UK: Ryanair reports profitable quarter - Has the carrier’s brand health improved in recent years?
Ryanair has reported its first profitable quarter since the pandemic. The budget airline reported £1.24bn in profits in the year ending in March 2023. The carrier’s bump in revenue comes despite an increase in average fares as well by 50% to €41. Ryanair has further warned that its fuel costs are expected to rise owing to high oil prices.
How has the airline fared in recent years? For one, its brand health has seen some improvement.
According to YouGov BrandIndex - which tracks consumer sentiment towards thousands of brands daily - the airline’s Index score - which is a measure of overall brand health taking into account perceptions of Value, Satisfaction, Reputation, Recommend, Quality and Impression - has recovered.
The Index score pulled itself up from a net score of -26 to -18 between 1 January 2021 and 25 May 2023, even though it still sits firmly in negative territory. Ryanair’s Current Customer score has doubled, from 6% to 12% in the same period.
The Value score - which measures whether the brand represents poor or good value for customers’ money - managed to move into positive territory, improving from a net score of -7 to +2 between 1 January 2021 and 25 May 2023.
Ryanair’s Quality score - which measures whether the brand represents poor or good quality - remains in negative territory but recorded a lift in net score, reaching -34 on 25 May 2023 from -41 on 1 January 2023. The airline’s Satisfaction score - which measures whether customers are satisfied or dissatisfied with the brand - moved from -7 to 0 between 2021 and 2023.
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Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day.
Ryanair’s Index score is a measure of overall brand health taking into account perceptions of Value, Satisfaction, Reputation, Recommend, Quality and Impression and is delivered as a net score between -100 and +100. Its Current Customer score is based on the question: Have you flown with any of the following airlines in the past 12 months? and delivered as a percentage. Its Value score is based on the question: Which of the following airlines do you think represents good value for money/poor value for money? and delivered as a net score. Its Quality score is based on the question: Which of the following airlines do you think represents good quality/poor quality? and delivered as a net score. Its Satisfaction score is based on the question: Of which of the following airlines would you say that you are a satisfied customer/dissatisfied customer? and delivered as a net score. Scores are based on an average daily sample size of 6300 UK adults between January 2021 and January 2023. Figures are based on a 12-week moving average. Learn more about BrandIndex.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash