Ryanair crew work five extra hours a day for no pay | Daily Mail Online

Ryanair bosses 'don't treat crew like humans', say staff | Daily Mail Online

I am by no means a lover of the daily mail or pro/anti Ryanair and these kind of reports have been around for years but will this gain some traction with the travelling public?

Errrrr....in a word NO.....

Ryanair have issued a statement saying they will recognize cabin crew unions


Could the return of the CFO be behind the sweeping changes....

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/irel...tive-1.3332320

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ry...-idUKKBN1ED21T

FR also estimating 100 million annual increase in cost base because of the latest move.

OK, welcome to Finland. However, it could be pretty tough, I guess. :}

Is Finland part of Scandinavia?

Strictly geographically, Northern and Eastern part of Finland does not belong to Scandinavia, even if most of Finland used to be a part of the Kingdom of Sweden for many years. Politically there always have been strong ties between Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, even Iceland and in Finland we don't really use the word "Scandinavia", we use "Pohjoismaat" (or in Swedish Norden). And as you can see...

Looks like a strike in Germany after Ryanair rejected the Committee put forward by German Unions as it is believed to consist of two pilots from competitor airlines and Ryanair will only accept Ryanair staff on the Committee.

Ryanair should hold firm on this - no company is going to open their business to their competitors employees and nor should they for reasons of business and commercial confidentiality and if I was the pilots I wouldn't want them representing me either.

I'm for unions but only those who are employed by the company the union is for.

Confirmed now by Ryanair that the person put forward by the VC is currently involved in litigation proceedings with Ryanair.

Ryanair announced some "extra summer flights" from Ireland
https://corporate.ryanair.com/news/r...and/?market=ie

Alicante and Palma will see each one additional aircraft
https://corporate.ryanair.com/noveda...018/?market=ca

Worth noting that there also appears to be a problem with the website refusing to check you in -hardly a problem appropriate for an airline which then tries to charge a substantial fee for the check-in.

Try logging out, clearing your cookies and cache and trying again ...

On the occasion it happened to me, five different computers could not complete the check-in. It worked on the sixth.
Various things are worth trying. Ryanair themselves suggested always using a private window for booking - which would seem to indicate they were not unaware of problems.

As has possibly been eluded to recently on this thread, could somebody on here please confirm that it is mainly down to tight union regulation that the lo-cos have hitherto largely ignored Finland compared to say Sweden? As one who regularly commutes from the UK to Finland, I often wondered why there were so few Finnish services and yet still some. Namely the FR summer services to Tampere/Lappeenrantta and Wizzair flying Turku-Gdansk. If it's possible to fly those routes at all, then why don't they serve more? Is it down to local council or airport agreement?

Thanks in advance

No problem operating in/out of Finland, I think the problem comes to having staff (crew) based there where they may be subject to, or come under pressure to, be subject to Finland employment and/or union rules.

Well, even without a single base you could have had many different routes served from several bases outside the country, that never happened on a larger scale here. One reason for Finland being “ignored” is the level of airport fees, taxes and charges – but is it really that much higher than elsewhere in Europe? Much more important reason is probably, let’s call it, the "impartial approach to businesses”: same conditions for everybody, no special deals, no preferences. That’s what MOL would have liked, getting incentives. Maybe a “point of honour” for him?

I agree with HW on this one. The cost of living in the Nordic countries is much higher than the vast majority of the other bases, so to pay the based crew there, they could probably afford double that in Eastern Europe.
It's worth also thinking that by the time you operate Finland - Mediterranean and back (as an example), you could have squeezed 3 or 4 shorter sectors in other areas of the network, giving more opportunity to flog those lovely ancillaries

True, albeit there would have been many short ones as well, like Berlin, Warsaw, Copenhagen. EZY is going to test TXL - HEL soon, Wizz proved to be successful on TKU - GDN route (will fly 11x weekly from March' 18), Ryanair could consider connecting flights (via BGY/BUD/WMI?), but surely not with max. twice weekly flights from TMP/LPP as scheduled for the next season.

Thanks for the input. Several points I hadn't considered. As a regular user of the Gdansk-Turku link with Wizzair, which is often apparently full, it baffles me how there isnt immediate scope for expansion on obvious trans Baltic routes.

Good grief, I struggle to understand why for example there is absolutely no Turku - Tallinn airlink? With no direct ferry services competing. And services from Finland to cheaper shopping and/or migrant worker destinations such as Warsaw are anothet glaring ommission.

Apologies for the thread hijack, but MOL, do you hear me? Strikes me as a golden chance for FR to open a new market n become the fox in Wizzair's chicken coop.

Connecting routes
 

Hi, FR showing a number of connecting routes into Italy and Greece from Manchester. I thought that FR didn't provide connecting services. Please can someone explain what is going on or is this a change to the previous mode of operations. Thanks.

I think the problem with Finland maybe the lack of people.

They are concentrated in the Helsinki area with less than 4million occupying the rest - which is bigger than the British mainland.

Most holidaying Finns want warmth and are not much interested in culture and big cities.

My two penneth!

To some extent true. However... look at the Republic of Ireland, population just over 4,7 million (versus 2,7 million within the smallish triangle of Helsinki - Turku - Tampere area, roughly Ireland size). In ROI substantially more p2p flights exist, dozens of times more, not only to warm destinations.

Another reason? Most of Finns prefer using "kotimaista" (domestic) unless offered a big difference in prices. To Irish people Ryanair is domestic indeed. And being very well established in many other European countries RYR has just a figurative presence in Finland.

Having said this, maybe a base with the domestic staff would change it a little? On the other hand, also Brexit could force them to expand to other markets, so dear @Coochycool, let's just wait, interesting times ahead.

It's just nobody want to go to Finnland. I flew once Pisa-Tampere on Ryanair, there were total 14 pax on board. The route was discontinued in less than a month after start.

Might be true in late autumn and early spring. Otherwise, it could be just the insufficient marketing (thousands of lakes in summer, great ski conditions in winter). But OK, taking your point as well.

I was a regular on Ryanair London Stansted to Tampere, fares looked good from Ryanair's point of view, it was always a couple of hundred £ return each, flights were always near full (sometimes 100%), no competition. Mainly Finnish pax, minority of British. Yet the route was given up a couple of years ago. They have maintained routes from Tampere to a few oddball other European destinations, but given up this one. It was even common to find Russians on board from St Petersburg, and the car park at the Ryanair terminal always in Tampere had Russian cars in it. Yet the flight's gone. They never tried London Stansted from Lappeenranta, right on the Russian border.

The airport authority at Tampere even made a special terminal for Ryanair, separate to the normal one, put into a converted hangar. As they only used to have one or two flights a day it must have been an extra expense to keep it going, especially as the main one itself always seems sparsely used. It still seems to be opened up for the few Ryanair flights a week remaining.

A neighbour of mine used the Tampere - Stansted flight once, some years ago, to go to an Arsenal match (he's a fan).

As I recall it left quite late and he found it difficult arriving very late at night.

To get to Tampere (Helsinki) airport, as Ryanair described it, takes a bit of time.

It is about 200km from Helsinki!

Nowadays Norwegian flies to Gatwick and the non BA/AY customers use that.

Norwegian go from Helsinki main airport, twice per day and at roughly the same time as BA.

Norwegian may go to other UK destinations as do Finnair.

Ryanair UK......
Application lodged for an AOC with the CAA on 21.12.17 to continue flying UK domestics in the event of a "difficult" Brexit.

so scare mongering of 'all domestics cancelled' was easily rectified and therefore something and nothing....

Though obviously a very small part of the total operation the move reflects the input into the total business if RYR are moving to protect it thus.

Perhaps a competitor or two in the London market will not dismiss the move quite so quickly.

Might not just be for domestics. Depends what arrangement is reached - probably worse case, but it might not be possible for an Irish airline to operate out of the UK to anywhere but Ireland.

All bets scenario...

I would have thought the issue would be flights between the UK and elsewhere in the EU without an EU-UK open skies agreement. I wouldn't see domestic flights being affected although FR are probably covering their options as an EU based airline.

Ryanair started connecting flights about 9 months ago...

They are slowly rolling it out.

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articl...k-through-bags

Ryanair December figures

9.3m pax + 3%

Load factor 95% +1%

2017 total pax 129m

That must be the lowest % increase for many years.

Yes..but taking into account their particular travails in more recent times is a bit of a result none the less.

Of course it all depends on the revenue per passenger as much as the body count.

Do you now whre I can find a list of the connecting markets..?....can't seem to find one anywhere....

take a look on the corporate site. for example


https://corporate.ryanair.com/news/m...lan-bergamo-2/

The load factor can't keep going up for ever.

Based on my flights with them, I find the overall 95% figure surprising. Are they basing it on tickets sold and paid for rather than actual pax boarded ?