Irish Airline: Ryanair

1229 Words3 Pages

Ryanair an Irish airline founded in 1985 has seen huge growth with workforce of just 25 to now over 9000 skilled professionals, branding themselves as Europe’s only ultra-low cost airline they are always looking for new ways too save on costs and increase on profits. This essay will draw upon, at what point they become ‘un-ethical’ i.e. the extra charges they add to the total bill e.g. a £160 charge for a name change in high season (Ryanair.com 2014,a), They have even been accused of carrying less emergency fuel to improve both fuel efficiency and competiveness (The Economist, 2013). Then justify what is morally right and wrong from the views of different ethical theories and stakeholders, in particular egoism and utilitarianism because these two theories will exhibit totally different views. Which will show different perspectives of a single action can be both ethical and un-ethical at the same time depending how you look at it.

Smith argues that there are two fundamental goals in nature in all life forms: “the preservation of the individual and the reproduction of the species” (Bragues, 2009, p. 453, para 2). Essentially the theory is based around the form of compulsive selfishness. This is similar to Michael Friedman’s approach to individualism because of the similarities between the self-interested motives of the egoist, and the legal obligation of a firm to produce the highest profits and shareholder wealth that it can, which is exactly what Ryanair are doing, adding extortionate charges for example a 2% charge to the total bill when using a credit card (Ryanair.com, 2014, b). According to this theory Ryanair is acting ethically because they are composing a morally appealing result for society through the ‘invisible hand’ o...

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...nair.com/en/terms-and-conditions#regulations-tableoffees [Accessed: 26 Mar 2014]. (a & b)
Ryanair.com. 2013. Code of Business Conduct & Ethics. [online] Available at: http://www.ryanair.com/en/investor/code-of-business-conduct-and-ethics [Accessed: 26 Mar 2014].
The Economist. 2013. Flying into more flak. [online] Available at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2013/08/ryanair [Accessed: 26 Mar 2014].
The Economist. 2014. Price or quality—pick one. [online] Available at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2014/02/ryanair [Accessed: 26 Mar 2014].
Wright, O. 2013. Exclusive: Safety warning as budget airlines such as Ryanair cut fuel levels for flights. [online] Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/exclusive-safety-warning-as-budget-airlines-such-as-ryanair-cut-fuel-levels-for-flights-8749046.html [Accessed: 26 Mar 2014]. (a & b)

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