The low budget airline Ryanair is rumoured to be contemplating charging passengers to use the on board toilet facilities. The budget airline vows to offer low price basic tickets and then charges passengers for extras such as additional luggage, airport check in, on board snacks and for credit card payments. It is possible that Ryanair will adopt this new charging policy for the on board toilets, but I for one think this is stretching the definition of the term “extras” a little too far. It is too much to charge passengers to use the toilet because it is surely a human being’s right to go when they need to. Imagine a scenario whereby you do not have the cash to on you to go to the loo. Surely you would not be expected to hold it from say London to Madrid.

Ryanair have recently tried to squash any rumours, and have deemed them untrue. They state that the airline will not be introducing a pay per use toilet scheme in the near future.

I took a number of internal flights in the states with Delta, South West and Jet Blue last year to prevent long Greyhound bus journeys and because the difference in price was marginal. A flight from Las Vegas to San Francisco only cost me $30 more than the equivalent bus ride, which left me asking why are more people not flying. The only advantage of the Greyhound buses I can see is that the terminals are in the centre of town reducing transfer fees from out of town airports. Anyway, I was surprised to see that many of my internal flights were half empty and we were able to spread out across entire rows.

The term for this phenomenon is “ghost flight”. Now there is nothing spooky about a ghost flight as the name may suggest, but in recent years they have sparked anger from environmentalists and in the past week have irritated people stranded in Bangkok where flights are taking off without passengers. It is estimated that if a Boeing 747 flew from London to Chicago, London to Hong Kong and then London to Australia, it would emit the same amount of carbon dioxide as 300 motorists do in a year. This is clearly an unacceptable statistic and as a consequence the Aviation Environmental Federation stepped in late last year. They enforced an environmental tax of up to £80 per available ticket rather than a flat rate per aircraft. In my opinion this was a brilliant move and a great incentive for airlines to fill their seats and reduce half filled flights.

From what I can see, America’s problem stems from budget airlines being run like buses. Although passengers are sometimes asked to spill over to later flights if theirs is not full, it is more often the case that the flight goes half empty perhaps to retain good customer relations in a competitive market. Airlines will have to fill seats and merge flights but also balance this with keeping customers loyal to their service.

As I do not fly internally on budget airlines often, I invite you to leave some comments as to whether you have seen a reduction in the number of ghost flights over the past year as a result of this new taxing policy.

Continuing the airline pricing theme from one of last weeks posts, I stumbled across this story about American Airlines. I still cannot decide if it is actually a joke or not because it sounds absurd. I cannot really get to grips with this article but it seems as though American Airlines are charging surcharges to customers who are not even flying. This quote is taken from theonion.com:

“Tough times unfortunately mean tough measures,” American Airlines president Gerard Arpey said.”It’s never an easy decision to ask our loyal customers, as well as thousands of people chosen at random out of a telephone book, to pay a little extra, but that’s just the reality of today’s economic climate. We hope all Americans will understand this when receiving one of our new bills in the mail.”

The rest of the article can be found at the link below so please tell me what is going on? Is this a joke or do American airlines seriously think people are going to pay?

Rest of Article

If you have been paying attention when flying you will notice that some economy seats have extra or sometimes unlimited leg room just because they are at the front of an aisle near to the galley, or over the wing/emergency exit. If you have ever used a self service check in you may have noticed how customers are wise to this and that these seats get snapped up very quickly. However, this first come first served allocation system is quickly changing.

This month Singapore Airlines, which incidentally were voted the number one international airline in the Conde Nast Traveler Annual Readers’ Choice Awards, have started to charge economy fliers for sitting in these roomier seats. Singapore Airlines charge £32 each way on all flights (except some short haul routes) for this privilege and could intend to add new categories to this pricing structure for economy seating. Air France have already introduced a £42 each way charge for the more spacious seats on flights to the USA.

This seems like a stunt the airlines have decided to pull during hard times to make extra money. If people are willing to pay for the extra room, who could blame Singapore Airlines for cashing in? I for one would not bother for a short flight but on a lengthier flight I may be persuaded. But what could this mean for you round the world ticket holders?

Well, if an introduction of extra seat categories in economy class is just around the corner, round the world ticket holders could be in for a rough ride. As these tickets offer such good value, you may get relegated to non aisle seats, on the back row where the seats may not recline, or worse still, next to the toilet. I had plenty of experience of this when I was flying on my ticket and did suspect that we were flagged up on check in and allocated less desirable seats.

So, would you be willing to spend that extra bit of cash for a better seat that you may have been appointed anyway under the current seat pricing structure? Or would you rather settle for saving the money and opt for something cheaper. Leave a comment to have your say.

This week the budget airline Ryanair, typically known for its incredibly low air fares to Europe, announced plans to offer flights to the USA for as little as $12. They have secured landing space in New York, Rhode Island and Baltimore with new locations to be considered. To compensate for the low prices, Ryanair hopes to recoup its money through foods sales, duty free, and in flight entertainment.

Ryanair will have to splash out for a new fleet of aircraft for the long haul flights which will be difficult to budget for in the current recession. We will have to see how this story unfolds to see if Ryanair can deliver this feat. I cannot imagine a trans Atlantic flight being particularly comfortable on a budget airline but it still may be a popular option for those trying to save a few pennies.