Originally Posted by
daz211
The point is I can't think of any airlines that have had such a catastrophic failure on this level affecting so many people so to say CAA should be held accountable for their failure to strong arm others in the same way is involved because this situation is unprecedented.
I know this is an aviation forum and some of us have loyalty to some airlines and airports but why people feel that the CAA are in someway out of order in coming down on Ryanair like a ton of bricks we should be thinking of the poor passengers affected and how they can be helped it's not their fault so in my opinion the CAA should be congratulated on how they are handling this situation on behalf of the passengers.
They're not out of order for coming down on Ryanair at all.
My problem is more the fact that many people over the years have also suffered the same issues as Ryanair passengers are and have got absloutely nowhere and that is not acceptable. If Ryanair and another airline are going head to head on a route, why should Ryanair be forced to compensate passengers to EU261 guidelines if the other airlines are not doing the same thing, it's not an even playing field and the CAA have made their own bed here to lie in it.
If they properly enforced the guidelines of EU261 on flights in their back yard for the last number of years no airline would try and get away with it like Ryanair because of the fact they knew they wouldn't be able to, the simple facts is airlines have been chancing their arms for this for years and that all stems from the fact they knew that the regulator wasn't going to intervene.
If I travel on Ryanair, Wizz, Easyjet, British Airways, Aer Lingus, Lufthansa etc it shouldn't make a blind bit of difference, the simple fact is the rules are the rules and they should be applied consistancy across the board.
What the CAA should do now is come out with a statement saying they will open an investigation of EU261 practices in all airlines operating in the UK and set-up an advice line where passengers of all airlines can call up and get advice over flights which they have took over the last number of years and claim compensation from their airline and the CAA will back them up.
Compliance with EU261 directives is an industry wide problem and needs to be treated as such rather than dealing with Ryanair's issues and then avoiding the actual wider issue which needs to be tackled.