Ryanair Air Case Study

This case study discusses the analysis of Ryanair Air, a popular airline service provider, including its SWOT and PESTEL analysis, problems requiring immediate attention, and recommended solutions.

RYANAIR AIR CASE
STUDY

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
TASKS.............................................................................................................................................2
SWOT and PESTEL analysis of Ryanair....................................................................................2
Problems requiring immediate attention......................................................................................5
Recommended solutions..............................................................................................................6
Reflection.....................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Business environment is defined as the all internal and external variables which
influences the management and operational decisions of organisation. Analysis of these factors
helps organisation to identify the root cause of various management issues faced by organisation
and to implement the most appropriate solution for these problems (Ahmed and et.al., 2019). The
report will discuss the case study of Ryanair Air which is one of the most popular airline service
providers. The Irish budget airline is popular among customers due to its rapid expansion and
low budget services. The study will describe analysis of business environment of Ryanair and
various management related issues faced by organisation. It will also evaluate the appropriate
solutions for these problems so that Ryanair can retain its customers and strong position in the
competitive market.
TASKS
SWOT and PESTEL analysis of Ryanair
SWOT analysis helps organisation to evaluate its own strengths and weaknesses so that it
can grab different opportunities for its success and can identify the influential threats. SWOT
analysis of Ryanair is as follows:
Strengths: Organisation has strong brand perception as it was first airline to provide low cost
budget air line services in European market. The airline has lowest operational cost and fares
which are make it very popular brand among its targeted customers. Strong market presence,
large size helps Ryanair to effectively exploit economies of scale (Alderighi, Nicolini and Piga,
2016). Another strong aspect of organisation is that it regularly brings innovation in its services
and held high bargaining power against suppliers. Innovation such as online check in and
distribution, automated bag drop, airports to European regions which were not covered earlier by
any other airline services are strong forces which are contributing in strong positioning of
company.
Weakness: The earnings of Ryanair are seasonal and it greatly affects the business objectives
and profitability of the organisation. Aggressive fleet expansion is also considered as weakness

for the organisation as it can cause overcapacity. Ryanair is also facing critical issues due to its
deteriorating relations with employees. There has been negative media coverage due to poor
customer services and employee relations of organization. Thus successful management of
human resources and customer services is also one of the weaknesses of Ryanair.
Opportunity: Though there are various uncertainties due to Brexit, Ryanair has plenty of growth
opportunities. The organisation is planning to accomplish massive aircraft orders so that fuel
consumption and operational cost can be reduced and environmental impact on its performance
can be lowered. It will also help to strengthen its market position in Europe. In order to enhance
the customer services and relation with employees organisation is also implementing
companywide program (Asquith,. 2019) . This approach will give Ryanair an opportunity to lead
its rival companies opening doors to expansion of long haul low cost flights all over Europe and
in other parts of world as well.
Threat: The factors such as increase in fuel prices, currency exchange rates can impose threats to
profit margins of organisation. Being a part of tourism and travel industry Ryanair is also
affected greatly by terror attacks, natural or manmade hazards which hinder the operational
continuity. At present company is also facing most significant threat of lost management focus.
The conflicts and dissatisfaction among its various stakeholders can impose a competitive threat
over performance of organisation.
PESTEL ANALYSIS
The external factors are also playing an important role in influencing the strategic
direction of the organisation. The impact of these external factors can be analysed using
following PESTEL model analysis.
Political factors:
Ryanair operates in Europe which is under political instability due to Brexit. Thus there is
no surety regarding flight routes. Further regulations by political institutions like EU also impose
restrictions and various taxations such as competition law, CO2 emission fees and other taxes for
airline services (King, 2017). These regulations affect the operational cost and expansion

strategy of the company. Further conflicts with labour unions like British airline pilot association
also Ryanair faces different challenges in maintaining its cost and profitability.
Economic:
Likewise other industry competitor’s fuel prices and rates of currency movements and
exchange affect the performance of organisation. The increase in fuel prices or economic
downfall affects the overall profit margins. Further seasonal bookings and increasing inflation
rates makes it hard for the organisation to follow its low price strategy as per customer demands.
Social:
Social groups and communities in UK are found to be fond of holiday travelling and thus
budget and low cost airline services means a lot to them. This is one of the factors which make
Ryanair a strong brand in UK. The travelling preferences make it easy for people to choose the
low cost services so that they can repeatedly travel around. Due to this reason there is continuous
increment in sales of organisation (Klophaus and Fichert, 2019). Expansion of Ryanair is also
the result of income growth of middle class communities and accompanying changes in life
styles of people who sponsor multiple trips. With improved life style and education people also
prefer service providers like Ryanair who deliver good customer services with advanced
technological solutions in bookings and services in moderate or low price.
Technological:
For the survival in competitive environment it has become necessary for Ryanair to
integrate its marketing strategies with digital channels. The current y generation travellers used
to prefer technological changes a lot. Thus it is required for Ryanair to use various digital
communication strategies, online promotional activities and mobile application or website based
booking and customer services. By increased technological dependence of both organisation and
customers it is also possible for Ryanair to gain a deeper insight of its customer preference and
behaviour. It will help to resolve various disputes and quality related issues.
Environmental:

Environmental factors like climate change, temperature variation greatly affect the
Ryanair operations. As a result of these factors there are various occasions which lead to flight
cancellation or delay in services (Halpern and Graham, 2018). Thus Ryanair must seek
alternatives to adjust in such climate change or other issues. Similarly organisation is also using
aircraft fleet which are fuel efficient and which will also contribute in lowering carbon
emissions. This kind of initiatives improves the social perception of people regarding
organisation and also lowers operational cost.
Legal:
The most significant legal challenge which is affecting Ryanair is Brexit referendum.
Along with the political stability over Brexit aviation regulations are also unclear as the subject
may impose some restrictions over flights or air travel demands. Further the compliance with
regulations of both EU and UK can also create need of additional resources and attempts which
can cause difficulty in low cost strategy of Ryanair (Asquith,. 2019). These legal uncertainties
can also close down some of the operational regions of the organisation.
Problems requiring immediate attention
Amid the Brexit issue there are several issues which must be addressed by the
organisation as its priority.
Poor customer services: The employee relations of Ryanair seem to be ineffective and it is
having adverse impact on quality of customer services as well as brand perspective of Ryanair in
media and business market. The regular flight cancellations, service delay are also making it
impossible for organisation to manage the dissatisfaction among its customers. The key reason
for dissatisfaction among customers is inappropriate behaviour of staff members. The staff
members of organisation seem to be less friendly and supporting in comparison to other air
service providers. Further Ryanair lack quality services regarding safety, high insurance charges
and lack of comfortable seating also contribute in negative popularity of the organisation. The
service quality is considered to cause so much anger among customers that along with media,
negative word of mouth is also critical issue faced by organisation. In long term this issue can be
harmful for the organisation as poor services are not only preventing new customers from
engagement but are also a threat for retaining loyal customers.

Disputes and poor relations with the staff members:
Ryanair fails to recognise the employee unions. Thus poor working conditions to its
employees and negligence to their demands has also created a major threat for the organisation.
The unacceptable work culture and behaviour with employees, pay gaps and compensatory
issues with pilots and various controversial service contracts not only cause severe disputes
among staff members but also resulted in legal battles with its pilots. For instance cabin crews
are only paid for flying time and thus efforts or work covered for ground work is also not
counted or paid by Ryanair. All these incidences create a continuous panic among staff members
of organisation and long strike (Asquith,. 2019) . The strikes also cause cancellation of services
and thus ultimately making customers suffers. Many flights are cancelled on last moment and no
compensatory or support is provided to them by Ryanair. This fact has significantly lowered the
sales and customer loyalty. Most of the talented employees of the organisation are not willing to
continue their services with Ryanair. It is creating a big challenge for the organisation to ensure
the continuity of its operational services. If organisation will not pay attention to this immediate
issue then soon it may face shortage of reliable and skilled staff members.
Regular involvement in controversies: Another critical issue faced by Ryanair is that despite
having low cost model, brand value of being largest airline group of Europe and highly
innovative services such as mobile based booking, facility to book desired seat in flights and
many more it is always in lime light due to negative publicity. The controversies related to
Ryanair come in media very frequently and thus are not well with the long term and future
growth strategies. The conflicts with staff members, poor services and legal battles with unions
as well as controversies over organisational policies or service aspects have huge negative
impact on organisational performance, existing sales and expansion plans of organisation.
Recommended solutions
Apart from the industrial competition Ryanair is also facing challenges from its own
management issues and organisational resources. Thus for long term sustainability it is required
that it must focus on addressing the above issues. The organisation must emphasis on improving
its human resource management so that staffing and labour union related issues can be resolved
and a suitable balance can be established between organisational goals and requirement of other

stakeholders (Caputo and Borbely, 2016). Ryanair must work on improving relationship with its
staff member and must encourage or motivate them for career development.
Use of appropriate motivational techniques such as rewards, appreciation, favourable
working conditions and proper recognition of the hard work of employees can enhance the
productivity of the staff members. Using these techniques organisation can also achieve
employee commitment in accomplishment of profitability goals. Though organisation provides
services at low cost but it must neglect the quality aspect of the services. For this purpose
Ryanair must provide training to their staff members so that their behaviour can be made more
impressive and operational errors can be avoided (Grant, 2017). Organisation can also use
approaches such as Total quality Management so that efficiency of its operations can be
increased. Ryanair must also work on improving its communication strategy and digital
marketing.
Company must integrate all marketing mix elements so that total quality of services can
be improved and efficient services are provided to targeted customers. The innovations to
services will further enhance the profitability of the service provider. For instance company must
regularly update its website so that all its customers are well aware of the actual facts and are not
mislead by the negative publicity (Harvey and Turnbull, 2020). However in this regards
organisation must also not neglect the security aspect. Ryanair is also pressurised by government
as well as non-government factors to lower the carbon emissions. This can result in operational
cost as well as brand value of organisation among its customers as well. The existing efforts of
Ryanair seem insufficient in context of environmental projects. This thing may not go well down
with the long term success and public image of the organisation.
As part of this Ryanair management must increase their role of technical processes and
innovations so that along with its corporate social responsibility it can also improve its public
and media image. On reflecting to the above discussed critical issues and environmental analysis
of Ryanair it can be said that brand image of company needs improvement. Ryanair has always
favoured low price strategy for enhancing profit and market share. This strategy has successfully
helped organisation to gain competitive advantage and to grab good market share. However with
low prices people also develop a perception of poor service quality. Thus to retain loyal

customers and employees company must give priority to its values instead of only adhering to
low price model.
For resolving the disputes with employees, organisation must work in collaboration with
the employee unions so that welfare of staff members can also be understood. Ryanair must also
understand that success of an organisation depends upon the efficiency of its staff members.
Thus there must be an open communication between management and employees (Caputo,
Borbély and Dabic, 2019). The management must give preferences to the interest of employees
and low cost pricing strategy must not be implemented at the cost of deteriorating employee
relations or strikes (Alderighi, Nicolini and Piga, 2016).
Integration of these strategies along with the training programs for staff members can act
as valuable strategy to resolve the major quality and staffing regarding issues. Another
recommended strategy for Ryanair for improving its services is that it must develop and focus on
effective feedback mechanism. At present the complaints of customers are not taken or addressed
seriously by Ryanair. It has created a strong negativity among the service users. Thus for
improving its performance it is necessary that company must receive regular feedbacks and
suggestions from their customers (Lawton, 2017). The top management must take quick actions
on these feedbacks. The websites, mobile application and other digital technology platform can
help Ryanair to enhance its interaction with the targeted customers. With the help of feedback
Reflection
The analysis of Ryanair case study gave me valuable insight about management and
operational concepts. The organisation has been successful in achieving success in very short
term. It gave me a valuable learning that use of innovative idea and proper utilisation of
organisational resources can result in long term success. However it is challenging to retain
success for long term. While conducting swot and PESETEL analysis I found that business
success is not only affected by any single aspect instead it is influenced by various external and
internal factors. In my opinion among various management issues this is also challenging
parameter that companies must prioritise their problems so that immediate and quick solutions
can be given to urgent issues. By completion of this study I also learned to apply the
management theories to real business problems.

While writing this report I have to also conduct in depth analysis of business operations
and management issues faced by Ryanair. The research helped me to find out various factors
which can affect even most successful brand as well. For example Ryanair had strong position in
the market however negligence to needs of its employees and customers resulted in
mismanagement in the organisation. The knowledge which I gained while completing this report
also helped to understand that how organisational resources and internal capabilities of company
can contribute in addressing different performance and management issues (Caputo, Borbély and
Dabic, 2019). I also face some challenges in determining the solutions for the issues raised in
Ryanair case study. However knowledge and suitable application of management theories helped
me to overcome the situation and to address all the requirement of this report.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the study that customers and employees are most valuable
assets of the organisation and thus for long term success they must be managed effectively. It has
been analysed from the above study that in this competitive global scenario companies must
focus on improving their brand perspective among targeted customers so that customer loyalty
can be retained. It can also be concluded that for retaining talented employees and providing
quality services companies must also use tactics such as communication, motivation and other
training programs which meet organisational needs as well as preferences of their customers and
staff members.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahmed, J.U. and et.al., 2019. Ryanair: A low-cost business model in the european airline
industry. SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals.
Alderighi, M., Nicolini, M. and Piga, C.A., 2016. Targeting leisure and business passengers with
unsegmented pricing. Tourism Management. 54. pp.502-512.
Caputo, A. and Borbely, A., 2016. The firm’s strategy and its negotiation capability: the Ryanair
case.
Caputo, A., Borbély, A. and Dabic, M., 2019. Building theory on the negotiation capability of
the firm: evidence from Ryanair. Journal of Knowledge Management.
Grant, R., 2017. Ryanair: matching the activity system to the strategy. The Business &
Management Collection.
Halpern, N. and Graham, A., 2018. Airport business strategy. The Routledge companion to air
transport management. 154.
Harvey, G. and Turnbull, P., 2020. Is Ryanair the Southwest Airlines of Europe?. In Case
Studies in Work, Employment and Human Resource Management. Edward Elgar
Publishing.
King, J.M., 2017. Business strategy and airline models for operating managers. In Airline
operations (pp. 31-43). Routledge.
Klophaus, R. and Fichert, F., 2019. From Low-cost Carriers to Network Carriers without
Legacy? Evolving Airline Business Models in Europe. Airline Economics in Europe
(Advances in Airline Economics. 8. pp.57-75.
Lawton, T.C., 2017. Cleared for take-off: Structure and strategy in the low fare airline business.
Routledge.
Online
Asquith, J., 2019. Is Ryanair really the worst airline ever ? As pilots strike, customers complain.
[Online]. Accessed through < https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesasquith/2019/08/23/as-
ryanair-pilots-go-on-strike-are-they-really-the-worlds-worst-airline/#7f7b4a797216 >.