Even the BBC has picked up the story now:
Ryanair battle takes off.
In the best traditions of impartial journalism, two paragraphs are given over for MOL to advertise Ryanair whilst MyTravelLite are not given space to comment; two paragraphs are used to give Ryanair’s latest pax figures whilst MyTravelLite accession to BHX’s biggest carrier goes unmentioned; and the ‘related internet links’ points BBC readers to ryanair.com but not mytravellite.com.
Fortunately Birmingham’s
Evening Mail is less sympathetic to MOL after his crazed attack on the airport itself:
Michael O’Leary, the outspoken boss of no-frills airline Ryanair, unleashed a blistering attack on Birmingham Airport yesterday claiming it had been passed over by the air flight industry because of a refusal to embrace low-fare airlines. Mr O’Leary pointedly accused airport chiefs of “hanging off the coat-tails of British Airways”... a spokesman for Birmingham Airport dismissed Mr O'Leary's attack as “headline grabbing as both FlyBe and MyTravelLite are now bigger operators out of Birmingham than BA”.
A source close to Birmingham Airport said the Girona flight might not even be allowed to be called a Barcelona service under aviation industry laws.
Born with the Blarney Stone in his mouth he courts controversy wherever he goes and, in one of the most cut-throat sectors in civil aviation, his swashbuckling, caviller attitude angers more people than it impresses. In one swipe of his tongue yesterday he alienated Birmingham Airport, British Airways and every low-cost airline in the country – and couldn’t even resist a side swipe at Aston Villa.
If MOL hates BHX so much it makes you wonder why he’s starting the new services. Unless of course he’s only doing it to warn MyTravelLite off DUB
. Well if every Villa fan boycotts Ryanair, it’ll be a start
.