Ryanair to unveil business traveller plan

September is going to be a significant month for Ryanair. It will mark the first anniversary of "lots more Mr Nice Guy" strategy that Michael O'Leary unveiled at its agm last year. The airline also plans to launch initiatives aimed at attracting more business travellers.

They are essentially two sides of the same coin. Attracting business travellers was part of the logic behind tackling its image problems and improving customer service. That is something with which analysts have suggested it will struggle.

Oliver Streath and his colleagues at Barclays said earlier this year that these potential customers may be difficult to convince, although that did not prevent them from recommending that investors buy its stock.

One of the things that Ryanair is going to offer is more services to and from primary airports. It has already enlisted Rome, Glasgow International, Brussels and Cologne Bonn among others, and yesterday indicated that it plans on continuing with this although it is staying out of Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt’s main airport.

It says it can afford to do this as flag carriers and regional low-cost players in Europe are cutting back, with the result that it is inundated with queries from primary airports. Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said that it expects the trend to continue for some years to come.

It is pushing towards a 50-50 mix of primary and secondary airports. As it moves into new airports it will presumably kick off its marketing efforts with aggressive seat sales, aimed at shouldering its rivals off the pitch.

While it is getting into these bases cheaply, there are still some extra costs involved. Ryanair’s bill for airport and handling charges rose by 11 per cent to €195.1 million in its first quarter, that was around 17 per cent of operating costs and was partly attributable to the mix of new routes and bases launched at primary airports and was expected.