Ryanair - 6

[VanBosh]

Ryanair dont employ any staff in OPO so it would not have been Ryanair staff who refused you a wheelchair. Obviously it was disgraceful behaviour on the part of the handling agent but in most airports it is the local airport providor who is responsible for providing wheelchair assistance.

Fair play to you for standing up for yourself (no pun intended) though and getting the required treatment.

[Sikpupi]

Von Bosh is right.....its usually the airport who supplies the service. However - they would expect to get some sort of advance notice of same, usually stated at time of booking and the airport is aware of same via the pax manifest. Hope that was done in your case....

Heard of the odd case of a pax arrive and didn't feel like walking to the gate and then ask for a wheelchair. At least the new legislation asks for min 36 hrs notice and therefore airports have the right to refuse these 'lazy' pax.

[frfly]

It really annoys me when Ryanair get slammed in the media for wheelchair treatment. When in actual fact it is either down to the handling agent or the airport. It's not always the handling agent, in most airports a separate sub-contracted company deal with special assistance, and thus it is their responsibility. The airline i.e. Ryanair pass on the information to the agent. Which they do do, in the form of an SSR comment on the Ryanair manifest (if this was requested by the passenger at the time of booking). It is then the responsibility of the handling agent to pass this information onto the subcontracted company.

Many reports recently have been about Ryanair and their handling agents treating wheelchair pax badly, however when you look more closely, and you actually understand the process in depth, you will see and realise it is these subcontracted companies who have lack of staff, or equipment. This is not in the control of FR or the agent in a lot of cases.

Ryanair's treatment of these pax has dramatically changed, and the wheelchair voucher now seems to be being phased out. During the short 25 minute turn around, the passenger is boarded first or seats are reserved for them to board last. This is what should be being done, by all parties, in particular by the agent and the special assistance company.

[Seat1APlease]

Sorry, but to say it is not the airlines fault, but the agent's is simply 100% wrong.

An agent is chosen by, contracted to, and paid for by the airline to act as their representative. They are in a legal sense one and the same. An airline can no more walk away from the failure of its agent than can a company walk away from the negligence of its employees.

If an airline is under obligation to do something then it can either do it itself or pay others to do it, but either way it is responsible.

[Facelookbovvered]

I understood that the airport charged the airline for providing these services and Ryan used to charge the the RPM pax the cost + some, until the court case some time back. We all know Ryanair are a cynical bunch and they know that RPM pax slow down turnarounds, trying to get off a "wheel chair R or C" as they are know in the trade means that you cannot turnaround an aircraft in 25minutes at most places.

RPM =Reduced Personal Mobility
C = Cant walk=lift off
R= Can make the steps but not walk to arrivals

The new regs require airports to provide care from car park to aircraft, and about time too!! i wish they would do the same for aircrew

[frfly]

Again you missed the point, it is not the agents fault in a lot of cases either. It is the poor and mismanaged subcontracted agencies that are used, BY AIRPORTS not by airlines or agents. It is not up to the airline or agent to pick this, they are usually not given a choice. You must also understand, agents and airlines dont have the insurance to deal with this passengers in a lot of cases. Therefore thats why help cannot be provided by anyone but the insured company in the airport. Also, it is other full-service airlines that have to put up with this service, and I have seen much worse treatment on full service carriers than on Ryanair. But as usual, because Ryanair are an easy media target, their issues are always highlighted the most. Im not defending anyone here, I just wish people would look at the bigger picture, instead as always laying the blame on the first person they see, without looking at the service lines.

[Jet22]

May i ask the question to anybody who may have the answer, Why no FR in Turkey, Greece, Cyrpus?

Over the years they have expanded into the North African market (Morocco) so why arnt they in this part of the world. EZY, AB and others take advantage of the market because there is no other competition on certain routes from other LCC (EZY LGW-RHO-LGW springs to mind). Is it because they simply isnt enough 2nd airports that are about 50 miles away from the destination in Greece/Cyprus/Turkey.

[rubik101]

Jet 22, how very cynical of you! There are plenty of airports for RYR to choose from in that part of the world.
Perhaps, as has been pointed out elsewhere, lots of short flights get more bums on seats, hence maximising revenue. Longer flights are only recently becoming the norm for RYR, Tenerife and Morroco, so perhaps in the future you might well see flights to these Eastern destinations.
One reason Greek flights are so paltry is that the Greeks insist all flights touch down in the new and expensive Athens airport before or after going on to any other airport in Greece.
Cyprus is well served by the likes of Monarch and First Choice etc. but to go there also means the aircraft have a maximum of 2 rotations a day. RYR like 4 or even 5 rotations a day per aircraft.

[OliWW]

Thessaloniki springs to mind here, easyjet fly there from LGW, as do BA, I would have thought that STN-SKG would be popular, 2/3x Weekly maybe, or BHX-SKG, as BHX are loosing a SKG flight a week next year...

Kalamata would also be a good choice, down in the south
Preveza and Corfu maybe...

[Jet22]

Cynicil but true

[cesare.caldi]

I see that Air Berlin has a 10 euro "per person and booking" (?) service charge (for reservations made on the Internet) which is not included in the initial price quoted, so it too is presumably breaking the rules.

If you book AirBerlin flight on Expedia don't pay this service charge

[lexoncd]

Ryanair still have another 67 aircraft to arrive over the next three years net of planned disposals....that a lot more routes to start when some seem to be closing. Surely you operate your premium routes already so if you've closing them what must the yields be like on those yet to be operated with the new aircraft.

Same problem for easy too.

[befree]

85% drop in Q1 profits

Ryanair have seen most of the profit for April to June gone. They expect to make no profit for the year as a whole. The shares are down over 20% already. Half the cost is now fuel. Ryanair have run out of good luck and no longer have cheap oil hedges. They have so much cash that they are not going broke soon but may never make a full year profit again.

[MUFC_fan]

They have so much cash that they are not going broke soon but may never make a full year profit again.

Companies adapt. FR has pots of hard cash which a lot of airlines are short of. They have the power to change their way of flying. Obviously it would be very hard and they would not be able to make drastic changes but if we look at their route map, we will see that they serve little major international airports, and if so not on a great scale (LGW, MAN tec.)

If they were to expand, which was the origional plan, into the larger airports I am sure most of their routes would work. Add that to the current set of routes that are working and there we are - profit!

Well, thats the idea anyway...

[befree]

If they were to expand,

They have the planes on order to expand. They control the size of the fleet by selling planes. Last year that was very profitable making over 2 million euros more than book price for each plane. Ryanair have some very good profitable routes but finding new routes that would be profitable is going to be hard. Ryanair are going to have more planes then they will know what to do with. Airports will also have a stronger hand as Ryanair need more routes and have parked planes.

Ryanair are also upsetting lots of PAX who have already booked for flights that have been canned. I think it is the start if a downward sprial.

[Facelookbovvered]

MUFC fan

The playing field has levelled, other have got their cost down, Ryan have moved to Airports they said the would never fly from BHX,AGP because that where the pax want to fly from, Ryanair wont get golden deals from these airports, they have slower turnarounds, in other words welcome to the real world. you can compete on price alone if your cost base allows you to do so, if your cost are the same as others then other factors come into play and many view Ryanair as the Nasty airline, but fly with them because they are cheap or they fly near to somewhere you need to get to. If Ryanair stop flying these thin routes and/or put the price up you might as well go with someone who wont treat you with utter contempt

This winter empolyees of Ryanair will see the nasty side, remember MOL not only dosen't care about employment regs he doesn't care about pilots even less so cabin crew, there will be huge pressure on costs, it will need only one major crunch and the games over.

[eu01]

Ryanair are also upsetting lots of PAX

They've been constantly upsetting their passengers ignoring them or being offensive especially when something went wrong. Thus, the "devotion" of many (to fly with FR) is going to last only as long as the flight price is unbeatable. Unfortunately, higher fuel costs will be flattening the cost differences, hence...

welcome to the real world

Ryanair will HAVE TO improve the profitability, e.g. by rising the load factors (what will be difficult in winter) AND rising prices (even more difficult). Obviously they should have taken care of how people associate Ryanair brand name a little bit earlier...

[VanBosh]

higher fuel costs will be flattening the cost differences, hence...

Fuel costs have risen for all airlines so the cost difference will still exist.

I dont believe this will be the end for Ryanair, I just think it will mean the end of starting up whatever routes they want. They will need to focus more on actual demand rather than creating it themselves.

MXP was one airport where they prob could have based 10 planes at once and done well but they wouldnt pay the fee's. I think shareholders would rather see a plane based at MXP and paying 10per pax than at BGY and paying 2 per pax as the yields would easier be 8 higher from MXP.

I doubt MOL would share my opinions!

[peter we]

"If this airline is going to survive and prosper, it's got to double its fares, its got to do what other airlines are doing and cut capacity,'' said Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners in London.

Ryanair profit falls 85% on fuel prices - Business, Frontpage - Independent.ie

That puts a figure on it, double the fares.

[Michael SWS]

But, presumably, when an analyst suggests that Ryanair double its fares he means the total fare, including all taxes, charges and surcharges? Doubling a 1p headline fare isn't going to make a lot of difference.

I would expect the headline fares to remain low but the stealth charges to start creeping up. It's a fuel surcharge by another name.