Panorama on Ryanair (2009)
Reviewed by Conor O'Neill via 
on 13 Oct 2009
item website
The death of "investigative journalism" in 30 minutes? The worst half hour of TV the BBC have possibly ever broadcast? A non-story in every way. Serious conversations need to be had about the direction of fact-based (and I use that term loosely) programming in the BBC.
Earlier yesterday I watched a video of Michael O'Leary hilariously demolishing some buffoon who attempted to ambush him outside of the Ryanair offices. Every single accusation made by O'Leary about the type of show they would broadcast turned out to be true. In fact it was far worse.
It was even funnier to realise that the buffoon was the one doing the entire show. With nothing to go on apart from "isn't he a big meany?", they attempted to construct a program out of flimsy innuendo and snide comment.
From the poor pilots who have to work hard to the people who have to pay extra for baggage, their puffballs lobbed at teflon were pathetic.
But then it became objectionable. Trying to bring in 9/11 to smear the company for driving a hard bargain is a new low-point in British TV. Then the pre-broadcast accusation that they walked away from a deal turned into "they walked away at the last minute". Have the molly-coddled old duffers in the BBC ever negotiated for anything in their lives? Perhaps they should and save the licence payer some money.
The fundamental fact remains that millions of people now travel who could not afford to previously, due to Ryanair and Michael O'Leary. Families split by immigration can now visit each other, small businesses can now do deals internationally. And if you have to jump through a few hoops to get a cheap ticket, so what?
I detect a middle-class snobbery in this show. They blame Ryanair for turning air-travel into the equivalent of bus-travel. They would prefer a time when only those entitled to fly could do so and the riff-raff stayed at home. It is exactly the same mind-set you get from middle-class so-called greens who whine about air-travel destroying the environment. What they mean is "the working-class rabble is destroying the environment".
Shame on the BBC. You should apologise for this spiteful, pointless, smug nonsense immediately.
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Comments
reviewer191971 at 08:26 - 13 Oct, 2009 said:
Great review, Conor.
I didn't see the show, though I did see the doorstep ambush clip. It's exceptionally lame to "accuse" Ryanair of driving hard bargains. I have to disagree with O'Leary though when he says that their charges are fully transparent.
reviewer191972 at 08:30 - 13 Oct, 2009 said:
Great summation. Would be very interested to read some reviews from English people and see if they see it the same. All your points are valid and make 100% sense but just wondering what he UK public think of it? Certainly not as much negative press around Easy Jet over there, people see them for what they are..cheap flights for those who want them. If people have an issue with any product or service they can vote with their feet and not use said service but as we all know 30 million people's wallets are very happy with Ryanair.
Conor O'Neill at 08:43 - 13 Oct, 2009 said:
My only issue with Ryanair charges on the web-site has been the difficulty in unticking some options on occasion.
Great point about the UK view. Hopefully we'll get some commentary from there. I find the current hullabaloo about having to pay to pick your seat on BA hilarious. Even Aer Lingus has had that for ages! Bring back free G&Ts, pipe-smoking and the de Havilland Comet I say.
reviewer191973 at 09:31 - 13 Oct, 2009 said:
Not sure I agree. The point of the programme was to show why the company is so successful and yet so hated at the same time.
Even though it didn't really answer that question (this is where I agree that it was sloppy TV making - not drawing any conclusions), I don't agree that you can accuse it of being unfair.
You are actually doing something similar to the Panorama crew with your sensationalist 'Families split by immigration can now visit each other, small businesses can now do deals internationally.'
There are many other 'cheap' airlines (Air Berlin, Transavia, Aerlingus, Cityjet e.g.) that make it easy for 'small businesses to 'do deals internationally' and families ‘split by immigration’ to visit each other and Ryanair certainly wasn't the first to offer 'cheap and cheerful' travel.
IMO, Ryanair is a well-run company, Michael O’Leary’s a very savvy accountant and the fact that he’s equally revered and hated makes him and the company more interesting.
Which I think was the point of the Panorama programme.
reviewer191974 at 09:33 - 13 Oct, 2009 said:
That was me by the way, didn't realise my comment would appear anonymously.
Pieter
Conor O'Neill at 09:51 - 13 Oct, 2009 said:
Thanks for the comment Pieter.
A piece about a company loved/hated is surely material for Richard & Judy not Panorama? They hyped the show as some sort of expose and utterly failed to deliver.
Ryanair did not invent ultra-low-cost travel but they were the first to make it work in Europe. The only reason any of those others you list offer cheap flights is due to Ryanair.
Do you not remember flying in the 80s and early 90s? I lived my business travel life using the infamous back-to-backs to con Aer Lingus into not completely ripping us off.
I don't believe Ryanair is equally loved/hated. It's a press invention. I know far more people more enraged by Aer Lateness than Ryanair. Like most people, whenever I travel in Europe, I load up ryanair.com, aerlingus.com and aerarann.com and 9 times out of 10, I pick Ryanair unless the flight times don't work for me.
reviewer191974 at 10:38 - 13 Oct, 2009 said:
Thanks Conor, the first time I paid for a flight was in 1999 (Amsterdam-Dublin on Aer Lingus)!
I missed the 'hype' you mention, not much of a TV viewer tbh., my wife had the TV on and mentioned that I 'might like this'.
You're right that Ryanair were the first to make low-cost work in Europe and they have done the market for flying short haul a great service by driving down prices across the board.
They are thriving because they understand this model much better than their competitors. Good for them.
However, there is also a downside.
I could say that Tesco makes cheap healthy food available to the masses by importing cheap French beans from Kenya.
I guess you welcome the competition this brings to Irish vegetable growers then?
Or: U2 Ltd. (the music group) moves its business to another country (the Netherlands), taking the potential tax-take out of Ireland and bringing it to a place that's more competitive.
Being a 'middle-class so-called green', I don't buy Kenyan French beans, I don't fly Ryanair and I don't listen to u2.
I vote with my feet :-)
Conor O'Neill at 10:59 - 13 Oct, 2009 said:
It's all about choice and that's what Ryanair gave us when it broke the monopolies. When I want business-class comfort or organic bio-dynamic beans I'll pay for it.
The U2 one is a funny analogy since there are now several hundred people working for McAfee in Cork after they moved from The Netherlands for tax reasons :-)
I think the current Aer Lingus dual-approach is interesting, I'd love to know what the split is. Pay low price for a totally inflexible ticket or many times more for a traditional no-penalty flexible ticket.
reviewer191974 at 11:10 - 13 Oct, 2009 said:
Agree on the Aer Lingus point (which has a monopoly on the AMS-DUB route btw).
Now, let's move on to the negative externalities. Or leave it for a discussion over pints next time you're in Dublin (or I'm in Cork)
Conor O'Neill at 11:16 - 13 Oct, 2009 said:
I like the sound of that :-)
On a side note, I wished for flights to Eindhoven for years when working for S3/Philips. Ryanair finally provided them _after_ I left the company!
reviewer191980 at 23:39 - 13 Oct, 2009 said:
Great article. I remember travelling for about €400 before ryanair , now thanks to them I have seen most of Europe. If only our country was run by Michael O' Leary
reviewer192008 at 14:24 - 17 Oct, 2009 said:
I live in the UK, and I'm not aware of any "hate" directed towards Ryanair. I really think this was just an example of bad journalism. And now after seeing the footage of "the buffoon", I am even more convinced that is the case!
On a side note, I have taken hundreds of flights in my life, and the only two times my luggage was lost was flying British Airways from Heathrow...