How Ryanair makes £5m a day on ‘extras’

RYANAIR is making almost £5million a day from extras such as seat reservations, priority boarding and food, it revealed yesterday.

The budget airline boasted that it was squeezing more cash out of each passenger, adding to concerns that more families are being forced to pay to sit together.

In total, it generated almost £1.8billion in the year to the end of March from ‘ancillary’ sales. They include everything apart from the fare and baggage fee, and range from priority boarding to seats with extra legroom, snacks and sandwiches, and car hire.

It represents a jump of 13 per cent – or £208million – on the year before. Ryanair attributed the rise to a ‘higher uptake’ of reserved seating and priority boarding, as well as a 9 per cent rise in passengers to just over 130million.

But last night consumer campaigner Guy Anker, managing editor at Moneysavingexpert, said: ‘From what we have seen, Ryanair is the worst at forcing you to pay to sit together, so it’s not surprising to see they are making more money out of it.

‘Other airlines like EasyJet and BA will try to keep couples and families together. But Ryanair seems to consistently sit people rows apart if they haven’t paid. It is appalling if this is a deliberate tactic.’

Ryanair also revealed it had improved its ‘sales conversion’ rate – the proportion of travellers who are persuaded to purchase an extra – and that average ‘ancillary revenues’ per customer rose by 4 per cent to almost £14.

Details emerged last year of the pressure Ryanair cabin crew are under to boost in-flight sales, with league tables of staff performances posted at the airline’s bases. This slick sales operation enabled the airline to deliver a 10 per cent increase in profits to £1.15billion, despite cutting the average fare by 3 per cent to £34.50.

It said that 28 per cent of its revenue now comes from add-on fees and charges, and that it is on course to hit its target of 30 per cent. Officials are likely to examine Ryanair’s figures closely. Min- isters recently began an investigation into the price of tickets and ‘add-on charges’.

One of the main focuses of the probe will be allegations that some airlines are deliberately splitting up families unless they pay to reserve seats.

The Civil Aviation Authority has already begun a separate investigation into the tactic, which it says is costing passengers up to £400million a year in fees.

Ryanair rejected accusations that it deliberately separates families. A spokesman said: ‘Ryanair’s family seating policy is very clear and requires families (with children under 12) to sit together, with one adult taking a reserved seat for just £4, and the children given free-of-charge reserved seats – the equivalent of 80p each for a parent with four kids.’

‘Sitting people rows apart’