Ryan Air flight Kos-Bari cancelled without clear reason

[Zio Nick]

Sorry, I could only find the link in Italian:
Volo cancellato, 170 persone bloccate a Kos «Senza assistenza: è un'odissea» - Corriere.it (http://www.corriere.it/cronache/12_luglio_27/kos-aereo-bloccato-mogol_7828dbb2-d7c5-11e1-8002-9a53ae83214f.shtml)

It seems that Ryan Air has cancelled Thursday's flight without informing the passengers. They had already checked in and had been queuing for almost 4 hours.
The worst is that there was no assistance both from the company and from the local airport staff.

It seems that the official reason for cancelling is bad visibility, but passengers and local witnesses say visibility was ok. More likely the a/c had some technical issues which could not be fixed.

[ImPlaneCrazy]

If the aircraft had a problem that couldn't be fixed, they would be told there was a problem with the aircraft that couldn't be fixed. Conspiracy theorists... :ugh: What reason would Ryanair have to lie to you?

[Shack37]

What reason would Ryanair have to lie to you?



Ask Michael.

[redsnail]

Just guessing, I have no knowledge of this case.
If it's a tech issue, then the airline is liable for compensation.
If it's force majeure, (ie "act of god" aka weather) then it's not quite as clear cut.

[edi_local]

Perhaps the weather at the origin was fine, but at the destination was too poor to fly in to. The situation appeared as though it was not going to improve in any reasonable time so to avoid delaying other flights, they cancel one (two if it is a Kos based aircraft coming back) and the aircraft can operate it's other routes as planned.

[davidjohnson6]

ImPlaneCrazy - Ryanair have a public perception of being less than open with their staff and customers. When this becomes deepl ingrained then customers are likely to disbelieve any claim FR make until proven independently.

If FR want to be taken at face value they need to change their current (although legal) business practices to those accepted by the bulk of society

[mutt]

Better than the airline's operation department and flight crews, certainly. Before coming up with statements like this, did you consider checking the weather in KOS and BARI for yesterday?

[Zio Nick]

LIBD, Bari, 26/07/12:
History | Weather Underground (http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/LIBD/2012/7/26/DailyHistory.html?req_city=Palese+Macchie&req_state=&req_statename=Italia)
LGKO, Kos, 26/07/12:
History | Weather Underground (http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/LGKO/2012/7/26/DailyHistory.html?req_city=Ippokratis&req_state=&req_statename=Grecia)

It's true there was fog in Kos which was limiting visibility to 4 km, but as far as I remember IFR flights do not have a minima for visibility.

I tend to agree with redsnail, weather may have been an excuse not to be liable towards customers. I would not be surprised of that since I experienced a similar situation with another LC vector.

[mutt]

It's true there was fog in Kos which was limiting visibility to 4 km,
The international definition of fog is a visibility of less than 1 kilometre (3,300 ft); mist is a visibility of between 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) and 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) and haze from 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to 5 kilometres (3.1 mi). Fog and mist are generally assumed to be composed principally of water droplets, haze and smoke can be of smaller particle size... (Wiki)


but as far as I remember IFR flights do not have a minima for visibility. It depends on the type of arrival approach available and the certification of the aircraft/crew.

[Zio Nick]

The international definition of fog is a visibility of less than 1 kilometre (3,300 ft); mist is a visibility of between 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) and 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) and haze from 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to 5 kilometres (3.1 mi). Fog and mist are generally assumed to be composed principally of water droplets, haze and smoke can be of smaller particle size... (Wiki)

Thanks for reminding us. I just mentioned what is reported on the website.

It depends on the type of arrival approach available and the certification of the aircraft/crew.

Sure. And as you can see in Bari there was clear visibility, VFR conditions.

[flydive1]

According to the article, the Ryanair aircraft that was supposed to land in Kos to pickup the passengers had diverted to Rodos because of fog.
Also the article says that other flights(not Ryanair) were cancelled.

[Zio Nick]

The problem is not that the flight has been diverted or delayed or canceled.
It is understandable that there may be 1000 or more good reasons for a problem like that to happen; the real issue is the approach ("policy") that Ryan Air uses in this kind of situations: no communication to the customers, no basic care.
The article says that other flights were delayed or canceled, but the airlines provided accommodation to the passengers.
On the other hand Ryan Air has kept silence for more than 3 hours and did not care of finding an accommodation for their own passengers. McNamara has declared that they will reimburse the expenses of the passengers upon request.

The general feeling is that they are always trying to save any single dime, as usual, which may not be an issue if it was not made on the skin of passengers.