While most airlines' social media presence is limited to announcements of ticket sales and posed photos of smiling flight crew, one low-cost airline has taken a very different approach.
Ryanair (RYAOF) -), which launched as a small airline out of Dublin in the 1980s and soon became the biggest carrier in Europe by number of customers served by shuttling travelers between nearby cities for fares that in some cases reach as low as €19.99 ($21), has also gained a significant TikTok following for its use of humor — and, in some cases, mocking difficult travelers.
Related: Watch: The CEO of a major airline gets pied in the face by protesters
"€19.99 or €136,000,000?, your choice," the airline writes in a TikTok video alongside a screenshot of a passenger who said that she would "bring [her] own stairs" after documenting how Ryanair passengers often have to board the plane from the tarmac instead of the jet bridge on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The higher sum is in reference to the need to "bring your own plane" if unpleased with the service.
@ryanair Who you kiddin’ #woah #baggage #ryanair
♬ original sound - Ryanair
'Bestie, don't be that basic,' airline tells travelers as part of wider use of humor
In another TikTok video, Ryanair loops a shot of a passenger standing when everyone else is sitting down to poke fun at travelers who get up too soon after the plane has landed and are then forced to stand awkwardly while waiting for the plane to reach the gate.
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"Bestie, don't be that basic," Ryanair writes in another video of an actor posing as a traveler reading a popular Colleen Hoover book.
Ramping up this social media strategy amid the rebound of post-pandemic travel, Ryanair has poked fun at many aspects of annoying traveler behavior and the flying experience in general — stuffing a carry-on bag until it's bursting at the seams to get around the airline's extra baggage rules, those who think they "hacked the airline" when they get extra leg room and travelers who do not abide to basic hygiene standards.
@ryanair Free (toilet) refills included 🚽🚻 #Ryanair #freetoilet
♬ original sound - Chris Dapkas
'When a passenger complains even though we gave them complimentary toilet access'
In an attempt to show that it can also be self-deprecating, the airline riffs at budget airlines' "no frills" model by saying that at least it gave customers "complimentary toilet access."
The humor is clearly working because, as of October 2023, the airline has over 2.1 million followers on TikTok while some of its most viral videos are viewed tens of millions of times.
While Ryanair's financial success (by the end of 2022, the airline brought in a record profit of €1.43 billion) is attributed primarily to the surge of post-pandemic travel coupled with its ability to win over customers with rock-bottom prices, the cheeky social media strategy helped significantly boost its reputation among younger travelers.
In perhaps its most viral online moment to date, Ryanair was able to turn a situation with environmental protesters around to its benefit by resharing the moment CEO Michael O'Leary got pied in the face ahead of an EU Commission meeting in Belgium on social media.
While the two protesters told O'Leary to "stop the pollution of the f---ing planes," Ryanair reshared it as a "warm welcome in Brussels."
