Irish low-cost airline, Ryanair, is planning to change the layout of its website following customer complaints.
‘I think there are a number of things we need to improve. If you look at the way our website works, it’s very clunky, it’s very frustrating and difficult to get through,’ Ryanair chief executive, Michael O’Leary, reportedly told Prime Time on Ireland’s RTE.
‘It’s the source of most complaints I get from customers. They like our fares, they love our punctuality, they like the service we deliver, but they think the website is awful and I agree with them,’ O’Leary said, adding: ‘You’re going to see us rollout a couple of developments in the coming weeks, where we make our website much simpler to engage with.’
Separately, in response to a legal action against the airline by the National Consumer Agency (NCA), Ryanair has also agreed to provide contact points for its customers on its website. The NCA issued Ryanair with a compliance notice, under the Consumer Protection Act 2007, asking the company to provide an email address on its website. Companies providing electronic commerce services must provide consumers with an email address under law, the NCA said.
While Ryanair was initially looking to appeal this notice in Swords District Court, the airline told the NCA later that it was withdrawing the appeal and the compliance notice will remain effective.
Speaking on Prime Time, O’Leary also admitted that the airline needs to be more ‘sensitive and responsive’ to complaints from customers. ‘There is no doubt I’ve made mistakes,’ he said. ‘There’s no doubt I need to learn from those mistakes.’
The airline announced earlier this month that it carried over nine million passengers in August.
‘We employ 9,000 aviation professionals. On a daily basis, they do a fantastic job. They deliver the best airline service of any airline service in Europe. But where there are rough edges, yes, I take responsibility for those and I have to change those rough edges.
‘I think in the past we have responded with far too much of a blank – ‘Look, that’s the policy. Go away’. Now, we have to be a little bit more sensitive and responsive to the customers. It’s about evolution, not revolution,’ O’Leary said.
