Face masks, not empty seats – Ryanair's view of aviation's new future
GP: In which I find myself in the unusual and slightly uncomfortable position of agreeing with publicity-hoover Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary. Strange days indeed.
Passengers flying with Ryanair face a host of restrictions – including asking staff for permission to use the toilet – as the budget airline aims to restart 40 percent of its flights in July.
The toilet protocol, designed to avoid queues during flight, has created publicity – but some of Ryanair's other new measures are perhaps more noticeable and widely applicable as the airline industry struggles to recover from COVID-19.
Among the new rules detailed in a video released by Ryanair is the mandatory wearing of face masks – throughout the flight and at each airport – and the possibility of a temperature check before boarding the plane.
In addition, the airline is aiming to cut down on social contact by promoting existing efficiency measures such as online check-in, automated bag-check and the boarding-gate scanning of passes and passports. It will not, however, be leaving seats unsold to maintain distance between passengers.
'It's impossible economically'
This is no great surprise: Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary last month called the idea of leaving the middle seat free "idiotic" and while O'Leary is frequently outspoken, many in the airline industry share his view – whether forcefully or diplomatically, privately or publicly.
Alexandre de Juniac, the director general and CEO of the industry body International Air Transport Association (IATA), told CGTN: "If you neutralize the center seat on each part of the aisle in the aircraft, you neutralize more than a third of the seats and you do not make any money, so I admit that it's impossible economically to operate these aircraft."
Although critics claim that maximizing sales threatens safety, it's worth remembering that the airline industry has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. With business all but at a standstill – in April, passenger numbers at London's Heathrow were down 97 percent year-on-year – many carriers have faced the threat of bankruptcy.
Norwegian Air was on the brink of collapse before a last-minute bailout from shareholders and the government in Oslo, while many others have issued profit warnings and appeals for help. O'Leary is not the only voice to question the economics: he's just the loudest and most well-known.
"We will try to sell all of the seats," he insisted. "The business only functions when we can sell most of the seats on most of the flights." He also pointed out the logistical problems of empty seats: "Family groups, when they're traveling together, need to sit together with young children anyway."
Originally published by CGTN Europe, 12 May 2020
Mandatory measures
While at the mercy of governments lifting travel restrictions, Ryanair aims to get back up to speed as soon as possible. The pre-pandemic Ryanair schedule was 2,400 flights a day from 80 bases across the continent; the Irish carrier aims to restore 90 percent of its route network and to run almost 1,000 flights daily. With numbers already down, O'Leary sees no need to further hamper his operation: "We don't need social distancing," he insists.
Again, while it's fair to say that O'Leary is protecting his revenue – and indeed that some of the efficiency protocols may only hasten the increased automation which promises to bring down overheads – it's also fair to point out that not all of the new measures are money-minded.
"The government has already recommended that where social distancing isn't possible, wear face masks," said O'Leary. "That is the effective measure against the spread of COVID-19, not ineffective measures like a 14-day isolation which nobody will observe anyway."
Despite the headline-seeking sting in the soundbite's tail, it's notable that O'Leary's airline is going further than some governments in insisting upon masks. This isn't a woolly 'advisory' but part of a commercial contract: if you fly Ryanair, you mask up. "You must wear face masks through the airport [and] on-board the aircraft," insisted O'Leary.
In this, O'Leary is again singing from the same sheet as his industry body. On 6 May an IATA press release called face masks "a critical part of a layered approach to biosecurity to be implemented temporarily when people return to traveling by air." Most major airlines in the U.S. now also insist on passengers wearing face masks.
Other airlines are starting to announce similar measures to cut down on the chance of infection. In an interview with CGTN Europe, Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi explained the changes his own low-cost airline are making to the customer experience.
"We eliminated all the touchpoints, essentially," said Varadi. "So catering is now limited to liquids and only card payment is accepted. We eliminated the in-flight magazine just to make sure that it's a minimum risk out there."
Commerce and compromise
Ryanair is introducing the possibility of another measure which could bring down its revenue: "There will be temperature checks," said O'Leary. "If your temperature's above 38 degrees you'll be asked to return home."
It's not clear what the subsequent procedure would be in that case – imagine if a hot baby ended a family of five's holiday before it began – and Ryanair has already been criticized for refusing refunds for flights cancelled due to COVID-19 until "this crisis is over," despite an EU law stating that airlines should fully refund within 14 days.
Clearly there is a huge task ahead for airlines – to tempt passengers back on board, but also to stay in business. With many budgets in tatters, the last thing the air industry needs is to block off a third of its sales – and it is hard to reconcile the complaints about their sale with the inevitable impatient scramble to exit the plane after it lands. If Ryanair raised their prices by a third to cover the costs of those missing seats, would the number of sales stay stable or would bargain-seekers shop elsewhere?
In the final analysis, very few people are forced to fly. Most passengers of budget airlines are tempted by price, and those prices – offered by vulnerable companies – may prove as important as COVID-19 countermeasures.
As the IATA's Juriac notes, "Our first statistics show that on board, there are very few contamination cases, and that we can set up measures to protect passengers from any contamination," said Juniac. "I think we can find the right compromise."
For all the abrasive undercurrent of O'Leary and the criticism of his airline, that compromise – that unofficial contract – is the engine of any commerce. Aviation will not be the only industry that faces tough choices as the world seeks a new normality.
