It’s been very hot in Cyprus. Polis is generally much less humid than Paphos but, this year, until today, even Polis has been unbearable with temperatures topping 40C.
This season, however, we have had few complaints about the heat because many of our coastal villas are air conditioned and next year just about all of them will be.
I’ll update you on the Cyprus Tourism scene next week, because this week I want to dwell on the latest Ryanair prices to Ireland, Scotland and France which I have just heard about on the news.
From what I can remember, Ryanair did it last year too. I really do start to wonder why a company wants to crash the market.
After all, Ryanair is not the most powerful of airlines and, if the likes of BA and Air France really wanted to go for them then, like the many other low-cost airlines in the United States, Ryanair would be snuffed out in no time at all.
What the larger airlines did to the low-cost carriers in the US was to increase capacity and lower the price so that the underfunded, low-cost carriers just disappeared in a couple of months.
It all happens so quickly that no government competition authority, even one as quick and aggressive as the one in the US, can stop the inevitable happening.
Of course, if any low-cost UK carrier feels like complaining it should know that the UK competition authorities are half asleep and would never realise what was going on.
Of course, Ryanair may be misguided enough to believe that it will build up brand loyalty by giving its seats away.
Well, all it does is encourage the public to shop around then expect something for nothing at a future date.
The airline would do much better if it offered the capacity at a cheaper rate than normal, but still at a rate which made some commercial sense.
At £17 or whatever the news bulletin said, it would probably be cheaper for the airline to ask passengers to turn up and fly free. At least then you don’t have any processing costs.
Such prices do not help quality in the long run. There is also no dignity or professionalism in selling so cheaply either.
The public will think the airline is mad.
I really don’t think the air carriers have been at serious discounting long enough to realise what harm it does to long-term profitability.
I believe that, in initiating a price war, Ryanair is signing its own death warrant. We, in tour operating, know what it is like to take on the majors.
They allow you to survive as long as it suits them.
Once you become too irritating then they snuff you out in no time at all.
Open skies, deregulation and free markets do not create competition and bring about cheaper prices. What they do create are monopolies and oligopolies and the control of the market by one or two very powerful players.
Personally, I prefer good, old fashioned government regulation rather than the rule ofone or two very powerful organisations.
Ryanair has a much better chance of surviving if it does not mix it.