minutes and
the passengers if you turn around
already
it's my time to go
whatever passengers might achievement no
prospects and mostly blind younger
players than the rest of the industry
each airline flies only one time easyJet
only flies Airbus planes and Ryanair
only flies Boeing's it's another part of
the original low-cost model the older
our pilots can fly all the planes we are
any one Bangka spares for all those
planes the cabin crew when they get
onboard know that all the galleys and
everything will be in exactly the same
spot so it's simply replicating our
simple formula and making it simpler and
simpler the more simple we can make it
the more lower-cost and efficient it
will be there's a final key part of the
Southwest formula that easyJet never
adopted but Ryanair has embraced
it's the use of smaller out-of-the-way
apples you're going to Frankfurt they'll
bring you to Frankfurt Han which is
about an hour and 20 minutes away you
can go to Paris
but you go to Beauvais with Ryanair
which is a good Arab from Paris so their
model has been to develop secondary
airports they're mainly disused old air
bases that they got scattered around
Europe so this is what you put your
cheap flight with Ryanair will get you
Connor McCarthy helped set up Ryan as
European Network we just lined up these
small airports maybe 10 at a time and
then did a bake-off try to pick the top
three and basically competitive tension
did the rest hrus most of those airports
had never seen anything like it in the
past but the prospects of them getting a
daily flight to London was just far too
mouth-watering for them to ignore so how
do airlines make money from low fares at
Ryan Air it's a strategy of pilot high
and sell it cheap Howard Miller is one
of the company's deputy chief executives
and its chief accountant
our objective is to keep our planes full
as much at a time as we possibly can so
to that end we are always aggressively
targeting the maximum number of bones on
seats and every flight we're less
worried about what the average passenger
pays on the basis that we have a very
low break-even load factor and the fact
that every passenger spends about 13
euros on other things such as hotels car
houses etcetera Ryanair's average fare
is 40 pounds but that additional revenue
including in flight sales it brings the
total per passenger up to 52 pounds
excluding and passenger taxes on the
cost side fuel comes 220 pounds and
here's where being a low-cost airline
really counts everything else including
the staff the planes Airport charges and
financing comes 226 pounds
which means there's a profit per
passenger of six pounds
keeping costs low enough to make a
profit on low fares is hard work
the staff in Ryanair's
old cramped offices it means a battle
for everything that costs money there is
a head of stationery and you you go
upstairs and you request what whatever
item you want and you usually
cross-examined as to whether you
actually need them and if it's a pen
you're encouraged to go to the local
hotel and get them and if it's a if it's
staples they're given out by line rather
than box so I do banners buying by rolls
for the staff in Ryanair and I'm happy
to supply hotel pens whenever I can I
need a pen from the the silver silver'
Hotel in Katowice O'Leary keeps tabs on
the bigger items from his desk at the
end of the office every Monday at 8:30
senior management is summoned you had a
list of items to complete you had a date
beside them when the items were given to
you if you haven't achieved what's
what's on the list then you're in big
trouble
O'Leary adopted the practice from his
mentor Tony Ryan along with some of
Ryan's personal style razor-sharp mind
easy razor-sharp mouth and you need the
ability to decimate somebody fairly
quickly if if they weren't thinking in
the right direction it was always going
to be somebody's turn and if the hate
beam came in your direction it wasn't a
very pleasant experience the word is
that you're pretty aggressive at those
meetings I think isn't that there's some
of that is sort of firm but he call it
water font talk you know I think we
tried to have a very open culture in
Ryanair I would be critical of people
who don't accomplish what they're
supposed to accomplish but people are
equally critical of me you know and we I
think tried to foster a culture in
Ryanair where I think the person who
gets criticized most at the London
morning meetings is me I don't think so
maybe he saw that way but no I think it
was a pretty one-way traffic
yeah initially I suppose I've been in
that meeting for 10 years now so I
didn't like the kind of loudness of some
elements of the meeting but yes I've
long long I can't remember the last time
I cried in the meeting we've had a few
shouts and stalling out but yeah they're
very interesting I don't think she's
unique I think there be quite a few
people grown-man
include us I mean nobody added to my
knowledge has ever cried at her Monday
morning manager meeting including myself
but you know we don't we don't hang
around it's we don't have this you know
it's all we don't hold hands and sing
the company song despite being on the
receiving end of O'Leary's anger many of
his managers have continued working with
him for years you could have had the
worst gouging of your life at half-past
9:00 in the morning and perhaps 211 he'd
be sitting in or in your office having a
cup of coffee
he's not out there to upset people but
it's certainly a life experience and
I've developed 2g as a manager because
of Michael by 1998
just wait the rest Larry had done well
personally too after negotiation with
Tony Ryan for almost a quarter of the
company's shares
do you feel like you've made enough
money now I made enough money a long
time ago I don't know what is enough
after the elation of easyJet's inaugural
flight there was a drastic fall in to
get sales
Stella started getting worried you know
we were two months in it wasn't looking
good and at that point
Stella's pulled out his checkbook and
said spend spend spend in fact I think
he said spend a million pounds this week
or you're fired
Andersen splurged a couple of million in
six weeks producing a blitz of orange
advertising in the press and on
television we had to fill the planes we
had to fill the plane he was very very
basic at that stage we have no
reputation we had to advertise the
telephone number so people would call
and get on there and the flight to fill
the plane
when you spend those sorts of sums of
money you expect an effect and we got
nothing the public responded the public
got the message people could see that we
have substance
with easyJet making a splash and Ryanair
already established the big elements
started getting interested in these new
rivals it was the first time that we got
some acknowledgement of the business
model until that moment the discussion
was well these things they don't really
work they might not be safe how can they
do it for such a low price are they
maintaining the aircraft so we went from
rubbishing the constant basically to
saying it is a valid business model and
one who copied British Airways appointed
one of its star executives Barbara
Cassone
to create B A's own budget airline she
began by studying the competition
we felt that Ryanair was I mean I call
it a flying pub it was just all kind of
chaotic and a little bit dehumanizing to
customers and easyJet was too orange to
my taste I thought you know how much
orange can one person take British
Airways budget airline go
study of us took British Airways to
court claiming go back Amish easy
gentlemen I was trying to put his
airline out of business take nothing
away from me so Jeff but I didn't copy
them and in fact what we did was we we
looked at all of the low-cost airlines
on Southwest in the US as well as
Ryanair and easyJet etcetera and we
created her own a third one goes
inaugural flight it was Stelios who had
the last laugh I was wandering around
the call center as the folks were taking
bookings and one of them came over to me
and said you won't believe who I've just
taken a booking for Studios had booked
10 seats for himself
somebody called the police the police
just laughed we got on the flight and
Stelios walked up and down the aisle
talking to the passengers we decided to
give away free easy jet flights to the
passengers we'll go and I think that
took the edge out of it because you're
giving people something for free people
take it enjoy
after a couple of years Kassar knees go
started making money but it never got a
chance to prove itself da sold it to
venture capitalists who in turn couldn't
resist the offer made to them by none
other than Stelios all the stars aligned
for easyJet and they very shrewdly took
out their most effective competitor by
allowing go and easyJet to be merged ba
really created a huge competitor for
itself which was most unfortunate and
and I think the British flying public
lost a great product have reversed
traditional pricing of air ticket
in the past if you waited till the last
minute you might get a standby ticket at
a bargain price
Ryanair aims to sell at least 80% of its
seats
you see we launched route in January and
the first flights were in June we will
monitor the bookings each month as we go
along and in order to have any 80% of
the seats sold by the time the first
flight us is flown we will know four to
five months out the experience of
similar routes that we've had for a
number of years that we need to have 5%
so by the end of January 15 percent by
the end of February and so on we will
know whether we're over and are below
that target and if we're above it we can
increase the fares because we need to
slow down the rate of booking or offer
below it we need to reduce the fares
we track the prices of three flights
from London to Berlin as the flight date
approaches fares rise but when a flight
isn't selling well enough prices are cut
to increase sales in the last few days
before these flights the British Airways
fare rose dramatically leaving Ryanair
the cheapest with easyJet in the middle
lovely countryside lovely people lovely
food Brenda is one of many British
expats in the region there's areas that
are almost like a little England with
lots of activities lots of enjoyable
things and I'm sure that community
wouldn't have been as large if we
weren't near an airport and the low-cost
airlines weren't available nearby Limoge
airport 80 percent of the traffic is to
and from the UK passenger numbers have
trebled in the past 10 years and the
French talk about a revitalization of
the area thanks to the British exit I
even boasts its own English cafe if the
low cost airlines weren't around my
business would definitely suffer for
example there are there are lots of
Brits who have second homes here so
they'll often pop out for the weekend we
wouldn't see them I don't think if they
had to drive each time just for a few
days
Sheila Pickering moved to France more
than 20 years ago before you could fly
cheaply between England and limos it
really changed family life because they
can just pop over that the family can
pop over if we're having an anniversary
over the weekend this would never have
happened before you know gun ahve the
days when I trust you to go down to the
cellar fell 500 pounds the stands have
gone with the moving on and we're moving
on very very fast I think the greatest
contribution of the concept of the
low-cost airline in Europe at its most
idealistic if you like is that it
creates an environment where people can
cross cross borders easily and
frequently however balding may sound it
promotes peace if the low-cost
revolution has led to peace it's only
been achieved through conflict
Ryanair and easyJet have argued over
which is the cheapest and Ryanair has
always admitted it chases controversy as
an alternative to paid publicity
core of our marketing strategy is always
to spend as little money as possible
advertising we don't have an advertising
agency we don't use any advertising
agencies we designed them all ourselves
with a group of young kids who get
together once or twice so we can come up
with ideas for new ads and the more
controversial the funnier the more
humorous they are the better a classic
Ryanair ad featured the Pope whispering
to another the 4th Secret of fátima
Ryanair paid for it to appear in just
one newspaper that ad went all over the
world kind of annoyed a lot of people
offended some Catholics and it was seen
as a you know a really cheeky and I'm
kind of pushing the bullshit boat out
but you know for the publicity it
garnered it was probably the best ad
Ryanair has ever placed in in its
history tonight on watchdog the boss of
Ryanair who says he wishes he could
charge extra for fat people and she used
the loo budget airlines get plenty of
publicity they don't have to pay
anything for the BBC's consumers show us
send it more than one complaint a day
easyJet and the same for Ryanair
hello and good evening and welcome to
watchdog tonight so many people get
caught out and it's very common for the
complaints we get to end with you know I
will never fly with them again and I
want to warn anybody else not to make
the same mistake we did Michael O'Leary
the rider boss has been listening to all
that as long as you're talking about
Hasan I know we're doing a good job okay
you've done away with check-in desks
what's next in many ways Michael Leary
is a journalist and a broadcasters dream
because he just comes out with fantastic
quotes but I think all of us have to be
a word that he is very media savvy and
he will use us for his own ends if you
like height fares don't book Ryanair if
you want the guaranteed lowest fares in
Europe fly Ryanair it's a very good
commercial now welcome to our very
special Ryanair right I'm sorry it's a
bit
O'Leary makes journalist its jobs easy
by coming up with stories that write
themselves whether or not they're true
we are as you know working hard on a
plan to charge for the toilets so that
we can take myself microreel under them
we arrived in to Gatwick and Michael
needed to use the bathroom of course
we've no money no change so we had to go
and buy a can of coke in order to get
the money in a course then somebody
asked about hidden charges
well actually tell you about hidden
charges I go to charge to go to the
bathroom and of course love Michael says
something like that that media coverage
is absolutely enormous so it's not it's
not what actually the message is is the
fact that you're in the media generating
lots of free publicity that we're using
ultimately to convert into substantial
profits
Caroline greed must deal to the fallen
from O'Leary's remarks he might make a
comment in the press whether it's
putting porn on the aircraft or toilet
you know paying for the toilets or some
other he's standing up on aircraft
people think they're ridiculous but they
do believe it to a certain extent but we
all know that that's what my clears and
you know I would prefer that the some of
the comments weren't made but that's
that that's publicity we are still
married to clear up once and for all
some of the myths you want to charge
people to use the point thoughts you
want to have people standing up at the
back of the plane is that still it's
never been a plan would you like to know
is there a rule against Orion air staff
charging their personal mobiles in the
office yes it's one of the great PR
initiatives
does anybody a paid ban no they all
charge at their mobile phones but makes
for great PR if man we're so focused on
not wasting money that we don't even
allow people to charge up their mobile
phones
today easyJet is launching a new route
to Moscow while they've always been seen
as rivals easyJet and Ryanair mostly
slide at different hours only a small
proportion Brits now they're diverging
even more easyJet wants to appeal to
business travelers Russia's outside the
deregulated EU so this route needed
government approval
what was really good it was that we were
awarded this and I think it showed that
we have the credibility to fly the route
and it is predominantly a business route
so I thought it said quite a lot about
east jet today the goal is making the
most of us
last year easyJet started offering the
science seats instead of the usual
low-cost practice for finding a seat
when you board the called annuities make
an easyJet more like a traditional
airline and moving away from the
low-cost
we are completely a low-cost airline in
our operating model completely we are
also a low fares airline to the
passenger so what I think a passenger
doesn't say is I'm going to fly a
low-cost airline today they just don't
use that terminology they think yeah low
fares good value great service I'm off
I'll try you jet
in Moscow easyJet's party of journalists
and business people are entertained at a
local restaurant the highlight is a
performance by a couple of easy church
cabin
do not
the things appear to be going well for
easy jerk its despite the long running
battle over different visions of its
future surprisingly its easyJet's
founder who's skeptical about how much
more can be achieved he's worried that
rising fares caused by rising fuel
prices and higher charges by airports
are eroding the company's profitability
you know the the available opportunity
to grow this business must have gone
down because the costs have gone up as
easy Jets biggest shareholder he wants
to stop the company buying new planes
every airline at the end of the day goes
back because it buys one aircraft too
many that flies on one unprofitable
route and multiply that by a hundred and
fifty and you end up like Pan American
TWA and other great names of the sky
stelios his fears are at odds with
easyJet's management the airline not buy
any more planes we would be in decline
and we believe that we can continue to
grow as I said to grow profitably and
deliver returns to shareholders
welcome easy and for their first flight
and more opportunities for more Russians
come and see more president
much more scope is that the load was all
days to grow
well average rim now makes more than
three or four flights a year in France
it's less than two and in Poland it's
less than one flight every two years in
place if the rest of Europe starts
flying as much as the British low-cost
airlines should continue to do well
but Stelios has his doubts I mean some
of these countries that display very low
propensity to trouble is because they
live in a very beautiful country in the
first place remember you live in the UK
and you're sort of conditioned over the
last three four decades that holiday
means getting on an aeroplane and going
to the Sun mostly away from your country
because your country doesn't have Sun
but this doesn't happen in the South of
France and in Spain and in Portugal they
live in the Sun already McCall insists
easyJet can keep growing and beat its
biggest low-cost competitor in the
all-important opinion of customers the
difference between these generally is
that we have really good service on
board and on the ground and we care
about our passengers there's a big
difference there you don't think Ryanair
cares about a passenger I'll leave you
to judge that I think I think we're the
airline that people love to hate here
there's the sensationalism that comes
out of Michael's interactions with the
press but underneath the covers were an
incredibly efficient airline we're today
announcing and celebrating four new
routes here at candidature both easyJet
and British Airways
the strategy remains what it's been
since they Larry took over we cannot
offer a little fair without having a
really little car space so that means if
we have to get up in the morning and
have a fight with everybody we will
we're absolutely determined to do that
any of the carriers that we have seen
that have failed have all lost one thing
they lost control of their car space and
you do that in this industry at your
peril this is a very very competitive
industry very very capital-intensive
and if you're not in control your car
space you've got lots of problems coming
your way
Ryanair has demonstrated its confidence
in the future with an order for a
hundred and seventy-five new planes from
Boeing I still have this vision that in
time the flights would be free but we'll
get paid for all the other optional
services around now we're not quite at
that level yet but you can really begin
to say to people around the UK and
Europe your flight will cost twenty quid
in five years time but it costs ten quid
and then in ten years time it might cost
five quid then we'll be carrying five
hundred million passengers and why not a
realistic ambition and one of the most
successful executives in the business or
just another piece of O'Leary's spin you
decide how many more cities today then
two more cities today we do next is
Wroclaw and then back home Dublin should
be back in the office by about four
o'clock
these work has to start
