Ryanair still serious about transatlantic plans — but stays realistic

by Scott Carmichael on

In a recent interview with a Dutch newspaper, Ryanair founder Michael O’Leary sat down to discuss the future of his airline. The fastest growing airline in the world still operates out of a tiny office complex in Dublin, with no intention of moving to the kind of slick all-glass towers his competitors fill.

When asked about the crisis in the aviation world, he laughs – “what crisis”. In 2009, the Irish low cost carrier transported 66 million passengers, up from 58 million in 2008. But better yet – they managed to double their profits. In just under 6000 square feet, the airline takes care of their sales, marketing, HR and web site management. Nobody uses email to discuss anything – they believe that getting up out of your chair and walking to the person in question is far more efficient.

In 2009, the average price of a Ryanair ticket was just 28 euros (about $40). Even with those low prices, the airline can make a profit. The key to their success, according to O’Leary, is to use smaller regional airports and to stick to a very simple principle – your ticket get you a seat and nothing else.

Ryanair has often been the source of jokes, mostly started by the airline itself. When they say they’ll add a coin slot to airplane bathrooms, people laugh, but O’Leary is dead serious. In 2010, they plan to remove some of the bathrooms on their planes, giving them room to add more seats. With just one bathroom and a coin slot, ticket prices can once again go down a little.

O’Leary also revealed that he’ll hand over control of his airline to someone else in two or three years. Despite his success, he dislikes the aviation world claiming “profit margins are slimmer than at the local grocery store”.

When asked about his transatlantic plans, he still insists that the airline is serious – it won’t be part of the current Ryanair, but flying a plane full of people from Europe to the US should be possible for around $15 per ticket. Like in Europe, a transatlantic Ryanair would most likely make use of smaller regional airports. If he ever pulls this off, he admits that he’d need to do it in one big blow – lots of planes, lots of destinations. Given how successful O’Leary has proven to be, I don’t think anyone in the aviation world should ever doubt he can succeed.

New York, Miami and Los Angeles most popular ports of entry

by Tom Johansmeyer on

As usual, 15 ports of entry were responsible for 84 percent of overseas entries to the United States last October. This is an increase of two percentage points from October 2008, according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The top three ports were New York JFK, Miami and Los Angeles, together accounting for 39 percent of all arrivals from overseas. These three ports gained one percentage point of “arrival share” year-over-year. But, only four of the top 15 ports of entry posted increases from October 2008 to October 2009: Miami, Orlando, Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale. These changes come based on an increase of 1 percent in foreign visits to the United States.

Laptop stealing baggage handler gang caught at Bush Intercontinental

by Scott Carmichael on


A particularly nasty gang of laptop thieves has been arrested at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental airport. The gang consisted of five baggage handlers working for a third party firm hired by Continental Airlines to re-screen transiting passengers.

“Normal” laptop thieves usually get their loot by stealing from bags in the underground sorting area, but these guys once again prove that most criminals are just plain dumb.

They were caught when they asked a passenger to remove his two laptop computers and place them on a conveyor belt to be screened. They then told him he had to go to a different terminal to pick them up. Of course, the machines were not there, as the criminals kept them inside the screening equipment. Once the passenger made his way to pick up his property from the other terminal, the gang climbed inside the screening equipment, removed the computers, and hid them in an airport bathroom.

It never ceases to amaze me how low some people will sink, or how they thought they could possibly get away with this crime. All five crooks have been fired by their employer, and bond has been set at $50,000. They face up to ten years in prison if convicted. Houston police do not know how long the gang had been operating.

Ideas for fixing airport security

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Last week Slate held a contest calling for the best ideas to improve airport security. Yesterday, the site announced the winning entries as chosen by a panel of security experts. Among the winners:

  • In third place, Marianne Nassef suggests prohibiting those on the No-Fly list from purchasing airline tickets. “Nothing gets denied faster than a credit card,” she says. Of course, this idea faces the “false positive” problem that has presented itself repeatedly with the No-Fly list, with children and other innocents ending up on the list. And as Slate notes, “[T]he bad guys are likely to catch on and work around the system…”
  • In second place, Neil Stelzner and Phil Nettl call for using FBI trainees at airport security, which would introduce bona fide law enforcement personnel to the airport security process.
  • In first place, Benton Love suggests what any Econ 101 student knows: Incentives matter. Under this plan, undercover federal agents would constantly test TSA agents by trying to sneak bombs and other contraband by them. Screeners would be paid a bonus for each prohibited item they detected, and docked for every similar item that passed. This would give screeners a major incentive to keep a careful watch at all times.

Slate is forwarding the winning ideas to the White House, the TSA, and Congress. More here.

TSA fails to detect gun at Montana airport – may be replaced by private firm

by Scott Carmichael on

Stories of poor TSA security screenings are not new – several days ago we wrote about a man who passed through a Milwaukee checkpoint with shotgun shells. In this “TSA screw-up of the day”, we head to Gallatin Field, serving Bozeman, Montana.

This may be a fairly small airport, but that should not be an excuse for the TSA to miss a firearm in a carry-on bag. The gun belonged to an “unidentified man”, who was honest enough to notify the cabin crew when he noticed his error. As is normally the case, the plane returned to the gate, and was delayed for over an hour while the TSA did their job (again).

Now, I understand how our constant “TSA bashing” be be getting a little boring, but this story suddenly gets really interesting. Airport director Brian Sprenger is so fed up with the government screeners, that he is seriously considering replacing them with an outside security firm.

Of course, a local union leader is “strongly opposed”, claiming for-profit security firms are a bad idea, because they’ll need to make a profit, while working with the same budget offered to the TSA. But to be honest, I don’t see how a private firm could be any worse than the government workers in place right now.

Failing to detect a gun is the kind of mistake that could cost the lives of everyone on the plane. Too much emphasis is placed on items like water bottles and false no-fly list passengers, that you sometimes get the feeling they forget to keep a close eye on the most obvious issues.

There are no immediate plans to replace the TSA at Bozeman just yet – but the airport is in the exploratory phase, which on its own should set off some alarm bells within government.

Check out these other stories from the airport checkpoint!