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New Ryanair PR stunt - fat tax and $3 to smoke in the bathroom

by Scott Carmichael (RSS feed) on Apr 22nd 2009 at 2:30PM

In the past, I always found Ryanair to be that annoying airline with the wacky CEO. In recent months I've started to realize that I was wrong all along - they are brilliant, and they have mastered the art of generating PR.

Ryanair does not care how they make the news, they are the kings of "any PR is good PR".

It doesn't matter whether it is news about their porn star flight attendant, or pranks about a paid bathroom - the airline knows how to be in the news.

And what better way to get in the news than posting passenger suggestions for generating extra revenue for the airline!

The top 3 ideas submitted by people at Ryanair.com are:

Excess fee for overweight passengers
$1 for toilet paper with the CEO's face printed on it
$3 to smoke in a specially converted smokers bathroom

Brilliant! Controversial, and perfectly easy to implement. And also so well timed, just a week after United Airlines decided to start charging severely overweight passengers for 2 seats.

The airline is serious too - they are asking passengers to vote for the best way to charge overweight passengers for this new "fat tax".

All I can say is - well played Ryanair!

Filed under: Airlines