farmdoc's blog post number 529

Some months ago I read The Wisdom of Crowds by New Yorker writer James Surowiecki. I thought I’d already written about it, but I was mistaken. Anyway its content’s apparent from its title. That is, a group of people collectively make wise and accurate decisions; and the bigger the crowd, the better the decision. Today’s topic’s at the intersection of crowd wisdom, and the airline Ryanair about which I’ve written in disparaging terms [1, 2]. Well, folks, Ryanair’s at it again. According to this item in last Tuesday’s Age, from today Ryanair has no airport check-in facilities. So its passengers have to check in via the internet, and Ryanair’s charging them £5 (A$9.10) per person per flight for the privilege. Anyone arriving at the airport without a boarding pass will be unable to fly or will have to pay £40 (A$73) for one at the ticketing desk. Blimey! Vis-à-vis the wisdom of crowds, this Age blog quotes airlinequality.com – ‘the world's most authoritative source of customer reviews of airlines’ – which is none too complimentary about Ryanair. Indeed on airlinequality.com, the crowd rates it a mere two stars on a 5-star scale. See here what fine company it’s keeping. Ryanair must be really bad – because even our own Jetstar scores three stars. Despite its lowly two stars and its growing list of passenger imposts Ryanair, Europe’s biggest low-cost airline, is growing at more than 20% a year. What do you make of that, Mr Surowiecki?