Having reported a 2012-13 fiscal year revenue of €4.9 billion, Ryanair earn over a fifth of their overall income through sources like baggage charges, premium seating and in-flight retail.
Ryanair’s website infamously requires customers to navigate through a huge range of options for extras and ‘bonuses’, with even the site’s CAPTCHA security measures featuring advertisements. Passengers are also offered a variety of services while in the air.
The new statistics, released by Idea Works, place Ryanair sixth on the chart of global airlines who have released details of ancillary revenue. It makes them the highest earners in Europe, just in-front of Air France / KLM & Easyjet. Ryanair’s €1.064 billion from 2012 is around €200 million above their 2011 total.
The statistics put Ryanair behind several US airlines, as well as the Australian Qantas (whose primary source of ancillary income is their frequent flyer programme). United Airlines easily trump the nearest competitors, with over €4.1 billion of ancillary revenue, compared to just under €2 billion from second-ranked Delta.
These figures from larger airlines do represent a significantly smaller percentage of overall earnings than Ryanair. The US low-cost airline Spirit, however, make approximately 38.5% of their income through ancillary revenue.
Ryanair are significantly overshadowed by other airlines in terms of the average ancillary spend by customer. Qantas customers spend an average of €43.30 on optional goods and services, making them the highest-spending passengers. Ryanair do not feature in the top ten, while Aer Lingus – ranked 9th last year – have disappeared from the 2012 list.
