5 ms·

But at that cost, are they really making money? It seems that they'd be losing money if you don't get caught by one of their hidden fees.

gh02t 7y ago
Probably filling seats on unpopular routes that they would have to fly anyway. Perhaps in a similar situation to what's described in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8XZriAdB1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8XZriAdB1g , where an airline was flying empty planes to hold their slot at Heathrow.
- staticautomatic 7y ago
  Would they have to take a loss on the fuel?
  - dmoy 7y ago
    Sure, but that pales compared to losing a juicy timeslot on the runway. Some of those literally sell for 8 figures. You can run a lot of empty flights at that rate.
  - heelix 7y ago
    The other thing is they charge. for. every. single. thing... Want a carry on? Pick a seat? The price for these types of airlines have just about every nicety set up as a DLC, if you will. The base line ticket is cheap. Once you get all the extras, things are closer. When folks search for price - they get the raw price.
    - gruez 7y ago
      > The price for these types of airlines have just about every nicety set up as a DLC, if you will DLC? Not really. It's literally not something you download. Microtransactions is a more apt term.
- duhast 7y ago
  Additional weight adds fuel costs.
  - Retric 7y ago
    Modern aircraft are extremely fuel efficient. Per passenger seat a Boeing 737 MAX 9 gets up to 103 mpg including the weight of the aircraft, fuel, and cargo when fully loaded. On top of this skin drag, interference drag etc is independent of weight, further reducing the impact of a single passenger. The difference of a single passenger on a fairly short flight is likely less than a gallon of fuel. PS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitic_drag https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitic_drag vs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift-induced_drag https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift-induced_drag
wlesieutre 7y ago
Do they sell unlimited tickets at that price, or is like Megabus where the first person might get a $1 ticket but the price goes up as more are sold? There's probably a lot of business in people checking Ryanair's website thinking "Maybe I can get a £9 ticket" and ending up with "£65 is still pretty good."
- Matheus28 7y ago
  That's probably one of the main reasons: to be able to announce such low prices, even if at extremely limited quantities

gh02t 7y ago

Probably filling seats on unpopular routes that they would have to fly anyway. Perhaps in a similar situation to what's described in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8XZriAdB1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8XZriAdB1g , where an airline was flying empty planes to hold their slot at Heathrow.

staticautomatic 7y ago
Would they have to take a loss on the fuel?
- dmoy 7y ago
  Sure, but that pales compared to losing a juicy timeslot on the runway. Some of those literally sell for 8 figures. You can run a lot of empty flights at that rate.
- heelix 7y ago
  The other thing is they charge. for. every. single. thing... Want a carry on? Pick a seat? The price for these types of airlines have just about every nicety set up as a DLC, if you will. The base line ticket is cheap. Once you get all the extras, things are closer. When folks search for price - they get the raw price.
  - gruez 7y ago
    > The price for these types of airlines have just about every nicety set up as a DLC, if you will DLC? Not really. It's literally not something you download. Microtransactions is a more apt term.
duhast 7y ago
Additional weight adds fuel costs.
- Retric 7y ago
  Modern aircraft are extremely fuel efficient. Per passenger seat a Boeing 737 MAX 9 gets up to 103 mpg including the weight of the aircraft, fuel, and cargo when fully loaded. On top of this skin drag, interference drag etc is independent of weight, further reducing the impact of a single passenger. The difference of a single passenger on a fairly short flight is likely less than a gallon of fuel. PS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitic_drag https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitic_drag vs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift-induced_drag https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift-induced_drag

wlesieutre 7y ago

Do they sell unlimited tickets at that price, or is like Megabus where the first person might get a $1 ticket but the price goes up as more are sold? There's probably a lot of business in people checking Ryanair's website thinking "Maybe I can get a £9 ticket" and ending up with "£65 is still pretty good."

Matheus28 7y ago
That's probably one of the main reasons: to be able to announce such low prices, even if at extremely limited quantities