Michael O'Leary visited Maastricht Aachen Airport today, one of the new bases of Ryanair. They have been operating for a while from this airport in the south of the Netherlands.
O'Leary announced Ryanair will take legal action against the Dutch TV programme KRO Reporter. Reporter spent two episodes on Ryanair. As well as a item in the regular news programme Brandpunt.
A small part of the press conference of MOL can be watched online. As usual all critics are rubbish. "KLM Pilots talk rubbish. If you are a big airline there will always someone against you"
[video] Baas Ryanair: 'we blijven in Maastricht en de KRO is rubbish' - Maastricht - dichtbij.nl - Maastricht
Big part of the press conference was about the statements done by KRO Reporter. MOL showed a slide and the content is this:
False claims:
Ryanair planes operate with "unsafe amount of fuel" False
Ryanair pilots are "victims of a strict cost save policy which leads to a decrease to safety. False
Ryanair pilots fly when unfit to fly, risking passengers' lives" . False
Valencia 26 Jul "three distress calls due to lack of fuel " False
Facts
Irish and Spain Govts confirm Ryanair's safetly is "on par with the safest airlines in Europe"
No pressure on Ryanair pilots - Captain decides & takes as much file as they need
Pilots routinely call in sick and replace by stand-bys
No.1 priority is safety - 28 year outstanding & unblemsihed safety record
I am wondering why " Valencia 26 Jul three distress calls due to lack of fuel " is stated false by Ryanair.
There
*were* three mayday calls by Ryanair. And a forth by LAN Chile not mentioned in the programme.
Some more info from Dutch newspaper Telegraaf
Ryanair neemt juridische stappen tegen KRO - Binnenland | Het laatste nieuws uit Nederland leest u op Telegraaf.nl [binnenland]
MOL requested the four pilots who were anonymous to make known their names. MOL guarantees they will not be sanctioned. Using their names MOL can prove they were allowed to call sick and ahd enough fuel in their aircraft.
According to MOL Ryanair's image has been damaged because of the news of KRO Reporter. But the passengers did not run away from the airline.