O'Leary is Calling Your Bluff

Not so long ago Hilary Clinton told the world in some detail how, during a visit to Bosnia, she had come under sniper fire attack.  It was a great story apart from one small detail; it didn’t actually happen.  When she was asked to explain her previous claim, Hilary plucked a word out of the dictionary that no one had heard for nearly a century.   She said that she had ‘misspoke’. To misspeak is to ‘express oneself in an insufficiently clear or accurate way’.  It’s not quite the same as lying, which as we all know is not a nice word, but it’s pretty close.

I was reminded of Hilary Clinton and her handy new word when I read the news last week that Michael O’Leary had said, ‘We want to work with travel agents.’

Michael’s record in this area is not strong.  The only time I’ve been in the same room as him was at a Lunn Poly Regional Managers’ conference in Dublin in the late nineties.  At the time they’d become very accustomed to suppliers telling them how brilliant and lovely they were.  Arriving ten minutes late for his presentation with a pint of Guinness in his hand (it was ten in the morning), he spent fifteen minutes telling them what a waste of space travel agents were.  I remember thinking what at novel approach this was.  He was young, confident, articulate and convincing, and I liked him.  When he left the stage I was in no doubt that he had a plan - and that travel agents were definitely not part of it.

In the years since then, Ryanair has demonstrated that a short haul flight is essentially a commodity product.  Customers want to get from A to B (or at least somewhere reasonably close to B) safely and on time.  Beyond that, for the vast majority, the frills are just frills and not worth paying a premium for.  There is no doubt that O’Leary still has travel agents down as a frill too.  In his mind, you don’t add value, you add cost.  So just after he says he wants to work with you, he also says he wants no ‘hidden charges’ (agent markup) and he wants no GDS fees.

Maybe Michael misspoke.  He doesn’t really want to work with you; he wants you to work for him - for free.  He wants you to finally accept that the short haul flight is indeed a commodity, albeit one which often forms an essential part of a bigger differentiated holiday experience.  On this, I think he’s right. 

The question you need to ask yourself as a travel agent is whether you really are just a frill in the booking process or if you’re genuinely adding value.  If you’re adding value and your customers are prepared to pay for it, then there’s no problem.

As far as I can see, apart from possibly slowing down on the Guinness, Michael O’Leary hasn’t changed at all. He’s calling your bluff.