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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK
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Ryanair website downtime
February 08, 2008
Every now and then websites have to be taken down for maintenance. Companies that rely heavily on their websites to generate revenue – retailers, webmail providers, social networks, media organizations – obviously try to minimize this disruption as much as possible. Customers are fickle and impatient and will usually go elsewhere when confronted by the online equivalent of a ‘back in 5 minutes’ sign.
Travel is another sector that relies heavily on the web for sales, which explains the surprise that greeted Ryanair’s announcement that it will be shutting the booking section of its website for three days between the 16th and 18th of February. Not only is this a long time for a website to shut down, but the timing seems very strange. As the chart below illustrates, we are currently at the peak time of year for online flight bookings - even if we are approaching the end of the spike.
So what will be the likely impact on the airline? Along with British Airways and fellow budget carrier Easyjet, Ryanair is in a constant battle for the number one position in our Commercial Airlines category. Therefore its temporary closure will probably benefit its two biggest competitors, as well as a number of other smaller airlines and travel agents. However, the graph below may offer some explanation as to the timing of this move.
Looking at the data for this time last year, two things jump out. The first is that Ryanair’s traffic level is more consistent that BA’s and Easyjet’s, both of which experience larger surges during seasonal peaks. Secondly, it seems likely that by the time of the closedown, traffic to the industry will have dropped off even further. Of course, Ryanair and its CEO, Michael Leary, have a knack for promotion. Maybe the announcement was made today in the hope that it can steal traffic from competitors over the next few days before the slowdown kicks in. It’ll be interesting to see what happens – stay tuned for more analysis after the event.
Posted by Robin Goad at 03:30 PM
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Since Ryanair revamped their website....disaster!!
It takes ages to search for flights now ( I have a broadband connection)
Website loads ok ..but try searching and its like using a dialup connection!!
Posted by Cpfd | February 27, 2008 09:43 AM