

Ask HN: Why is Ryanair monetizing airplane lavatories? - michael_dorfman

As I imagine most HN readers have already seen, Ryanair as announced a plan to charge passengers 1 Euro to use the bathroom on their planes, which has been met with near-universal derision.  
(See http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iZziXJPnwEjtWkoF4sD8vI8q2Wag for a typical article.)<p>My question is: why do you think they are going ahead with this?<p>Possible reasons:<p>a) an untapped source of income (seems doubtful)<p>b) to  discourage bathroom use (the stated reason)<p>c) the free publicity from the news reports (i.e., there's no such thing as bad press)<p>d) an attempt to reinforce their positioning as the cut-rate/no-frills carrier<p>Anyone have any thoughts?  Is this the collossally bad idea it appears to be, or is it actually a clever move?
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Fenn
It's a publicity stunt. You'll often see press releases from the low cost
carriers with stories such as this (or "Fat people to be charged extra") -
RyanAir are particularly famous for it.

They've got so much mileage out of this particular one, I'd be surprised if
they don't roll it back out again in 18 months.

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gills
Perhaps there is a correlation between Ryanair's cheapskate customers and
people who clog airplane toilets, and they are being crushed under the repair
costs.

Hey, you asked for open-ended speculation, that's what you'll get :)

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shard
Switching from free to pay will never garner good will, and when I run across
it in stores (Borders Bookstore I am looking at you) I always find it a cheap
tactic and makes the place feel low class. Ryanair should try other ways to
monetize. Have they put advertising in the bathrooms yet? I've been seeing
that more and more, and I find it much less objectionable than pay-for-pee.

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arran
After airing the idea of paying to use the toilet they've apparently received
loads of suggestions for other charges, so they've started a competition for
people to suggest the next discrepancy charges, the winner gets €1000.

[http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/news.php?yr=09&month=mar&...](http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/news.php?yr=09&month=mar&story=pro-
en-120309)

Check out the cartoon at the bottom. Definitely c)

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sharpn
I agree with Fenn, it's definitely c. They have form for leaking such
headline-grabbing 'information', including one about introducing business
class with rude 'extras'.

