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Relaxed attitude is paying off for Ryanair

Relaxing Ryanair's rules and easing charges has made Ryanair more appealing to travellers, according to the company's latest financial report.

Relaxing Ryanair’s rules and easing charges has made Ryanair more appealing to travellers, according to the company’s latest financial report.

Last year, the airline underwent a major service overhaul, which was designed to stop ‘unnecessarily pissing people off’ – words of the successful Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary.

Changes included steering away from free seating to allocated seats.

The Observer reports that this put an end to gate traffic and allowed Ryanair staff to better handle boarding passengers.

Other changes is the allowance of a second carry-on bag.

Ryanair

They may only seem like small changes, but according to the airline’s latest figures, they’ve helped bring in new business.

Profits at the budget airline skyrocketed by 66 percent to €867 million (AU$12.4 million) for the first full year since the conversion.

Airline revenue increased by 12 percent to 5.6 million euros.

O’Leary said the ‘Always Getting Better’ programme has attracted millions of new customers.

More specifically, there was an 11 percent increase in passenger numbers to over 90.6 million – up from 81.7 million the previous financial year.

Fuel costs were down one percent to 1,992 million euros while handling and airport charges increased by 15 percent, to EUR712.8 million.

In line with additional profits, spending also increased by 21 percent to reach around 233.9 million euros.

To commemorate the growth and to continue to expansion plan, the group has ordered 183 new Boeing B737-800 aircraft due to be delivered by 2018 and 200 further aircraft between 2019-2023.

The company expects to make further savings in the next two years as oil prices continue to fall.

Do you think the relaxed new Ryanair is the reason for growing profits?