Ritika Janiya
Ryanair faces a spike in unruly passengers, under the influence of drugs and alcohol, turning air travel hellish for cabin crew. Meanwhile, ticket prices tumble, with further cuts anticipated through winter. After recent IT outages worldwide grounded flights, Ryanair’s CEO is warning that such digital turbulence may well recur.
Bad Behaviour in the Skies
An issue that is attaining takeoff in the skies is one that involves Europe’s largest airline, Ryanair. Therewith, many of its passengers are increasingly misbehaving, with a good proportion of these increasingly common incidents involving alcohol and drugs. There has been a noticeable rise in the number of aggressive passengers, often under the influence of substances like “powder” or “tablets,” said chief executive Michael O’Leary. The increase in unruly behaviour is now becoming a big headache for the cabin crew of the airlines, with events of assault cases running into several numbers on a weekly basis.
This issue is not confined to Ryanair; this is happening with most of the airlines across the continent. Flights originating from popular beach destinations like Ibiza and Greek islands, catering to several regional airports into the UK such as Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, and Edinburgh, are facing this issue. According to O’Leary, Ibiza is the one that owns the infamous crown for such disruptive scenes.
To address this emergent problem, Ryanair embarked on precautions such as checking the bags of passengers before boarding to make sure that no alcoholic beverage was brought aboard. However, problems continue to arise as incidents were still tallied in flights to and from Ireland and Germany. More surprisingly, troublemakers don’t even fit one’s imagination of their profile. Ryanair’s Director of Inflight, Sinead Quinn said the perpetrators are often the people you’d least suspect, making these occurrences even more difficult to anticipate or avoid.
The Fight Club in the Air
Mr. O’Leary also referred to a growing trend of passengers physically fighting among themselves in aircraft.
It adds another layer of worry to the airline, as this action not only poses a danger to the flight but makes a disturbing atmosphere for the other passengers from this stressful situation. Cabin crews are well trained to deal with the problem, but the increasing number of such instances makes them always stay on guard and ready to intervene, trying to diffuse such tension from blowing out of control.
Falling Fares Ahead
But there is some consolation in the air gloom. The fare for a Ryanair ticket, which had been edging up 20% in the past two years, has stabilized and is starting to fall. Mr. O’Leary had some advice for concerned and perplexed passengers: “The only reason not to book.is if you are afraid of getting your money back.” He said that “fares will fall another 5% as we move into the winter.” But, he warned, they still won’t drop back to 2023 levels until next summer, 2025.
This reduction in airfare does certainly come as a sigh of relief for passengers who were being strangled by high travel costs. Far-reducing the fares stemmed from a large combination of factors: falling demand in winter and sustained efforts by Ryanair in shedding costs to meet the competition and remain afloat in times of trying economic downturns. The good news for the passengers is that, for Ryanair, the relentless effort to drive down costs intensifies further to hold profits in an economic slump.
The IT Threat Looms
Another worry looming for Ryanair and the whole industry is about more worldwide IT failures.
The one of a short while ago in July resulted in massive cancellations and delays, affecting thousands of passengers. Another is indeed looming, agreed Mr. O’Leary. “I think we can never say there won’t be another one, he said. Today, everything-from reservation systems to digital payments-is vulnerable to crashes. Mr O’Leary said he has continuous nightmares of a crashed Ryanair reservation system or its digital payments failing. A fact that in today’s world, most businesses around the world share with all of them dependent on major IT providers for their critical systems.
