Ryanair tumbles down Google rankings following site revamp

By Travolution

Ryanair’s website was sent tumbling down the Google results rankings for important search terms following a revamp that was meant to boost the airline’s brand image and make it easier for customers to book flights.

Ryanair had top ten positions in Google’s search rankings for terms such as “flights to France”.

But in recent weeks it has tumbled down the rankings, and searches for many relevant terms no longer include Ryanair in the top 100 results, according to data from web analytics company Intelligent Positioning.

Internet analysts believe the search problems are an unintended consequence of the revamp of the website, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

“They’ve screwed up big time,” said Sam Silverwood-Cope of Intelligent Positioning, a web analytics company told the FT. “There’s going to be a hell of a lot of traffic that they’re missing.”

When Ryanair restructured its website in March and April, it created a new set of URLs, but failed to correctly redirect the old pages. This resulted in Google seeing the defunct pages, and awarding a lower ranking, according to the report.

In response, Ryanair said that most of the 1.2 million hits a day on its website were from direct visitors, rather than those who came via search engines. It said bookings this quarter were about 5% higher than the same period last year.

According to Hitwise data provided by Intelligent Positioning, Ryanair gets about a fifth of its web traffic through search engines.

Ryanair said it was in the process of migrating various old website pages to its new site and it expected to be able to regain first page rankings on important search terms once completed.

“Until the site settles down, there will be a temporary drop in organic search positions on certain key search terms,” the carrier said. “We anticipate that it will take a week or so for things to bed down properly.”

The website overhaul was a central part of Ryanair’s strategy to rebrand itself as a friendlier, more caring airline and win back lost custom. It unveiled a preview of its new-look website a few weeks ago – highlighting that the number of clicks needed to book a flight had fallen from 17 to five.

Gerald Khoo, transport analyst at Liberum, told the FT that struggles with search engine optimisation could have a financial impact.

“There clearly is an issue that they don’t appear where they’d like to [in the search rankings],” he said.

Resolutions

Sure, you're going to lose a few pounds, join a book group, spend a little more time on the treadmill and a little less time online and maybe even clean out that old file cabinet, but these are boring resolutions.

The best resolutions are the ones we make for other people. In that spirit, we'd like to hear the fates make promises that:

•  will drop its proposal to regulate agents and require them to disclose their commission and override arrangements.

• Nobody will make phone calls in flight, even if it's permitted.

• The Statue of Liberty, up to and including the crown, will stay open, forever.

• Ryanair's   doesn't say anything at all, all year.

• No hotel company will introduce or acquire more than six new brands this year.

• Somebody will invent a way to incorporate a lie detector into computer keyboards and touchscreens so we can start to believe those user reviews.

• Somebody will figure out what to do with the S.S. United States.

• Namibia will figure out a way to save its endangered rhino population without the revenue it gains from issuing rhino hunting permits.

• North Korea opens its borders, declares itself a democracy, holds free elections and welcomes tourists.

• Southwest completes its integration with AirTran before AirTran's employees all reach retirement age.

• ASTA has a convention and just calls it "The ASTA Convention."

• The Visa Waiver Program spreads to the Known Universe.

• The pope takes a vacation and packs light; both become fads.

• The average age of retail travel agents, and their clients, drops to 35.

• The airlines wake up and realize that most adults are not 5-foot-2 and 120 pounds and start adjusting their seat pitch accordingly.

• The terms "sequester," "mixed use," "accretive" and "remediate" mysteriously leave the language.

• All members of Congress take a cruise and then shut up about the cruise industry.

• WiFi becomes free, everywhere.

• The U.S. and Cuba decide to hug and make up.

• Defying the antitrust laws, cruise line CEOs agree to eliminate noncommisionable fees, and the Justice Department's antitrust division looks the other way.

• IATA rewrites its NDC resolution so that everybody understands it -- and then everybody likes it.

• The federal government will ease its restrictions on meetings so that government employees can have professional encounters in conference centers and hotels rather than school cafeterias.

• Travelers demand travel insurance without being reminded.

• Some genius invents a solar cell that can power a cruise ship.

• Britain will restructure its exorbitant Air Passenger Duty and bring it in line with the departure taxes of other civilized countries.

• Journalists and bloggers won't put "travel agents" on their top 10 list of "dead-end careers" or "jobs that will soon be extinct."

• The Sharing Economy produces world peace.

Which? poll reveals best and worst of airlines

By Phil Davies 

Thomas Cook Airlines has landed second-bottom in an annual poll of members of consumer watchdog Which?

British Airways sister carrier Iberia hit the bottom of the table in the survey of 12,000 Which? members’ flying experiences with a 28% customer score, 9% lower than Thomas Cook Airlines.

Ryanair (32%) fared little better, gaining just a one star rating for luggage allowances, boarding process, legroom and the quality of food and drink.

However, the airline has since announced changes including a move to allocated seating and a reduction in baggage fees from January.

Guernsey-based minnow Aurigny Air Services (87%) topped of the short-haul table achieving four stars for elements like boarding process, legroom and punctuality.

Swiss International Air Lines (82%), Norwegian (79%) and Turkish Airlines (75%) completed the top four.

Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines came joint first (87%) for their long-haul flights with both airlines gaining five stars for in-flight entertainment, food and drink, flight punctuality and value for money.

Which? executive director Richard Lloyd, said: "Our survey reveals the massive variation in the standard of airlines. Once you've chosen your destination, it pays to pick the airline that will get you there without any dramas."

Responding to the survey, Christoph Debus, chief executive of Thomas Cook Airlines UK, said: "The Which? Airline Satisfaction Survey results are in stark contrast to the high levels of satisfaction our customers tell us about. 

"From our own survey - which takes the views of over 900 times more of our customers than the Which? report – we have customer satisfaction scores of 87% rating their flight as either excellent or good for their holiday this summer.

“This is set to increase as we improve our fleet further – we’ve very recently taken delivery of the first of many brand new Airbus A321 and a new A330, which are already taking short and long haul customers on holiday, By 2016, we will have replaced 50 per cent of our UK fleet and for the rest the cabins will be completely renewed.

"It’s impossible to see how this survey offers consumers a like-for-like comparison when Which? is comparing airlines with completely different product offerings that appeal to completely different customers – including, for our package holiday customers, where the priority is getting them to their holiday on time.”

Tui Travel to push for widening of package law scope

By Ian Taylor 

Tui Travel will lobby in Europe to have the proposed Package Travel Directive tightened and airline sales of holidays redefined as ‘customised packages’ rather than ‘assisted travel arrangements’.

If successful, Tui’s proposals would extend the liabilities of a package organiser to airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair.

Mike Bowers, Tui Travel UK’s general counsel, said: “We will say click-through sales are competing with our core offering and with dynamic packages, so should be treated as full packages.”

He said: “The EC is seeking, as far as it can, to capture all true holiday arrangements in an expanded definition of a package and has made a pretty good fist of it.

“The directive has been drafted with the intention of bringing in airline click-throughs, which fall within the definition of assisted travel arrangements where there is a transfer of booking data, but not personal data.

“We would like to see the same conditions apply to anything a customer thinks of as a holiday.”

Bowers added: “Anyone who cares about regulatory fairness, and fairness for the customer, should welcome the directive. It’s not perfect, but the European Commission has done a pretty decent job.”

He said: “Holidays need to be protected. You frequently have an intermediary who is not the end supplier, a service provided overseas and holidays purchased in advance.

"The market has changed since the 1990s, but for the customer these considerations are still relevant.”

Ryanair faces call for boycott in Norway

By Ian Taylor

Ryanair has been accused of employing cabin crew on “slave contracts” in Norway.

The accusation by a Norwegian trade union follows a claim by two former cabin crew members who are suing Ryanair over their dismissal.

Norway’s Parat union described the flight attendants’ terms and conditions as “a contract of slavery”. The crew allege there was a “culture of fear” at the carrier.

Ryanair hit back by accusing its former crew members of making “false claims” and the union of trying to distract attention from its role in negotiating job cuts at SAS Scandinavian Airlines.SAS

The former crew members released details of their contracts, causing a public furore in Norway and leading to calls for a boycott of the airline.

Ryanair leased the crews from agencies which employ the staff on Irish contracts despite them being based at Rygge airport outside Oslo.

Norwegian media reported the contracts included the following provisions:

• Employees had to pay for training and uniforms
• Employment could be terminated at any time, with from 0-14 days’ notice.
• Crew were required to pay a €200 fee to resign in the first 15 months of the contract.
• Hourly pay was set at the equivalent of $21 an hour in flight, with no extra pay for weekends or holidays.
• There was no sick pay.
• Crew were entitled to 20 days holiday, booked well in advance but subject to cancellation if Ryanair required staff to work.
• Employees were required to take at least four weeks’ unpaid leave a year.
• Crew were required to be on standby for work without payment and be able to report within an hour.
• Participation in union action was grounds for immediate dismissal.
• Contract terms were to remain confidential, with violation grounds for dismissal.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary dismissed the claims and described the former flight attendants as “unsuccessful and dismissed”.

He told the Norwegian press: “They just invented these false claims some six months after they were dismissed.” O’Leary argued no one was forced to work for Ryanair.

He said there was a waiting list for jobs and suggested the crew were “supported by labour organisations in the process of agreeing thousands of job cuts and 17% pay cuts in SAS”.

O’Leary added: “We’re an Irish airline operating Irish-regulated aircraft. Our employees are employed under Irish contracts.”

However, following questions in parliament, Norway’s foreign minister Espen Bart Eide was quoted on Friday saying he would not fly on Ryanair until the issues were resolved.

Questioned by MPs, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said: “The government fights social dumping, but it’s extra complicated with the airline industry.”

Ryanair's new security feature blocks agent sales

Nov 18, 2011 08:00AM GMT

 

Ryanair has made what is being seen as the most aggressive move yet to prevent travel agents booking its flights using the screen-scraping method.

A new verification step has been added to the Ryanair booking process, identical to the system many sites already utilise to ensure the inquiry is being made by a genuine human being rather than a machine.

It is understood the new procedure, that requires the customer to enter a unique code, was introduced this week. Agents could still book flights manually, but taking large numbers of flights by screen-scraping would be impossible.

On Holiday Group chief executive Steve Endacott said the move could present a major challenge for a number of UK-based dynamic packaging agencies, some of whom he estimated are up to 60% reliant on Ryanair flights.

He believes Ryanair may be unaware of exactly how much business comes from the trade and, despite chief executive Michael O'Leary's well documented antagonism to travel agents, may come to regret this latest attempt to cut them out.

"They could lose 30% of their business," he said. "It's a question of who blinks first; the trade or Ryanair."

The Irish budget carrier has fought and lost a number of legal cases around Europe in its attempts to prevent third party sales, although many firms are able to get around attempts to stifle screen scraping by using companies based outside of the EU.

Endacott described the move by Ryanair as "deeply anti-consumer".