Mickeyman - it's pointless trying to have a debate with you, you constantly read things which are not there. When have I ever said things are not what I expect?! 'Legacy mentality' - haha, you do make me laugh.

'Legacy mentality' in that I'm an F/O with another European LCC? I think I know full well what to expect, thanks :) Here endeth my contribution to the thread.

ASFKAP -

Simple answer - Ryanair will lose money on your flight. But the other people on that aircraft will be less cautious than you, so will make a contribution. Anyone booking at the last minute will subsidize you.

Zippy monster:

'When have I ever said things are not what I expect?!'

'- Being forced to pay an extra £5 for the privelige of printing my own boarding card at home. (Why isn't this just included in the fare if it's unavoidable? And don't give me any nonsense about 'promotional fares'. They could just call it a £5 discount when it's on promotion.) Rip-off.

- Being forced to pay a credit card booking fee per passenger - surely one of their greatest rip-offs. My bank doesn't do Visa Electron cards. For most, it's not a discretionary item - the only way you can avoid the charge is by not booking. Which, in most cases, is the option I take on principle.

- They claim they want people to take hand luggage only but then impose a weight limit, so if you go slightly over you have to pay (again) to put it into the hold. Rip-off. Easyjet don't do this unless it is clearly too big - there is no defined weight limit.

- The boarding process, which the last couple of times flying out from Stansted, involved them calling boarding and having people queueing in the tunnel down to the ramp before the aircraft had even pulled on to stand, never mind disembarked. And the priority/non-priority system which people clearly don't understand. The whole process becomes a shambles. (Although Easy's SB/SA/A/B system isn't much better, I'll grant that.)

- The worst bit - the incessant PAs during flight. I just want to be left alone - I do not want individual PAs selling hot food, cold food, drinks, duty free, train tickets, scratchcards, the on-board mobile phone system, more food, more drink, more duty free, coach transfers, more food and more drink. Flying on easyJet is like sitting in a library in comparison. What's more, they make the PAs and then come around and ask you individually "would you like anything". Why even bother with the PA?

- As other people have said, THAT fanfare after landing. Especially when the plane touches down on the scheduled arrival time but then arrives at the gate (or remote stand, more likely) 5 minutes later. That, to me, is not an on-time arrival and it makes it even worse that they boast about it.

- The way they proclaim themselves the "World's favourite airline" when their network covers nowhere further than eastern Europe and a bit of north Africa. And I'm sorry, but simply losing the fewest bags and arriving on time does not make you "number 1 for customer service". Ably sorting things out when it goes wrong is what makes you number 1 - you can't claim superiority on the basis of doing things which should be a given. And ably sorting things out when it goes wrong is something Ryanair seem to almost pride themselves in not giving a crap about.'

Does that cover it?

Anyway, Im glad I made you laugh!!

MM

I know I said my contribution had ended, but I couldn't help coming back to this...

Mickyman - thanks for reproducing my post once more and helping to reinforce my thoughts about Ryanair.

I'll ask you once more, since you seem unwilling to read and understand my posts - when did I ever say "When have I ever said things are not what I expect?!" (Hint - I've highlighted the key word in that sentence for you.)

It's Ryanair. Of course I expect things to be like that. And of course I'll still fly with them. It doesn't mean it's a nice experience. And I'm still feeling quite chilled about it, before you ask...

How much more simply does it have to be spelled out? I'm running out of vocabulary.

intortola,

After more than one hundred sectors with Ryanair in roughly three and a half years, I feel able to comment on most aspects of the "Ryanair experience" and would say that what you report about your flight on Ryanair is par for the course.

I, too, see not much difference between flying Ryanair and shorthaul on legacy carriers. Yet when I say this, some people think I must be mad!

I find many of the negative comments about Ryanair difficult to fathom.

And before someone says that I may not have much to compare Ryanair with, I'd like to add that the last sector I flew was in Club World (in seat 62K!) so I know a thing or two about a much more luxurious style of travel.

It's back to Ryanair again this week and I have no problem with that.

Thanks 62K, good to know. As i stated if Ryanair fit into my travel plans i will have no problem with using them again.Also, i just compare the total cost, the schedule and arrival/departure airport. Why get upset at each individual charge, we know thats the way it is so either accept it or go straight to someone elses website to book a flight.

Ryanair jet blows roof-tiles off house
 

Luebeck (Germany), Nov 13, Turbulence from the wake of a landing Ryanair jet blew roof-tiles off a house near Luebeck airport, an airport spokeswoman said Friday.
Yahoo News | Germany | Lubeck | Jetliner blows roof-tiles off house in Germany

Anyone know more to the story? I was wondering how close the a/c could be to make such a damage to the roof?

Intortola & Seat62K

I concur (through personal experience) with your sentiments 100%

MM

yes
If you go, they'll have to pay the full taxes anyway so it's a loss - but they hope to be profitable anyway on the PAX number subsidies (depend on routes but maybe your destination airport is giving c10€ to Ryanair for you, so your ow taxes almost refund, still the DOC to pay anyway ;-) and last minutes booking (even if on some routes, even last minutes bookings generate very few money)
If you are no show, you can't get a refund, so it's a profit for ryanair

Racedo, don't forget the fanfare Ryanair made when they opened BSL routes. I still remember the "bye bye easyJet high fares" or that they hope to open a base very quickly with 2 or 3 aircraft!!!

And don't forget that as always they are limitating their success/loose to the only airports subsidies/cost factor. An airline should not be that dependant of subsidies. easyJet looks succesful in BSL as they just announced a new aircraft, so it looks to me Ryanair failure is totally due to their own incapacity to generate enough money to break even (poor schedule, poor destinations choice, poor revenue management etc) and absolutely not the airport fault.

Contrary to what happens for a lot of smaller airports, BSL is not dependant of Ryanair, so if with similars cost base, Ryanair is not able to make money, bye bye Ryanair, it's as easy as that. Ryanair success is based on the dominant position vs small airports, and I am sure you know that very well.

A combinaison of too big capacity and airports more and more bored by Ryanair attitud can be dramatic for them. Hopefully for them, easyJet is quite inofensive on the network developement side.

Dudley
 

This has probably been covered somewhere but I can't find it, can someone please tell me who the hell Dudley is, and what's so special about his door?! It makes me chuckle every time I do a Ryan Air, cheers...!

I always believed that a large proportion of e-tickets sold by the world's airlines were non-changeable and non-refundable, that's why they are so cheap. Why single out Ryanair for a practice that many carriers and indeed tour operators follow?

I found myself at TFS yesterday afternoon, looking to get to DUB. I asked the nice lady at the Ryanair desk about buying a ticket for the flight, and was quoted a shade under four hundred euro.

Monarch to Luton was a quarter of the price. As such I ended up going to Luton instead and hopping on the first flight of the morning from there - total cost, including accommodation, just over half that of the direct flight.

To the point of this story, then - it seems to me that Ryanair should look at selling last minute tickets at sensible prices. At the time I was quoted it was no more than an hour before the flight, at which point the chances of the seat being bought by someone else must surely be negligible. I don't run an airline, but for me I'd rather take some cash rather than no cash for a seat that is otherwise going to be empty rather.

I was, incidentally, traveling with hand luggage only.

If they did that, they'd be out of business pretty sharpish!

Perhaps I should have been clearer. Last minute sales from ticket desks at the airport could be made at sensible prices. I'm not talking €5 fares here, I'd have paid €100 to get on that flight - which is money that Ryanair does not now have. It's the equivalent of lastminute.com, just in the airport. Thomson and Monarch both seem to think it's a good idea....

Last minute
 

Last minute somtimes equals desperate.

If one out of 4 last minute enquiries buy it still makes the same as selling 4 for £100. It depends on the patterns of purchase.

Granted 4 may spend more than 1 on board.

Centre cities

New: EDI - TMP
 

Simply unbelievable! Finland will probably get a new Ryanair route (after so many years of being totally neglected by FR). Edinburgh - Tampere will supposedly start on April 1st. Not yet in the booking engine, though.

also new:
CIA-KRK (2nd March)
CIA-SVQ (3rd March)
PIK-IBZ (30th March)
PIK-CCF (31st March)
MAD-TRN (1st April)

MAD-TRN was announced 22/09/2009 and PIK-IBZ was 29/07/2009.

Balaton
 

Balaton is back in one of the booking engines with the route:
Krakow - Balaton.

No schedule seems to be loaded as of yet...

I cannot see Krakow-Balaton working. If it's for the Summer season it would make much more sense to fly from a German airport to Balaton. Edinburgh-Tampere is also a route that's likely to last for weeks or a few months rather than years.

Well no, it's rather impossible. The news from last week says (it's translated automatically from Hungarian and partially corrected):
So Balaton Airport is going to be closed.
Who nows? After all, it will be the first and only direct connection between Scotland and Finland. But of course, from the Finnish point of view, ANY route from TMP to the Southern beaches (or some shorter like SXF) would succeed unquestionably, EDI will have to prove itself.

(Balaton)
Edit: I've bothered with the Hungarian translation quite unnecessary, here is the link to the English-language text. There is obviously an option that the airport will run in spite of the bankruptcy, but somehow I doubt it.

Actually Finnair operated a summer only 2 x weekly HEL - EDI flight with A319 for a couple of seasons which was dropped last year.

Ex

This story from the Limerick Post indicates that Ryanair does seem to be pressing ahead with it's fleet reduction at SNN - pretty drastic stuff...

Ryanair axe 18 Shannon routes

This story is based entirely on the website's booking engine for Summer 2010.
And yes the schedules are pretty scant. However to operate what is in the booking engine they will need 2 aircraft. And it is very possible that routes like Charleroi, Alicante, Birmingham, Bristol, Prestwick etcetera will end up being operated by aircraft based at those airports.

Today's Examiner appears to indicate that it has been confirmed by Ryanair

http://www.irishexaminer.com/busines...es-105931.html

Although it also refers to transferring aircraft to bases in Holland and Ryanair don't have any bases there. Unless that means an Eindhoven base is planned.

Three weeks ago Ryanair's website was showing a daily flight from Bristol to Shannon in summer 2010 in both the booking engine and timetable sections, with times indicating it would be operated by a BRS-based aircraft - historically the route has been operated by a SNN-based aircraft.

On looking today there is now no availability in the booking engine for BRS-SNN next summer and the timetable for next summer is blank.

If you find it so tedious / boring / tiresome then don't read it :ugh:

AndyH52, I presumed ASFKAP was referring to his/her own post.

FR @ BHX
 

Any chance that FR will be gracing BHX with any new routes in the future as it would seem its BHX base is on a down hill free fall slide into nothing, what a difference from when the base was first launched. Have FR fallen out with BHX or is BHX simply not performing as a base?

O’Leary says deal with Boeing is ‘highly unlikely’
 

Irish Independent:Hmm, looks like Boeing's not rolling over too easily, so we're into the last few days of hardball negotiation...

This time last year talks with Greek Authorities came to a halt, but, in the last few days there has been alot of chatter in the papers and in greek aviation forums about ryanair's first routes in greece, volos - milan, volos - london/birmingham. Aparently an aggrement has been met, and the deal is waiting to be signed.

Does Volos have an airport or would it be Neo Acholis (sorry I forget the spelling) AFB? I was fun mixing it with the Greeck F16s oh and their nets at the eastern end of the runway!

Greece
 

Indeed, this article suggests Ryanair close to agreeing to fly from Volos to Milano or Bologna:
? ?????? - ?????????? ???????? ??? ?????????? ?????????
Sorry, article only available in Greek. Use: Yahoo! Babel Fish - Text Translation and Web Page Translation

Volos airport:
International Airport of Central Greece - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a totally new Airport. a much needed addition to central Greece. This could become the 3rd largest airport in Greece, large catchment area.

Official webpage of volos airport. -
Volos Nea Anchialos Airport of Central Greece

Catalunya newspaper AVUI that Ryanair is going to start operations in the airport of Barcelona El Prat in Spring, to compete with Iberia, Spanair and Vueling in the world's busiest route: Madrid-Barcelona.

Don`t they have a very good rail link now as well which has caused passenger numbers to drop greatly on air route

Ian B

Barca - Madrid trains run regularly throught the day, take about 3 hours and cost from 41 Euros to about 140 Euros in Tourist Class

Indeed, but Ryanair will be a lot cheaper than the train.
Not exactly a similar example but look at Cork - Dublin. Fares are often cheaper than the train, and depending on your final destination the plane can sometimes be the fastest option.