Ryanair launches business service

Ryanair has launched a business service in the airline's latest move to revamp its image and catch up with travellers' demands for better treatment. The airline said its ‘business plus’ fares would give customers flexible tickets, more check-in baggage, priority boarding and ‘premium’ seats – in the first five rows for quick boarding, or on exit rows with extra legroom. It said business passengers already make up more than a quarter of its customers and that the new fares, starting at €69.99 (or £59.99 for UK customers), were designed to get more of their business. In May, Ryanair said it was ‘asleep at the wheel’ as customers got fed up with receiving bad service in return for low fares. Its rival, easyJet, moved upmarket and launched a business package while Ryanair continued to ‘unnecessarily piss people off’, in the words of Michael O’Leary, Ryanair's chief executive. With O'Leary taking a lower profile, Ryanair has introduced allocated seating, relaxed cabin bag restrictions, reduced charges, and loosened booking conditions, according to theGuardian.com