Ryanair, easyJet – What do the numbers mean?
06/09/2013

Yesterday Ryanair announced that their bookings over the summer were less than expectation and their forward bookings for September and October were not as strong as expected. Michael O’Leary was quoted as this being due to the weather, competition and the impact of austerity measures in the Euro-zone.
Today we have Easyjet reporting record numbers with load factors (their measure of how full the aircrafts are) increasing from 9.17% to 92.8%. So what do the numbers mean?
There is a great tendency in management to do two things. If things are going well it has to be down to the great management team we have and we should all take the credit! If things are going badly, then it must be something happening outside the organisation in the market, it can’t be our fault!
But the real question is “what are the numbers really telling us?” Sales are up, but are we gaining or losing market share? Or are sales up because the economy has picked up a bit? Ditto for when sales fall.
So absolute numbers are a guide to change as we have to react to an increase or fall in sales, but we should always be aware of what the wider market is doing. We need those comparison figures to tell us if we are becoming more or less successful. And we need to know about the prices per seat if we are to understand the financial impact on the bottom line and the movement in passenger numbers.
But all this is rather old fashioned and looking at what some would call “lagging indicators”. Those are the indicators that tell us what has already happened. Even forward bookings are lagging indicators as they tell us what has already been (or not been) booked.
What are the forward looking indicators? Do we understand how our service has an impact on our customers – their satisfaction and loyalty? Are we tracking traveller sentiment in big data and its impact on our business? If we do this then changes in income should be less of a surprise and we should also know what the causes are and so what we can do about it.
Mike
Categories & Tags:
Leave a comment on this post:
You might also like…
Want to improve your reading skills?
Are you starting to wade through the mountains of reading that you have discovered for your project? You've searched the library databases, journals and printed collection and now have a reading list that stretches to ...
What a Mango Scientist Learned from Anthropy 23
Anthropy 23 and the ‘Emerging Leader’ title As a researcher, a setting like Anthropy was quite foreign to me. The conferences I have attended before were scientific/academic gatherings, where people presented data they had gathered ...
The beginning of my Cranfield journey as a Water student.
Joining Cranfield University is a dream come true! I made this decision based on what I had learnt from some of my colleagues from my home country who had studied here, and alumni of ...
Webinars and workshops running in December
Our Library Services staff run a wide range of webinars and in-person workshops to support your work and boost your success at Cranfield. They cover topics including using our databases effectively, referencing, study skills, the ...
World Soil Day 2023, 5 December – showcasing the Cranfield University Soilscapes Viewer tool
UN World Soil Day on 5 December is a vital reminder of the importance of soil in all our lives. Supporting growth of the food we eat; cleaning the water we drink; supporting the foundations ...
Collect your reservations 24/7 from the SOM Library locker
SOM Library customers, did you know that you can reserve items on Library Search and then pick them up at any time of the day or night from our SOM Library locker using your University ...