Ryanair responded today to the news that the airline let sick pilots fly. Realy do not understand their
PR office. They said the tv programme did not give Ryanair a chance to respond. This is untrue. Correspondence between programma and Ryanair can be found on the website of the tv programme.
Here the press release
Ryanair dismisses false claims from KRO REPORTER
edit: found the press release in English, deleted translated one
Ryanair dismisses false claims from KRO REPORTER
Ryanair, Europe’s favourite airline, today (3 Jan) dismissed the latest false claims by Dutch TV programme KRO REPORTER, which, just like last week’s programme, are unsupported by any factual evidence whatsoever. KRO's latest false claims, again made anonymously by unidentified contributors so that they cannot be tested or verified, is that pilots fly when they feel unwell (“unfit to fly”) or otherwise they would lose money.
This claim is manifestly untrue. Ryanair pilots routinely report being “unfit to fly” and are routinely replaced by standby pilots who are rostered on standby precisely to provide this cover. Equally, since Ryanair pilots can (by law) not fly more than 900 hours per year (an average of just 18 hours per week) they can and routinely do recover these occasional sick days later in the year.
The falsity of these latest KRO REPORTER claims is proven by the fact that in the last full roster year to March 2012, out of a total of over 1,700 contractor pilots, over 1,010 (or more than 58%) reported “unfit to fly” at some time during the year. These false claims are also disproven by the fact that Ryanair rosters over 200 pilots on standby on a daily basis to cover pilot sickness and other eventualities. Over the past 7 days, from Wed 26 Dec – Wed 2 Jan, a total of 169 pilots reported themselves as "unfit to fly" and were replaced by a standby pilot. These factual figures disprove KRO REPORTER’S anonymous false claims.
Ryanair now calls for an investigation into the low standards of journalism exhibited by this KRO REPORTER programme which masquerades as investigative journalism, but has over two separate broadcasts offered no evidence of any wrongdoing or of any safety breaches but has instead based its programmes on false claims from anonymous people whose identities have been hidden by this programme precisely because their claims are untrue.
The contributions by KLM pilots are equally unreliable since they don’t work for Ryanair and instead work for a competitor airline. The only factual evidence in these matters is the official IAA report into the 3 Valencia weather diversions on 26 July last which confirmed that all 3 aircraft took extra fuel on the night in question, and Ryanair’s continuing compliance with all EU safety regulations including pilot hours and sickness provisions.
Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said;
“Perhaps KRO REPORTER should now explain why 169 Ryanair pilots reported themselves “unfit to fly” in the last 7 days if, as their programme claims, Ryanair pilots are unwilling or afraid to do so.”