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Ryanair Condemns Hungarian Govt’s Idiotic ‘Excess Profits’ Tax

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Re: Ryanair Condemns Hungarian Govt’s Idiotic ‘Excess Profits’ Tax

#61

Post by arcticbull »

himlion wrote: post #53
arcticbull wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ryanair is actually a totally solid airline. They're among the most timely in Europe, if you pay them a few bucks you get an exit row and a meal. Honestly they're among the best of the low-costs (and every domestic flight in Europe counts as low-cost).

Most timely is partly because they inflate the regular time. a 1:10 ryanair flight would be 0:55 on a normal carrier.

Is that really bad, though? To me that says passengers value predictability, and traditional carriers could be well served by increasing their block time to do so.

Re: Ryanair Condemns Hungarian Govt’s Idiotic ‘Excess Profits’ Tax

#62

Post by chpatrick »

switch007 wrote: post #45
arcticbull wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ryanair is actually a totally solid airline. They're among the most timely in Europe, if you pay them a few bucks you get an exit row and a meal. Honestly they're among the best of the low-costs (and every domestic flight in Europe counts as low-cost).

They’re really not, unless all you care about is punctuality: - mediocre app with plenty of bugs - almost always buses/walks instead of jetbridges - furthest and uncomfortable gates - inexperienced and unprofessional cabin crew - non existent customer service - hostile web design, dark UX patterns - baggage fees which seem to go up €10 each year - inexperienced pilots and bumpy landings - force you to stand in hot ha…

Well, that's what you get for those prices right? If you want fancier service many airlines are happy to take your money, usually many times more.

Re: Ryanair Condemns Hungarian Govt’s Idiotic ‘Excess Profits’ Tax

#63

Post by tombrm »

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #2

>This is not an ‘excess profits’ tax, it is just highway robbery by a Govt. that is completely out of touch with reality Wow, this is an aggressive statement by a corporate entity. I know Ryanair has always been more outspoken than other corporate entities (besides perhaps Ben & Jerry's) but this was quite surprising to read

Ryanair's completely right, even with the tone. Meanwhile the Hungarian state media pretends being outraged and surprised(!) about Ryanair's decision of passing down taxes on consumers. This country's a joke.

The narrative broadcasted by local (state owned) media is still that Orban is protecting people from evil corporations making "extra profit" (that's how they keep calling it, no matter how stupid and meaningless it is) with these nonsense laws and he won't let companies getting away with passing down these new taxes on consumers. Obviously he cannot do anything about it, not even with Hungarian entities.

Re: Ryanair Condemns Hungarian Govt’s Idiotic ‘Excess Profits’ Tax

#64

Post by danuker »

ocfnash wrote: post #56
danuker wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dublin to London is 1h 15m by plane. Ryanair costs $24. A road trip including a ferry takes 8h 23m, and needs driving 600km * 4l/100km = 24l of diesel, which is about $56 just for the fuel. Then add the value of your free time, which is necessarily higher than your work time, because you have less time left in a week.

I expect that the comment above was referring to the negative externalities, not captured by the financial side. For example, having more free time is probably not adequate compensation for the greenhouse gases emitted (at the societal level at least).

> not captured by the financial side.

The EU has emissions caps. Each year fewer and fewer carbon emissions rights are auctioned out.

https://ec.europa.eu/clima/eu-action/eu-emissions-trading-sy...

Maybe it doesn't yet reflect the externalities on the environment. But it eventually will. The 2030 target is set so that the EU becomes climate-neutral.

https://ec.europa.eu/clima/eu-action/climate-strategies-targ...

Until that time, I'll take the plane whenever I feel like it.

Re: Ryanair Condemns Hungarian Govt’s Idiotic ‘Excess Profits’ Tax

#65

Post by nixass »

switch007 wrote: post #45
arcticbull wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ryanair is actually a totally solid airline. They're among the most timely in Europe, if you pay them a few bucks you get an exit row and a meal. Honestly they're among the best of the low-costs (and every domestic flight in Europe counts as low-cost).

They’re really not, unless all you care about is punctuality: - mediocre app with plenty of bugs - almost always buses/walks instead of jetbridges - furthest and uncomfortable gates - inexperienced and unprofessional cabin crew - non existent customer service - hostile web design, dark UX patterns - baggage fees which seem to go up €10 each year - inexperienced pilots and bumpy landings - force you to stand in hot ha…

Add false advertising when claiming where you gonna land. Airports often hundred kilometres away from destination.

Re: Ryanair Condemns Hungarian Govt’s Idiotic ‘Excess Profits’ Tax

#66

Post by arcticbull »

switch007 wrote: post #45
arcticbull wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ryanair is actually a totally solid airline. They're among the most timely in Europe, if you pay them a few bucks you get an exit row and a meal. Honestly they're among the best of the low-costs (and every domestic flight in Europe counts as low-cost).

They’re really not, unless all you care about is punctuality: - mediocre app with plenty of bugs - almost always buses/walks instead of jetbridges - furthest and uncomfortable gates - inexperienced and unprofessional cabin crew - non existent customer service - hostile web design, dark UX patterns - baggage fees which seem to go up €10 each year - inexperienced pilots and bumpy landings - force you to stand in hot ha…

I guess my response would be: most airline apps are garbage. Any airline risks ending up at a remote stand (just had 3 legs on Lufthansa at Frankfurt on A320s that all ended up at or departed from remote stands).

Yes, the gates are far away and unpleasant, but I mean, some airline would get them no matter what - Ryanair is just passing on the savings of doing so.

Most airlines have huge baggage fees that are basically just as high. Fees on for instance BA are in my experience just straight up higher on top of higher base fares.

And yeah, inflexible T&C are where they make their money.

If you compare a given flight, and add up the fees, you'll pay a lot more to a full-service carrier and get basically the exact same - but less timely.

I guess what I'm saying is if I'm flying 2-3 hours, on the same Recaro slimline domestic seat with 17.x" width and 31" pitch - no matter the airline - I just want to be off the plane, on schedule. And if I can pay $15 for an exit row, I'm pretty chill.

Re: Ryanair Condemns Hungarian Govt’s Idiotic ‘Excess Profits’ Tax

#67

Post by fy20 »

kmlx wrote: post #19
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #2

>This is not an ‘excess profits’ tax, it is just highway robbery by a Govt. that is completely out of touch with reality Wow, this is an aggressive statement by a corporate entity. I know Ryanair has always been more outspoken than other corporate entities (besides perhaps Ben & Jerry's) but this was quite surprising to read

what's more shocking to me is the quality of flying Ryanair vs how outspoken their CEO is. if you only read his comments, you would think this company is so solid that the CEO has complete free rein. and then you fly Ryanair and you realise it's just shock advertising.

Ryanair is really no different to any other short haul flight where you are flying economy in Europe. You'll get the same service (i.e. being expected to pay for any extras: a specific seat, baggage above the bare minimum, food & drinks) with British Airways or Lufthansa on short haul flights too.

One of the advantages people often miss about Ryanair is they connect so many airports, that you can often find a direct flight where you would need to change with a more 'premium' airline that follows the hub & spoke model.

Re: Ryanair Condemns Hungarian Govt’s Idiotic ‘Excess Profits’ Tax

#68

Post by dlp211 »

jpgvm wrote: post #28
j_walter wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's kind of refreshing to see something that hasn't passed through a public relations filter. That was a big part of Trump's appeal to his fan base as well...however that kind of talk is not becoming of someone in a prestigious position like president (or CEO) and ruins their credibility to get things done.

Hasn't been a problem for Musk or O'Leary when it comes to getting stuff done. It has other downsides sure, GSD isn't one of them.

They GSD despite their bad personalities, not because of them. They are the exception to the rule.

Re: Ryanair Condemns Hungarian Govt’s Idiotic ‘Excess Profits’ Tax

#69

Post by s_dev »

kmlx wrote: post #19
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #2

>This is not an ‘excess profits’ tax, it is just highway robbery by a Govt. that is completely out of touch with reality Wow, this is an aggressive statement by a corporate entity. I know Ryanair has always been more outspoken than other corporate entities (besides perhaps Ben & Jerry's) but this was quite surprising to read

what's more shocking to me is the quality of flying Ryanair vs how outspoken their CEO is. if you only read his comments, you would think this company is so solid that the CEO has complete free rein. and then you fly Ryanair and you realise it's just shock advertising.

Not to be a pedant but the Ryanair CEO is Eddie Wilson -- Michael O'Leary now heads up the umbrella group behind Ryanair. It's astonishing to me that the Press Release outlines suggests otherwise.

Re: Ryanair Condemns Hungarian Govt’s Idiotic ‘Excess Profits’ Tax

#70

Post by mthoms »

ntoskrnl wrote: post #55
doliveira wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At some level, being constrained and pretending is part of being civilized. People admiring "unhingedness", specially coming from people in positions of power, just sound immature, at best.

He doesn't seem unhinged to me. He seems like he has a singular goal: lowest ticket prices, and he's willing to entertain crazy ideas in pursuit of that goal that nobody else would. It's a refreshingly honest take on their corporate strategy. What's wrong with that? And to state the obvious, if as a traveler you don't share that goal of getting the absolute cheapest ticket at all costs, you shouldn't fly Ryanair. But…

>He seems like he has a singular goal: lowest ticket prices

That's just a means to an end for his real singular goal: higher profits

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but his real singular goal is not "lowest ticket prices".

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