He has made it part of the Ryanair style to taunt passengers’ appetite for the 50p flight with what are amusingly called ancillary charges. That is, anything that isn’t the seat on the plane. These generate 20% or more of the airline’s multibillion-pound profits.
Where does that multi- come from?
The Irish airline made a profit after tax of €1.3bn (£1.1bn) in the year to the end of March, even though it slashed ticket prices to fill almost 14m seats added during the period.
I’ve seen one number which says they’ll carry 130 million odd people this year. So, profit is around the £7 or £8 a flight level. Looks a pretty tight margin business to me.