Sabena V Ryan Air ...The verdict....

[village flyer]

Michael O' Leary, stuborn to the last.....


A Brussels court has upheld a complaint by Belgian national airline Sabena against an advertising campaign by Ryanair.

The court ruling held the campaign was misleading and offensive and ordered Ryanair to discontinue the adverts immediately.

In addition, the court ordered the full page publication of the court order in four national newspapers and on Ryanair's website under the banner 'Sabena versus Ryanair'.

"We welcome comparative publicity. But this has to be within the boundaries of the Belgian law," said Mr Patrick du Bois, Sabena's secretary general.

"Strategies that mislead the public at large or offend our passengers and our personnel are not to be allowed."

Ryanair ran a series of advertisements comparing its prices with Sabena after it located its mainland Europe hub in the Belgian city of Charleroi, 40 miles south of Brussels, where Sabena has its hub. That move in April made Ryanair a direct competitor with Sabena on several routes.

Ryanair said it would comply with the court ruling that its advertising should include details of prices and comparative quality of services.

"We are really, really sorry Sabena," said a statement from Ryanair Chief Executive Mr Michael O'Leary. "We promise to include details of our prices and the quality of our services in all our future advertisements"

The Ryanair statement then listed price differences indicating its fares were up to 89 per cent cheaper than those on Sabena.

"We are delighted that our 100,000 passengers per month have not been confused by our forgetting to include in our ads just how much lower our fares are and how much better our quality of service is compared with Sabena," Mr O'Leary said.

Courtesy of AP..

VF

:cool:

[gyrohead]

Ryanair service???? What Ryanair service???? :D

[Bluehair]

I have to laugh though :) O'Leary has pulled this one so many times and still gets away with it.

Publish a contriversal advert thats bound to offend your competitor and watch all the 'FREE' media attention roll in for weeks after. :rolleyes:

I read an interview with Micheal O'Leary once where he as much as admited this was the tactic where he said "for every £1 we spend on advertising like this we get £10-£20 worth of freebies from the subsequent attention on paper, radio and even television."

Credit where credit is due.... you know how to play the media Mick! :D

[The Guvnor]

Given SN's complete lack of service on its London flights (operated by VEX) and the generally surly attitude of its crews vs the friendly Ryanair guys 'n' gals, I'd take Ryanair any day of the week (and I do!).

Sabena = Such A Bloody Experience, Never Again.

It's as true today as it ever has been!

[Up & Away]

Guv, You say Virgin Express operate the London Flights and then blaim Sabena???

Have you been on any flights to Brussels from any UK Regional airports where Dat Avro RJs operate for Sabena??

As an old operator to me it was Sex And Booze Every Night Away. Thank you!!

Ryanair is to be congratulated again!!!

[stator vane]

hello Guv;

i operate a lot of those flights.

can you be more specific about which crewmembers are surley? cockpit or cabin?

would appreciate some feedback.

i am not perfect, but often we do need to hear specific events before we can learn how we are to others.

i am in the cockpit and make it my major goal to provide the best flight possible as well as the safest.

but perhaps with all the other events, my PA's may portray some of my frustration that often is at high levels.

the PA is my least favorite part of the job, because i find it hard to apologize for something i didn't do or can't do anything about.

each criticism should have a specific event before it can be valid.

and i can accept criticism if it is valid.

i am sure you would be the same if you heard a similar statement about the airline and route that you often operated.

[CaptSensible]

Well said.

[The Guvnor]

Stator Vane - fair comment. I've had very poor service at all levels of SN, from ground service through cabin crew and on up to regional and senior management. As a couple of examples, we operated feed service from BJM to KGL and EBB. SN entered into a one-way interline agreement; yet refused to give us any benefits such as even an ID50 ticket. At the same time, we had staff from one of our sister companies travelling down on a weekly basis BRU-EBB-BRU acting as a courier and carrying VAL cargo. I lost count of the times where we bought tickets at the lowest fare from the SN office in BJM (usually issued automatically by the SN system, not manually) and where we would find that his PNR had miraculously disappeared from the SN system. We even found this happening where the reservations were made by the SN ANR office.

On the other hand, nothing is all bad and I have often had good service on board as well. Frequently when transitting KGL and EBB, I'd visit the flight decks of the A330s and usually receive a warm welcome and that day's Flemish papers! If you were one of those crews, thanks again!