While our AESA system is surely quite incompetent, cumbersome and needs a full clean up, I would not say it is corrupt.
I have been "sufferning" AESA, previously known as Aviacion Civil for 20 years and belive me I am not fan of them but among all their troubles and incompetence I do not belive corruption is one of them.
Of course like any European organization you may find some rotten apple, but corruption is not a common trend here at least I have not witnessed it here in 20 years with one exception that is now on Court involving a helicopter accident.
Regarding Ryanair, as a pilot working and flying in Spain I am aware of their contant abuse of the "fuel critical" concept and the rest of irregularities that are well known.
We do have other "low cost" airlines operating in Spain, most noticeably Air Berlin for instance and you will rarely find a single complain or incident related to them. And they surely have a large operation here.
This is not a problem of low cost or if the company is Irish, German or Spanish, at least not for us.
Like most of us, we are already working for "international" consortiums. so flag "pride" has not much relevance anylonger on this matters.
However I see with surprise how some people from Ireland and maybe from the UK belive this is a problem generated here because Ryanair is not Spanish and it is taking a really large chunk of the market.
I am a professional pilot for many years and one thing I learned long ago is that while flying there are no flags. Either you do it good or not. Accidents and inccidents do not take into account nationalities.
I wonder how you would feel if for instance a Polish Airline for instance, begins operations in Ireland or the UK, replacing one of your local airlines by collecting public money from the local goverment and lowering prices so your local airlines cannot compete while recording an unprecedent number of inccidents per year. Maybe then the "flag" factor would have relevance for some.
As I said, for me as professional I do not care about the carrier flag but that the operation is performed with the best margin of safety. While probably Ryanair is operating legally most of the time, walking the fine thread between legality and what aeronautical common sense dictates it does not mean they are operating with the same safety levels of other carriers. They exploit the interpretation of the regulations, regulations that were once wrote based in that safety instead economic benefit would be used to interpret them.
A serious mistake from our European Aeronautical legislators.
I mentioned as example another low cost airline that is an example of safe and reliable operation like Air Berlin that besides being safe they treat customers like customers, not like cattle. They get not public money help, they are efficient, safe and respectful.
They are not Spanish but surely welcomed here.
Can you see the difference?
Regarding the actual situation it is clear that only the Irish Civil Aviation have the final saying about Ryanair AOC. And from what I think, they are pretty happy with Ryanair and not concerned at all. So it is Mr O'Leary that seems not concerned at all about any possible action from from Irish Authorities. Pretty interesting, isn't it?
However if the Spanish Goverment really wants to put some order here, and that issue stil remains to be seen, they can simple remove all public money support for Ryanair and make sure that each flight is carefully inspected before take off by an inspection team. Same goes with a Ramp check to all Ryanair aircraft that lands after a "fuel critical" call to verify the fuel content in tanks.
If Ryanair wants to keep on treating their customer as cattle, this is ok with me, but at least do it safe.
EASA must review all regulation considering that in the future, operators would constantly adhere to the very legal minimmus allowed because they are allowed not because they would be safe or not on those particular conditions.
As I said actual regulations stated some minimums to be used by operators if conditions allowed a safe use of those minimums.
Now we do see operators constantly using the minimums regardless this may be safe or sound, but just because they are allowed.
Regulations MUST be redone to prevent this attitude in the future.
IMHO
Last edited by Furia; 13th Sep 2012 at 12:03.