It seems that people are remembering to forget the kitchen sink

737max

Ryanair reporting that income from baggage charges are suffering.

Shares in Ryanair are slipping after the budget airline warned of falling bag revenue

I hope the cached google article works:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5iBNUeA-LCYJ:https://www.ft.com/content/5920cbda-428c-3f53-ab92-2b91093edcbd+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=de

Is it a surprise that Ryanair are trying to find ways to make people pay for seats.
If things get really serious I can see them reducing the dimensions of permitted carry on luggage and if they do then I'll buy the smaller bag that is mandated by them.

...but on the whole their results for the 1st quarter were quite good.

cc

Wonder would that result in noticeable fuel savings across their fleet?

737max

Doesn't compensate for the growing girth in passengers as the demographic profile of the Ryanair passenger changes.
Yesterday, I had to ask a rotund passenger to stop shoving in to me as we were deplaning. He wanted to occupy the additional square foot of space which I happened to occupy during de-planning before the doors actually opened in addition to the couple of square feet he was occupying himself. It was no accident or oversight; He was shoving me intentionally to get more space for himself. No apologies were offered.
such are the joys of LCC travel.

Locker10a

This was always going to happen, Ryanair introduced bag fees a number of years ago and since then people had steadily but gradually avoided them.
In the early days many people paid the bag fee to bring their case as it was "the done thing" at the time, the "norm" and I even recall going to the UK to visit friends/family for no more then 3/4 nights and checking in our cases. That was well over 10 years ago now but we didn't think twice about booking luggage.
Now things are very different, people have become a lot more travel savvy and the airline have no one but themselvea to blame.
There's a pleasing irony knowing that Ryanair carry my bag for FREE now, along with hundreds of other bags when they can't physically fit them onboard the aircraft as hand luggage and have to check them in at the gate.
This problem was self created, and people have come full circle. Now EVERYONE brings hand luggage and a tiny percent check in bags. As mentioned this has actually backfired in many ways as aircraft can't accommodate every passenger bringing hand luggage and were never designed to do so.
Ryanair only exist due to their ancillary revenue, if they don't get it from bags they'll find somewhere else to get it.....seats maybe
P.s. People are very much bringing their kitchen sinks, they just carry them onboard now, and clog up security screening and boarding making these processes slower than ever

homerjay2005

cc wrote: »

Wonder would that result in noticeable fuel savings across their fleet?

no because everybody is taking them as hand luggage.

1123heavy

Well we all find ways. A bit extreme, but i was once pulled over for my bag being quite over the size limit (it was just packed full, bag was a fine size). Solution? I simply opened the bag next your woman, put on all the cardigans, hoodies and tops i had inside. Zipped back up the bag and presented it to the woman again. She had the look of "that's not how it's supposed to be". Well she couldn't say a thing and let me through. Plane was fairly empty so got on board, took off all the extra clothing and put them back into the exact same bag as they were before and stuck it in the overhead. Problem solved.

plodder

Is it actually a "problem" though? People are making more frequent but shorter trips, and presumably taking less baggage overall. Baggage handling is probably not seen as core business for Ryanair (understatement). It's probably safer overall for pax to be with their baggage for the screening process.

They'll find other ancillary revenue sources, which hopefully will be genuinely useful improvements rather than artificial contrivances like this group seat booking nonsense. Things like charging for wifi, or device charging wouldn't be unreasonable in my opinion, but that would require them to actually do something and build the capability into their fleet.

Locker10a

plodder wrote: »

Is it actually a "problem" though? People are making more frequent but shorter trips, and presumably taking less baggage overall. Baggage handling is probably not seen as core business for Ryanair (understatement). It's probably safer overall for pax to be with their baggage for the screening process.

They'll find other ancillary revenue sources, which hopefully will be genuinely useful improvements rather than artificial contrivances like this group seat booking nonsense. Things like charging for wifi, or device charging wouldn't be unreasonable in my opinion, but that would require them to actually do something and build the capability into their fleet.

But that's not the Ryanair way, they have never made ancillary revenue from introducing new incentives to make money like you suggest, they have always just charged extra for things that were standard in the industry, coffee, luggage, assigned seating etc.
This meant their basic advertised fares looked much lower than competitors, this attracted more passengers and thus they grew their business. What's happening here is people have matured, and come to know the tricks of low cost travel so well that they are almost outsmarting Ryanair and the likes. Now the airlines are at stage where they will struggle to gain ancillary revenues unless they come up with something decent, product wise to sell to people but I can't see that happening

PukkaStukka

737max wrote: »

Doesn't compensate for the growing girth in passengers as the demographic profile of the Ryanair passenger changes.
Yesterday, I had to ask a rotund passenger to stop shoving in to me as we were deplaning. He wanted to occupy the additional square foot of space which I happened to occupy during de-planning before the doors actually opened in addition to the couple of square feet he was occupying himself. It was no accident or oversight; He was shoving me intentionally to get more space for himself. No apologies were offered.
such are the joys of LCC travel.

No that experience is not the joys of LCC travel. That's just good old fashioned plain unacceptable pig ignorance. Its no less acceptable on Ryanair as it is on any other carrier, and indeed any other mode of transport.

plodder

I take back what I said earlier. :pac:

Travellers are taking advantage of bag rules to avoid fees, says Ryanair

Airline complains even toddlers are dragging suitcases onboard as passengers bring more and more luggage into cabin

Ryanair’s chief financial officer, Neil Sorahan, said the airline could review its second bag allowance, introduced in late 2013, as passengers were starting to “take the piss”.
...
Sorahan said: “We’re very generous with our cabin baggage allowance; a 10kg case and a second small carry-on. If everyone does that there’s no issue. It’s the people coming with the kitchen sink that could change the policy.”

Locker10a

plodder wrote: »

I take back what I said earlier. :pac:

Travellers are taking advantage of bag rules to avoid fees, says Ryanair

Airline complains even toddlers are dragging suitcases onboard as passengers bring more and more luggage into cabin

Ryanair’s chief financial officer, Neil Sorahan, said the airline could review its second bag allowance, introduced in late 2013, as passengers were starting to “take the piss”.
...
Sorahan said: “We’re very generous with our cabin baggage allowance; a 10kg case and a second small carry-on. If everyone does that there’s no issue. It’s the people coming with the kitchen sink that could change the policy.”

It will be interesting to see what the next move will be, I know its unlikely but if they lowered the bloody price of check in luggage more people would be willing to add it to their booking. Its a win-win for airlines as they get more people opting to pay for luggage albeit less, and less problems during boarding with and delayed departures as a result of excessive luggage being brought onboard.

TheDriver

I stood at carousel at TFS few months back before AL hiked up baggage fees (I booked very early due to specific dates required) and it was noticably quiet which is unusual for TFS

embraer170

I would have no problem paying E10-15 for a piece of luggage but when it starts being E40-45(Greece, Cyprus Canaries), it just gets ridiculous.

It is a pity Sendmybag have not managed to grow much. They can offer a decent alternative in some circumstances.

jjbrien

Not sure what Ryanair are complaining about profits are up 55%

"We are pleased to report this 55% increase in PAT [profits after tax] to €397 million, but caution that this outcome is distorted by the absence of Easter in the prior Q1," said O'Leary.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ryanair-profits-up-55-but-warns-of-costs-of-brexit-uncertainty-2017-7

Dardania

Locker10a wrote: »

This was always going to happen, Ryanair introduced bag fees a number of years ago and since then people had steadily but gradually avoided them.
In the early days many people paid the bag fee to bring their case as it was "the done thing" at the time, the "norm" and I even recall going to the UK to visit friends/family for no more then 3/4 nights and checking in our cases. That was well over 10 years ago now but we didn't think twice about booking luggage.
Now things are very different, people have become a lot more travel savvy and the airline have no one but themselvea to blame.
There's a pleasing irony knowing that Ryanair carry my bag for FREE now, along with hundreds of other bags when they can't physically fit them onboard the aircraft as hand luggage and have to check them in at the gate.
This problem was self created, and people have come full circle. Now EVERYONE brings hand luggage and a tiny percent check in bags. As mentioned this has actually backfired in many ways as aircraft can't accommodate every passenger bringing hand luggage and were never designed to do so.
Ryanair only exist due to their ancillary revenue, if they don't get it from bags they'll find somewhere else to get it.....seats maybe
P.s. People are very much bringing  their kitchen sinks, they just carry them onboard now, and clog up security screening and boarding making these processes slower than ever

When they do end up gate checking luggage for the last half of the cabin, at least from FR's perspective, you're no longer touching the check-in desks. So at least a small saving for FR can be made...

L1011

Dardania wrote: »

When they do end up gate checking luggage for the last half of the cabin, at least from FR's perspective, you're no longer touching the check-in desks. So at least a small saving for FR can be made...

The additional ground handling and delays due to arguing with customers will eat that

I'm waiting to see what LCC starts incentivising hold luggage to reduce turn time, seeing as automated drop kit is easily available now

jjbrien

L1011 wrote: »

The additional ground handling and delays due to arguing with customers will eat that

I'm waiting to see what LCC starts incentivising hold luggage to reduce turn time, seeing as automated drop kit is easily available now

Hopefully it dont go the route of spirirt airlines in the states where it costs $35 to carry on a bag and $30 to check one in. This price goes way up once you get to the gate.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Locker10a

Fred Swanson wrote: »

A small % check in baggage?

I would disagree. If you are ever in the bag drop area early in the morning it would show that quite a lot of people do check bags still.

This is entirely route specific, bucket and spade and ski flights will always see more bags checked into the hold, European city routes and business/commuter routes will see hardly any, maybe 20 bags per flight checked in!
So Ryanair are not lying they've just worked out the average. And it's correct that the majority of flights have very few passengers opting to check in luggage

embraer170

Around 16% of passengers check in a bag on Ryanair.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Locker10a

Fred Swanson wrote: »

On the flights I take, I would say 90% of passengers check bags.

From years working in the industry the only routes where 90% of passengers check in bags are charter flights where it's already included, that's my experience. I highly doubt Ryanair have flights where 90% of people regularly check in bags, of course there are rare exceptions.
Out of interest how would you know/ estimate this figure?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Chancer3001

If I was Ryanair I'd flip it.

Include 30 euro bag in the price. Give people a 10 discount if they click that they're not bringing a check on.

For the sake of 10 most people would just bring a bag.

Locker10a

Fred Swanson wrote: »

My guess is from the amount of people waiting in baggage reclaim.

Ahh but don't forget on a full flight there could be 90+ gate checked bags, these would be collected from the baggage belt.
If a flight is full that's 189 people, 90 bags can fit in the lockers, so if 180+ of those passengers turn up with hand luggage cases then your talking 90+ people waiting for bags the other side who'd have had their bags checked, on top of the few who paid for the large check in bag.

Locker10a

Chancer3001 wrote: »

If I was Ryanair I'd flip it.

Include 30 euro bag in the price. Give people a 10 discount if they click that they're not bringing a check on.

For the sake of 10 most people would just bring a bag.

But Ryanair's while business model is based on advertising bargain basement fares, with nothing included, that's why they appear cheap!
If people aren't willing to pay the 2-6euro seat selection fee they won't pay 10 for luggage!

mfceiling

What the fcuk are people taking with them? Seriously?

I came home from 11 days in france last night. With my daughters coats in my bag, passports and driving licence, all my holiday clothes and 3 new shirts I bought there plus a heap of fridge magnets...6.2 kgs.

Wife 23.4 kg suitcase and 12.2 kg carry on.

3 daughters 10.2 kgs, 11.6 kgs and 9.6 kgs.

Clothes upon clothes and then more clothes bought there. Women - you don't need half as much shìte as you need.

mirrorwall14

mfceiling wrote: »

What the fcuk are people taking with them? Seriously?

I came home from 11 days in france last night. With my daughters coats in my bag, passports and driving licence, all my holiday clothes and 3 new shirts I bought there plus a heap of fridge magnets...6.2 kgs.

Wife 23.4 kg suitcase and 12.2 kg carry on.

3 daughters 10.2 kgs, 11.6 kgs and 9.6 kgs.

Clothes upon clothes and then more clothes bought there. Women - you don't need half as much shìte as you need.

Just to flip that on its head, I can fit mine AND my toddlers clothes/needs in one carryon. My husband fills his own carry on AND usually needs extra space.

embraer170

Locker10a wrote: »

From years working in the industry the only routes where 90% of passengers check in bags are charter flights where it's already included, that's my experience. I highly doubt Ryanair have flights where 90% of people regularly check in bags, of course there are rare exceptions.
Out of interest how would you know/ estimate this figure?

Ryanair latest investor call was clear: 16% and dropping.

Charles Babbage

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Yes, a bag is checked per party. Nowadays a couple or family travelling will check one bag and take a couple smaller bags as hand luggage. So there could be 4 people waiting in baggage reclaim for one bag, i.e. 25% checked bags.