Ryanair - 9

[pee]

^^ Well indeed
€10 for each passenger flying to an airport more than 300 km from Dublin Airport
And that's much! The unquestionable success of MOL (among else), good example for some other European countries.

[j636]

Pee its being a flat 3 euro rate since 2010/11 after the EU rules that the 10 and 2 euro taxes were illegal and was then capped at 3 across the board.

[pee]

^^ If it's only 3 euro, I have to reiterate. Not enough to explain the expansion in other terms than a political manifesto. It's all relative, you see.

[Sober Lark]

Thanks for the correction. Revenue haven't updated their web site to reflect.

In the Netherlands they introduced a tax in July 2008 and abolished it a year later so what was their experience?

A couple of Euro may not sound like much but I'd imagine leisure passengers are far more price sensitive than business passengers. I agree with you pee that it is hard to imagine the imposition of such a tax been the real reason for capacity reduction and now that it has been reversed is Ryanair's promise of 1 million extra pax a year realistic.

When the tax was introduced, Ryanair were not the only airline in Ireland to shout from the rafters. Aer Lingus and City Jet sang along too. If Ryanair are right and we see an uplift in numbers then it will demonstrate the futility of such a tax and that may be an advantage to other countries who argue the same point.

[RAT 5]

A couple of Euro may not sound like much but I'd imagine leisure passengers are far more price sensitive than business passengers. I agree with you pee that it is hard to imagine the imposition of such a tax been the real reason for capacity reduction and now that it has been reversed is Ryanair's promise of 1 million extra pax a year realistic.

When the tax was introduced, Ryanair were not the only airline in Ireland to shout from the rafters. Aer Lingus and City Jet sang along too. If Ryanair are right and we see an uplift in numbers then it will demonstrate the futility of such a tax and that may be an advantage to other countries who argue the same point.

You have got to be joking. A couple of years ago, after the volcano fiasco and RYR claimed to have a cost of €60m, they introduced a €2 EU261 charge/tax for such catastrophes. That was 3 years ago and at 70m pax pa that = €140m per year, and there have not been too many major catastrophes; so RYR have imposed their own travel tax. Not to mention the increase in so many other charges on top of...on top of.. Hypocrisy comes to mind. What's new?

[dublinaviator]

@RAT-5, that wasn't their own tax, it was a charge levied on airlines by the European Commission which Ryanair decided to pass on to the customer. The cost of such catastrophes is neither the responsibility of the airlines or passengers so I don't think either should have to pay it, but either way Ryanair isn't charging it by choice and doesn't benefit financially from it as it would from say charging for check-in.

As for the tax itself, I think it's right to abolish it. Airlines should make some contribution for tackling their carbon footprint and already do so through the Emissions Trading Scheme, but taxing passengers only serves to act as a disincentive to travel by air which may be fine for countries on the continent and even the UK but there are only 2 ways of getting to/from Ireland and the main one is by air. So we're taxing tourists and business travellers for coming here, which sends out the wrong message and inevitably leads to them going elsewhere so whatever revenue is brought in from the tax is outweighed by the money taken out of the economy.

[j636]

The tax costs over 20 million per year to Ryanair, this plus the charge of around 19 euro per head departing DUB combine both with weak demand. FR largely had no choice but to increase traffic as they kept harping on for it to be scrapped and they would increase traffic and if they did nothing it would look bad and the tax would be back.

[racedo]

A couple of Euro may not sound like much but I'd imagine leisure passengers are far more price sensitive than business passengers. I agree with you pee that it is hard to imagine the imposition of such a tax been the real reason for capacity reduction and now that it has been reversed is Ryanair's promise of 1 million extra pax a year realistic.

Irish Govt makes the travel tax back on a visitor to Ireland going to the Pub and buying 3 pints of beer.

[Cyrano]

Originally Posted by dublinaviator

@RAT-5, that wasn't their own tax, it was a charge levied on airlines by the European Commission which Ryanair decided to pass on to the customer.

Not true, sir. The courts have ruled that the airlines have a duty of care even in extraordinary circumstances. That's not a Commission levy.

You seem to be suggesting that Ryanair is merely passing on an externally imposed charge. That's far from the truth. They are raking in extra revenue on an entirely specious pretext.

This report suggests that Ryanair paid out €26m in compensation after the Icelandic volcano; RAT-5 suggests that the figure is €60m. Even taking the higher figure, if Ryanair are earning €150m a year from their €2m levy, that covers 2.5 volcanoes per year. A bit of margin there, wouldn't you say?

[dublinaviator]

You're correct, my mistakes. The EU261 resolution found that airlines should pay passengers compensation in cases of “force majeure”. Aside from being as nonsense as taxing passengers to fund compensation cases, it left airlines with the choice of paying such compensation cases out of their own revenue or passing the cost onto passengers in the form of a levy.

So granted, Ryanair are probably profiting from the levy, but it was still forced on them by the EU261 resolution.

[Sober Lark]

Racedo, in that million don't forget to allow for the fact that the outbound 'locals' won't be buying their pints here.

Rat, you couldn't buy insurance to cover you for such an eventuality as cheap as the levy Ryanair charged.

[racedo]

Racedo, in that million don't forget to allow for the fact that the outbound 'locals' won't be buying their pints here.

True but loss of tax for 500,000 extra passengers going out is offset by 3 pints for 500,000 coming in..............no incoming tax.

Reckon on a weekend away excluding flight then likely to spend €400 including hotel, food and drink, taxis, sightseeing and keeping SWMBO away from shopping frenzy........reckon a minimum 75% multiplier makes it worth £1000 to local economy plus will create some jobs which may pay some tax or take someone off dole.

Locals tend not to stay in hotels etc..........

[racedo]

So granted, Ryanair are probably profiting from the levy, but it was still forced on them by the EU261 resolution.

Which is why allow bureaucrats to be involved screws everybody...............buy travel insurance OR not.

Expecting airline to pay €1000 costs to put someone up because Govts refuse to allow airline to fly when someone has paid €50 for a flight seems like a Govt inspired stupid idea.

[Sober Lark]

You're not far off Racedo. In the UK the average spend by inbound tourists was a little under £500. The top five markets for the UK being France, Germany, USA, Irish Republic. Local economies need 'shopping frenzy' tourists but in that respect are all low cost airlines equal in the type of tourist they deliver? Is a Ryanair tourist worth more than say an Easy Jet tourist?

[befree]

The people put off doing an extra trip by a few euros departure tax are likely to be those going on very short breaks with small budgets. The other impact may be that people stay an extra few days on their main trip rather than do many short ones. For most people there is a fix number of days off per year and fixed income.

[EI-A330-300]

Ryanair's MOL has confirmed during a t*witter Q&A that Dublin and Shannon will have news routes form April while fares will also be dropped as the travel tax is scrapped. Nothing mentioned about Knock, Kerry or Cork.

[racedo]

Local economies need 'shopping frenzy' tourists but in that respect are all low cost airlines equal in the type of tourist they deliver? Is a Ryanair tourist worth more than say an Easy Jet tourist?

Good point

I reckon that potentially a tourist to a smaller city is worth more............
Airport job is likely to be taken by a local person living there than someone moving into area..............likely to spend income locally rather than remitting it abroad
Accomm ..........again more likely to stay in family owned or run accom rather than a Holiday Inn / Hilton / Chain where cash sent to HQ with result that owner will spend it locally
Food............a similar situation

Would 100,000 extra tourists to London be noticed V 100,000 extra tourists to Clare / Kerry etc

[positive]

Quote
Ryanair's MOL has confirmed during a t*witter Q&A that Dublin and Shannon will have news routes form April while fares will also be dropped as the travel tax is scrapped. Nothing mentioned about Knock, Kerry or Cork.

Will these new routes push Ryanair as Dublin's no.1 carrier again?

[PAXboy]

Reading the story of his inaugural talk witter, is amusing: What happened when Ryanair?s outspoken boss Michael O?Leary went on Twitter? He crash-landed spectacularly - Home News - UK - The Independent

Amongst the more serious:

Among the mud-slinging, Ryanair passengers learned a few things about the airline’s plans. It will be introducing smartphone-enabled check-in by the summer, which should reduce the number of passengers obliged to pay £70 for failing to arrive at the airline without one printed out. And there are no plans to introduce assigned seating, as easyJet has recently done.

Among the many tweets to go unanswered were some about tragic personal circumstances. “Due to fly to Riga on Saturday but can’t go as my mum in law is losing her cancer battle. 388 quid to re-book seems unfair,” read one. “Why no response for a refund request (sent reg. post) in over a month from seriously ill girl with special needs? @Ryanair #scum” went another.

More amusingly:

Andy Gilderdale mocked the airline’s policy of using “secondary” airports. “Tried to send you a question on Twitter but it ended up on Facebook instead. Still, by your standards that’s close enough

[Capetonian]

“What type of people do you enjoy mistreating most? I’m guessing elderly and disabled?” was one of the earliest tweets, quickly followed by: “Were you born an arsehole or has it progressed throughout your life?” and: “Is it company policy for your staff to be rude and unhelpful as possible?”

Some real gems!