Originally Posted by JW411
The summary of the situation is this. Ryanair SOPs require any crew that thinks it might be in a situation whereby it might land with less than the 30 minutes of emergency fuel is required to call "Mayday".
- a small correction - in that situation a PAN call is required. The MAYDAY when you WILL land etc etc. The unknown is the mentioned (supposed) Spanish ATC lack of response to a PAN.
LYKA - I am not familiar with the US dispatch system, but I cannot see what advantage it would bring here. In the EU, crews are trained and used to reacting themselves to situations and not relying on an external input.