3 Ryanair is the best-known budget airline in Europe, focusing on a popular routes and very low operating costs. For years, the airline’s policy on customer service was clear. It aimed to give the lowest air fare available, and a safe and on-time flight. It did not promise to give anything more. Nor was it apologetic about its lack of customer service. If a plane was cancelled, it did not offer overnight accommodation or give a voucher for a restaurant. However, bad publicity eventually prompted a limited rethink by the company. After a drop in its hitherto rapid profit growth, shareholder concern and a loss of what reputation it had for service, the company said it would reform its culture to reform things that unnecessarily annoyed customers, such as fines for small luggage size transgressions and a fee for issuing boarding passes at the airport rather than printing it out at home. Yet Ryanair insisted that these charges were not money-spinning schemes. They were designed to encourage the operational efficiency that kept fares low, in fact fewer than ten passengers a day had to pay for forgotten boarding passes. What does this example tell us about the trade-off between service quality and cost?