* Irish low-cost airline to offer enhanced customer services
* To introduce first loyalty scheme in decades
* Charm offensive of recent years has boosted profits
By Conor Humphries
DUBLIN, April 12 (Reuters) - Ryanair is to launchits first loyalty scheme in decades, introduce customersatisfaction surveys and allow "one-tap" upgrades using mobilephones as it extends its efforts to rid itself of a reputationfor poor service.
The Irish low-cost airline, Europe's largest by passengernumbers, has seen profits and passenger numbers soar since ChiefExecutive Michael O'Leary announced in 2014 that he would stop"unnecessarily pissing off" his customers.
Since then the airline has slashed punitive fees forchecking in bags and rolled out pre-assigned seating, flexiblebusiness fares and freshly brewed coffee on board.
After decades of refusing to contemplate the kind of rewardschemes offered by other airlines, Ryanair on Tuesday unveiled"My Ryanair Club" which will offer customers discounts and freeflights depending on how often they use the airline.
Ryanair briefly offered a customer loyalty card beforeO'Leary took over as chief executive in 1994.
The new scheme, which aims to entice people to save creditcard data on their Ryanair phone apps, will offer customers onefree return flight when they book 12 flights in a year and willmake specific offers to customers depending on their travelhabits.
"We always said we would never have a scheme with cards andstatements and all that administrative waste... But with bigdata each passenger can have their own (personalised) loyaltyscheme," O'Leary told journalists, adding that this would avoidany significant additional costs.
O'Leary, who has transformed European aviation with hisdedication to a no-frills service, denied that his hand wasforced two years ago by investors and fellow executives.
Instead he said, a loss of customers to rivals such as AerLingus and easyJet made change inevitable.
"We had locked ourselves into a position of, 'We're cheaper,nastier and we don't care'. But there were millions ofpassengers saying I don't care how cheap you are," O'Leary said.
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Once passengers agree to save their credit card informationon their phone apps, Ryanair plans to launch "one-flick"purchases, mimicking the "one-click" purchases on Amazon.com.Customers will be able to pay for priority boarding, expresssecurity checks and premium seats from their phones.
The app will also offer airport transfers, parking tickets -and eventually tickets for local landmarks and concerts - usingsoftware that recognises the phone's location.
EasyJet offers services such as free seat reservation,fast-track security and extra cabin bag to members who pay anannual fee.
Ryanair customers will also be prompted to rate their flightto give the company instant feedback on areas where customerservice remains weak.
O'Leary credits the company's Always Getting Better customerservice drive with lifting annual passenger numbers to 106million from 80 million and shrinking its average percentage ofempty seats per flight to 8 percent from 18.
Ryanair's share price has doubled to over 13 euros from 6.50euros in late 2014.
O'Leary, whose horse won the famous Grand Nationalsteeplechase at the weekend, said he had learned some humility.
"Customers demonstrated by moving in fairly small, butsignificant amounts that we don't know it all - that I havestill things to learn." (Additional reporting by Victoria Bryan in Berlin; Editing byKeith Weir)
easyJet (EZJ)
