Thursday 5 March 2015

New Ryanair Look



A refreshing of its yellow-heavy interiors - which Michael O'Leary himself has labelled "garish" - was announced along with a swathe of changes at an event in London yesterday.

It saw Ryanair launch a Customer Charter, a series of promises which its CEO said “we will live by” in the coming years, and a new wave of its 'Always Getting Better' campaign.

The first phase of its interior refresh will include more destination images, more blue and “less yellow” tones, according to the airline's Chief Marketing Officer, Kenny Jacobs.

The colour changes will roll out from this month, starting with a "toning down" of Ryanair's notorious yellow,  with a 'Low Fares Made Simple' tagline featuring along the overhead bins.
"We're going to see more use of blue, more messaging, and bulkheads will show pictures of beaches, of skies, of couples skiing... rather than the yellow we've used up to now," Jacobs said.

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Destination and customer images on the bulheads - from March

The redesigns have been undertaken in-house, without consulting an agency - "because we are a low-cost airline," he added.

The "garish" yellow tones were introduced by Michael O'Leary himself some 10 years ago, in an attempt "to keep everything very bright,” the airline's CEO has said.

O'Leary has softened in recent years, however, agreeing that Ryanair interiors should change to be "a little less in your face" and to feature "more subtle colours and better imaging.”
New "slimline" seats will be introduced along with new aircraft from October, Jacobs added, providing more space "between the customers themselves and the seats in front of them."
"It will also give us more seats on the aircraft," he explained.

Ryanair currently has 183 Boeing 737 NGs on order, in addition to 200 "gamechanger" Boeing 737 MAX 200 aircraft, which it says will allow it grow traffic to 160m customers a year by 2024.
Ryanair has previously suggested that it will configure the 737 MAX 200 to fit 197 seats - eight more than its existing 189-seat fleet.

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Ryanair's not-so-mellow yellow... on the way out

The new Boeing 'Sky' interiors will begin to arrive from January of 2016.
"It's a much more spacious environment, the windows are bigger, there's more headroom," Jacobs said. "You're able to do cool stuff like set a different ambient lighting as the plane is stationary, taking off, at altitude or descending."

The cabin revamp will not, however, include a separate business class.
Ryanair also plans to introduce new crew uniforms, which it says have been designed by "a young European designer" together with the airline's crew.
The uniforms will be launched later this year, with a "fashion event" at a European destination.
Jacobs described the new look as "fresher", "more contemporary" and featuring "a different colour blue, a different colour yellow... and some other interesting features."
Taken together, he said, the new interior, uniform and healthier onboard menu would give "a very different in-flight experience to customers."