Michael O’Leary revealed his vision at the Airport Operators Association in which airport shops would share their profits making it unnecessary to pay for flights. He said this could happen within a decade and perhaps as soon as five years.
He said:
I have this vision that in the next five to 10 years that the air fares on Ryanair will be free, in which case the flights will be full and we will be making our money out of sharing the airport revenues.
I’m doing seat sales this week at £4 and I’m paying the £13 APD; I’m paying you to fly with me. Instead of promotional tickets being £9 or £5, they will be free.
Though not all airports could make this work – some such as Heathrow are just too big – but he is talking to smaller airports who are already lowering their airline fees to help growth.
Currently, the airline earns around 25% of its itncome via add-ons such as car hire and insurance, and predicts that faires will fall by to 15% in the next year.
What do you think, are free flights a reality? Leave a comment