25-08-2017, 09:32 PM
The Ryanair case study Analysis
Ryanair case study.docx (Size: 34.95 KB / Downloads: 19)
Purpose:
The aim of this assignment is to discover how effective Ryanair’s strategy has been, what have been their competitive advantages and comprehensive knowledge of pricing strategy of LCC.
Introduction:
Ryanair is a low cost career airline. Ryanair started in year 1985 with only 57 staff members and with one 15 seater turboprop plane from the south of east of Ireland to London-Gatwick which carried 5000 passengers on one route. In 1986, inspired from the story of the company go after the big guys for a part of the action. Its headquarters is located on the grounds of Dublin Airport in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland, with its primary operational bases at Dublin Airport and London Stansted Airports. Ryanair operates over 300 Boeing 737–800 aircraft.
Its success is primarily down to its low cost operations. Price is the distinguishing element in this industry. Ryanair has a great market influence, pricing out new entrants. The ability to use its resources and capabilities to create competitive advantages has helped fulfill its strategies. Strategies like the use of secondary airports, increasing ancillary services, fast turnaround times and free publicity have insured success. Hence the firm has been efficient in reaching their aims of keeping ticket prices low, keeping on time and growing efficiency through high-tech resources.
Auxiliary services which constitute a large proportion of operating profit are at risk of reaching their full capacity. Other environmental factors like higher taxes and oil prices, as well as long term effects of their sometimes bad reputation, could affect long run sustainability. Additionally, in the future there could be a mismatch between the level of industry growth and the rate the firm’s fleet is expanding.
Analysis:
Descriptive Analysis:
Ryanair is an upstart air lines with an innovative approach to the pricing of air travel. Ryanair have started their service with 14 and 44 seater turboprop airplanes. The tickets are priced at a flat discounted fare of £98 which is much cheaper than offer by established airlines. Frequency is also an advantage for Ryanair, since it offers 4 round trips from Dublin to London per day. This means that Ryanair has the capacity of providing services to about 175 passengers every day. This meant that at full capacity, Ryanair would have a turnover of approximately £17500 every day. Ryanair flights would be landing at secondary airports around London such as Gatwick and Luton. Therefore Ryanair would be saving a considerable amount on landing fee en-route charges as well as handling fee. Being a small fledgling organization Ryanair has a small- staff size and less selling expenditure. Therefore all in all being a low cost, no frills airlines. Ryanair also focuses on providing first rate customer services and this would contribute to retaining customers. An analysis of an organisation’s resources can include its financial, physical, human, intellectual and reputational resources. In the deployment of these resources, it is also important to understand the competences and core competences of an organization.
Pricing analysis:
The percentile distribution of ticket prices with respect to advance booking in days is also studied in the paper. Advance reservation in Ryanairs pricing policy is very significant and plays an important role in the price setting for its routes. Ryanairs pricing strategies is very important that makes it a pioneer in the low cost airline industry. The prices of the tickets offered by the Ryanair before 20 days of the preceding flight do not show too much high price in the figure. On the contrary, during the last week prior to the flight, the ticket prices may be increased sharply. The impression of a steady increase in prices as the date of flight approaches is verified only on average.
Conclusion
On the whole Ryanair seem to be following a strategy which works for them. They are obviously aware of their business environment and understand the importance of monitoring it as they took advantage of the opening in the market when they restyled themselves over a decade ago.However they need to be aware that this environment is constantly shifting and evolving and therefore maintaining a close eye on it and being ready to adapt to any changes should be a fundamental part of their strategy.