Ryanair - 9

[DomyDom]

Does anyone know why Ryanair still maintain some destinations on their drop down menus e.g. Biaritz from Manchester when they no longer operate the routes? Also does anyone know if Katorwitz and Tours are coming back from Manchester? Thanks, DomyDom

[Millionmileshigh]

Biarritz still showing up is likely just an oversight when the website has been updated

It looks like the routes to Tours and Katowice may not be coming back for summer 2014, however routes from Manchester to Poland are sometimes not announced until the last minute, perhaps this could be the case here? I do think the polish routes have a slightly later booking profile than some others, maybe someone could shed a bit more light on this?

[DublinPole]

Seems MyRyanair has been given a soft launch, when you book flights now it gives you the option of registering before you get to the payment page.

[ayroplain]

when you book flights now it gives you the option of registering before you get to the payment page.
Yes, I noticed that as well.

The problem I have now is that the only organisation that won't accept payments made with the Ryanair Cash Passport .........is Ryanair. I've made numerous attempts over the past 5 weeks and all have been rejected. No problem using it elsewhere.

[eu01]

I came upon an interesting article in Belgian La Libre (http://www.lalibre.be/economie/actualite/comment-l-etat-belge-evite-d-aider-ryanair-52b3c9cd3570105ef7d88af8), shedding some light on Ryanair's decision to come to Zaventem.

While Brussels (European Commission) bans any public aid for airlines, an other government in Brussels (Belgian Government) tries to assist financially indebted Belgian airlines, mostly Brussels Airlines, but also Jetairfly and Thomas Cook. The best way to achieve it? Well, the aid package of 19 million euro will not be given directly to these airlines, but will be granted to the Brussels National Airport "for security infrastructure", as a legal public aid authorized by the Commission. Thereafter, the Brussels Airport will redistribute this sum of money as an incentive, to companies that fly over 400,000 passengers per year from Zaventem, excluding transfers.

Probably that was the main motivation for Ryanair to shift some capacity there thus getting a lion's share or at least a significant part of this aid. Smart move? Probably not enough. The Belgian government has just precised its rules, adding some text (as I understand it). The rebate will be "based on the latest comprehensive figures available, namely those of 2012." "According to that, companies are being selected from 2012 for next three years".

I simply cannot imagine Ryanair swallowing that without uttering a word...

[racedo]

State Aid is not state aid if EU sneakily do it via back door for a country.

Guess this will get challenged with EU who will say its ok.

[TSR2]

State Aid is not state aid if EU sneakily do it via back door for a country

Rather like Italian state aid for Alitalia via the Italian Post Office.

[eu01]

As I've mentioned in my earlier post, "For these big [airports,like Zaventem], Ryanair is sometimes an intruder, an unwanted nuisance. (...) Zaventem Airport managing director, [was] less than content and somewhat offended by Ryanair's decision to "invade" the place".

This morning Mr. Marc Descheemaecker, a new chairman of the board of directors of Brussels Airport, has expressed his view even more clearly: The arrival of Ryanair to Zaventem may in the long term harm the Belgian economy. That has been said publicly in "The Morning" broadcast on Radio1.

According to Descheemaecker the future of the airport in Zaventem could now be jeopardized. He fears that the Irish airline would provoke a 'disturbance'.
Descheemaecker calls to be 'strategically prudent' while dealing with the arrival of new players. "If Brussels Airlines becomes squeezed by Ryanair, the Belgian carrier might be forced to reduce its flights to Africa and travellers will have to fly from other European airports", he said.

No matter how much is the reason, I don't think such publicly expressed hostility towards a newcomer is a good start for a partnership.

The recording of this interview in its entirety can be found here (http://www.radio1.be/programmas/de-ochtend/wat-betekende-2013-voor-marc-descheemaecker) (in Dutch only) (http://www.radio1.be/programmas/de-ochtend/wat-betekende-2013-voor-marc-descheemaecker).

[Centre cities]

You are assuming that it is viewed as a partnership and not as a parasite.

Centre cities

[Ernest Lanc's]

Ryanair steward screamed at passenger over cheese and crackers | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2528273/F-What-Ryanair-steward-repeatedly-screamed-passenger-handed-rip-4-20-cheese-crackers.html)

Enjoy your flight.

[farci]

According to Descheemaecker the future of the airport in Zaventem could now be jeopardized. He fears that the Irish airline would provoke a 'disturbance'.
Descheemaecker calls to be 'strategically prudent' while dealing with the arrival of new players. "If Brussels Airlines becomes squeezed by Ryanair, the Belgian carrier might be forced to reduce its flights to Africa and travellers will have to fly from other European airports", he said.Perhaps Mr Descheemaecker is a distant relative of King Canute? In case he hadn't noticed other major European airports have found ways of dealing with locos.

In any case is Brussels Airlines a wholly owned subsidiary of Zaventem?

[davidjohnson6]

There's something else going on with this story, besides just Ryanair being a threat to Brussels Airlines.

Vueling operate or are launching in the next few months the following routes:
Alicante
Barcelona
Ibiza
Lisbon
Malaga
Palma de Mallorca
Porto
Rome-Fiumicino
Santiago de Compostela
Valencia
Venice-Marco Polo

Ryanair will launch the following routes next year (FR don't fly to BRU right now)
Alicante
Barcelona
Ibiza
Lisbon
Malaga
Palma de Mallorca
Porto
Rome-Fiumicino
Valencia
Venice-Teviso

There are no other routes that Ryanair or Vueling operate or have said they will launch from BRU

Many of these routes look to be quite leisure centric - I doubt they will have a particularly large number of passengers connecting onto Africa via Brussels

Can anyone spot the pattern when comparing the 2 lists of routes ?

Is it possible that the chairman of BRU is perhaps being less than entirely open with what he's thinking and what he actually says ?

[racedo]

According to Descheemaecker the future of the airport in Zaventem could now be jeopardized. He fears that the Irish airline would provoke a 'disturbance'.
Descheemaecker calls to be 'strategically prudent' while dealing with the arrival of new players. "If Brussels Airlines becomes squeezed by Ryanair, the Belgian carrier might be forced to reduce its flights to Africa and travellers will have to fly from other European airports", he said.

No matter how much is the reason, I don't think such publicly expressed hostility towards a newcomer is a good start for a partnership.

Not like an airport to be in bed with its percieved National Airline
BA.............LHR
EI............DUB
AF...........CDG
LH............FRA

[daz211]

Well done Ryanair for holding flights from LGW by one hour to ensure people can get home for Christmas excellent customer service :ok:

[CVTDog]

If you have booked the Fri evening flight with Ryanair (19:35) to ALC next summer you will be receiving a email cancelling the flight.

Unfortunately I had booked 9 (rtns) of these over the summer as it avoided time off work to get down to our place in Alicante.

All cancelled . . :mad:

[FRatSTN]

Ryanair fly from East Midlands to Alicante twice daily including a Friday evening service.


It leaves EMA at 20:20 and arrives in ALC at 23:50 should that help you.

[racedo]

Well done Ryanair for holding flights from LGW by one hour to ensure people can get home for Christmas excellent customer service http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/thumbs.gif

Around Gatwick it was apparently a disaster area for road traffic as rivers burst banks meant many roads impassable..............

[johnnychips]

"If Brussels Airlines becomes squeezed by Ryanair, the Belgian carrier might be forced to reduce its flights to Africa and travellers will have to fly from other European airports", he said.

So does that imply the flights to Africa are being cross-subsidised by other Brussels Airlines flights? I suppose that's a subject for another thread.

[Jorik]

I just found out that Eindhoven (EIN) will get a second based aircraft for S14. In S13 one based aircraft operated from EIN, with the earliest departure at 8.00 local time (7.00 slots were in the hands of Transavia). This summer season Ryanair has received 7.00 slots as well for working days (earliest departure allowed at EIN in the weekend is 08.00) and will use that for a very early morning return flight to London Stansted and on Thursday to Ibiza as well. No announcement has been made because a lot of the capacity will go to increased frequenties on existing routes, besides the new routes already announced: Knock and Catania.

For the ones interested, this is what the schedule for the based aircraft looks like (note the free space still available and that it's likely that the route to Bordeaux will be added on Saturday and Tuesday, just like last summer season):

Monday
EIN WMI mo 08:35 10:30
WMI EIN mo 10:55 12:55
EIN FEZ mo 13:50 16:20
FEZ EIN mo 16:45 21:10

EIN STN mo 7:00 7:05
STN EIN mo 7:30 9:35
EIN NOC mo 10:00 10:45
NOC EIN mo 11:10 13:45
EIN CHQ mo 14:35 19:00
CHQ EIN mo 19:25 22:05

Tuesday
EIN CCF di 7:45 9:30
CCF EIN di 9:55 11:40
EIN NOC di 12:05 12:50
NOC EIN di 13:15 15:50
EIN IBZ di 16:40 19:10
IBZ EIN di 19:45 22:15

EIN STN di 7:00 7:05
STN EIN di 7:30 9:35
SPACE AVAILABLE (most likely return flight Bordeaux)
EIN CTA di 15:55 18:40
CTA EIN di 19:15 22:00

Wednesday
EIN WMI wo 9:05 10:45
WMI EIN wo 11:10 13:10
EIN AGP wo 14:00 16:55
AGP EIN wo 17:30 20:35

EIN STN wo 7:00 7:05
STN EIN wo 7:30 9:35
SPACE AVAILABLE
EIN CIA wo 17:25 19:30
CIA EIN wo 19:55 22:15

Thursday
EIN STN do 7:00 7:05
STN EIN do 7:30 9:35
EIN NOC do 10:00 10:45
NOC EIN do 11:10 13:45
EIN CHQ do 14:35 19:00
CHQ EIN do 19:25 22:05

EIN IBZ do 7:00 9:30
IBZ EIN do 10:05 12:35
SPACE AVAILABLE (for just a 1hr flight single way (STN?)
EIN CTA do 15:55 18:40
CTA EIN do 19:15 22:00

Friday
EIN WMI vr 8:35 10:30
WMI EIN vr 10:55 12:55
EIN FEZ vr 13:45 16:15
FEZ EIN vr 16:40 21:05

EIN STN vr 7:00 7:05
STN EIN vr 7:30 9:35
EIN CIA vr 10:00 12:05
CIA EIN vr 12:30 14:50
SPACE AVAILABLE

Saturday
EIN STN za 8:15 8:20
STN EIN za 8:45 10:50
SPACE AVAILABLE (most likely return flight Bordeaux)
EIN CTA za 15:55 18:40
CTA EIN za 19:15 22:00

EIN CCF za 8:00 9:45
CCF EIN za 10:10 11:55
EIN NOC za 12:20 13:05
NOC EIN za 13:30 16:05
EIN IBZ za 16:40 19:10
IBZ EIN za 19:45 22:15

Sunday
EIN STN zo 8:15 8:20
STN EIN zo 8:45 10:50
EIN DUB zo 11:15 12:00
DUB EIN zo 12:25 15:05
SPACE AVAILABLE

EIN ACE zo 8:05 11:35
ACE EIN zo 12:10 17:20
EIN DUB zo 18:25 19:10
DUB EIN zo 19:35 22:15

[Donkey497]

Does anyone know if Ryanair & WestJet have any sort of relationship either in place, or planned?
Since WestJet announced their intention to do Low Cost transatlantic next year into DUB the rumours of Ryanair doing likewise seem to have died off. Also in one of their press releases, WestJet stated that one of their deciding reasons for DUB was the ability to tap into the wide European low cost flight network from there.
It would seem a little risky to have at least part of the basis for a new route being the ability to tap into someone else's routes without having at least some sort of agreement between the two sides.......

[davidjohnson6]

Donkey - what sort of relationship do you think would likely prove worthwhile to both airlines, bearing in mind the cost of setting up appropriate back office systems and any EU261 related constraints ?

I ask this as a genuine question, as I can't really see a big commercial incentive to FR for any kind of great commitment at this stage. Would something like each airline putting a weblink to the other carrier in a suitable place on their websites suffice ?

[Donkey497]

@DJ6


To be honest, I couldn't give a monkeys what kind of arrangement there might be between them & I hadn't thought about it in the slightest.


I just wondered if there had been any mention of a tie up as the musings on behalf of Ryanair about launching one or more T/A routes seemed to go all quiet just before WestJet made their initial announcement & their subsequent press release talking about tapping into the European route network.


I'm just wondering if we have 2 apples + 2 oranges making 4 pieces of fruit, or just coincidentally being 2 apples & 2 oranges.........

[MARKEYD]

Does anyone have any idea if Bournemouth might get the Wroclaw route back again for next summer loads have been about 85 / 90 % throughout the summer but i am guessing as always its all about the yield

Other wise it looks like BOH has escaped quite lightly with route reductions and frequency cuts for next summer all the same as this year

[racedo]

Reasonably good numbers for December--------------

Ryanair News


News Release
02.01.14
Ryanair December Traffic Grows 4% To 5m Customers

Ryanair, Europe’s favourite low fares airline, today (2 Jan) released December traffic statistics as follows:


Traffic grew by 4% to over 5m customers.
Load factor unchanged at 81%.
Annual traffic to December rose 2% to 81.4m customers.


Dec 12
Dec 13
Change
Yr to Dec 13
Customers
4.8M
5.0M
+4%
81.4M (+2%)
Load Factor
81%
81%
-
83%






Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said:

“Ryanair carried a new record of over 5m customers in December, thanks to the success of our lower fares, easier to use website and customer service improvements. Further service improvements are due to be rolled out over the coming weeks and months as Ryanair continues to lower prices and improve our industry leading customer service in 2014.”

[Aluminium shuffler]

+2% annual and +4% Dec pax figures sound positive, but were there any increases in fleet size or numbers of flights? If those exceed 2%, then it's not so good...

[Copenhagen]

Load factor remaining static tells you the number of seats flown growing at the same level as passengers.

What we will not know until the next board meeting is the yield.

No doubt someone can tell us how many aircraft they have in the fleet vs last year.

[FRatSTN]

Looks like Ryanair will open a base at Lisbon from 2nd April 2014.

The morning Stansted flight FR1885 will now leave Lisbon at 06:40, arriving at Stansted at 09:20. FR1884 now leaves Stansted at 09:45 and gets to Lisbon at 12:25. The evening service remains the same with a Stansted based aircraft.

Also the Beauvais route will now go daily with FR1887 leaving Lisbon at 11:45, arriving in Beauvais at 15:10. FR1886 leaves Beauvais now at 15:35 and arriving back in Lisbon at 17:00.

The new timings suggest at least 2 based aircraft as the morning Stansted service doesn't get back in time for the Paris route. I assume we can expect lots of new routes from Lisbon very soon!

[Jorik]

Absolutely looks like a LIS base. The RAK and FEZ bases were discovered the exact same way, with 06.30 departures from those airports. A week later the two bases were annouced.

Back in 2012 this image was released with the possible destinations.
Details added: 8 based aircraft and 4 mil. pax each year.

http://www.lowcostportugal.net/wp-content/uploads/Ryanair-proposta-base-Lisboa.jpg

[NRU74]

Anyone know why Ryanair have two (and only two) flights Man to Nice this year (10th and 14th Mar) ?
The prices are not very competitive either.

[davidjohnson6]

Mipim - it's the big annual trade fair for real estate / property in Europe

[eu01]

Absolutely looks like a LIS base.Speculating about new bases, huh? Look at this: starting on April 2nd...(daily)
Warsaw Modlin 12:10 - Gdansk 12:55
Gdansk 13:20 - Warsaw Modlin 14:10
Warsaw Modlin 15:00 - Wroclaw 15:55
Wroclaw 16:20 - Warsaw Modlin 17:20
Logically: where this aircraft could actually be based? GDN has no based aircrafts, WRO has, but it's not coming from there. A "double W-pattern"? Don't think so. Two different aircraft making separate W-patterns? Quite unlikely, they don't fit into any existing schedules. So my guesswork's conclusion: it will be a Modlin based aircraft, doing something in the morning, going to Gdansk and back, at 15:00 after a standard 50 min. crew change performing WRO rotation.

In fact I've noticed it a few weeks ago, I'm apparently too old to become excited by that kind of observation, but if you speculate... here we go.

[NRU74]

davidj6
Thanks - I noticed it last year - but my (somewhat) cursory search of S of France events didn't show Mipim -Thanks

[racedo]

It would suggest 2 different aircraft given departure times..........

Later one is Rygge and think earlier one is Stansted.

[eu01]

@racedo. Are you pertaining to my post? No, that doesn't fit.

[racedo]

@racedo. Are you pertaining to my post? No, that doesn't fit.

Rygge aircraft lands 14.10 and departs 17.40 which fits just for later flight.
Other assumming Daily service and Stansted looks odd in terms of timings but could also be Skavsta.

[FRatSTN]

I've got lost with this now but having just looked I can tell that other than the Mon, Wed and Fri services to/from Skavsta which do a W pattern to Beauvais in between, there is currently no sign of any W patterns at Modlin.

It would seem there is potentially a based aircraft that goes to Gdansk and back with a 50 minute turnaround at Modlin before going to Wroclaw. In which case I imagine there would be many new routes to come.

Alternatively there might be a new route or just a change in the schedules from another base which arrives in Modlin say around 11:45 and does the Gdansk and Wroclaw services before returning to it's base at say 17:45. That would be like a "double W pattern" so to speak so kind of doubt that will happen.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[CCFAIRPORT]

RYANAIR CANCELLED A LOT OF ROUTES FOR SUMMER 14

Rzeszow-Trapani
Rzeszow-Girona
Bari-Warsaw
Bydgoszcz-Girona
Bydgoszcz-Weeze
Bydgoszcz-Prestwick
Lublin-Liverpool
Gdans-Girona
Girona-Vasteras
Girona-Torp
Girona-Gothenburg
Girona-Malmö
Girona-Karlstad
Girona-Jonkoping
Alicante-Angelholm
Girona-Kalmar
Malmö-Wroclaw
Girona-Treviso
Girona-Trieste
Smäland-Palma
Stockholm Skavsta-Riga
Stockholm Skavsta-Hahn
Stockholm Skavsta-Weeze
Stockholm Skavsta-Budapest
Stockholm Skavsta-Memmingen
Stockholm Skavsta-Baden
Stockholm Skavsta-Schönefeld
Stockholm Skavsta-Tenerife
Stockholm Skavsta-Las Palmas
Aarhus-Las Palmas
Vasteras-Las Palmas
Vasteras-Tenerife
Torp-Tenerife
Rygge-Las Palmas
Rygge-Tenerife
Karlstad-Tenerife
Budapest-Malaga
Targu Mures-Pisa
Dublin-Stockholm Skavsta
Edinburgh-Stockholm Skavsta
Gdansk-Palma
Bournemouth-Wroclaw
Carcassonne-Beauvais
Riga-Charleroi
Riga-Leeds
Charleroi-Lisbon
Charleroi-Clermont Ferrand
Brive-Maastricht
Maastricht-Stansted
Maastricht-Bergamo
Maastricht-Treviso
Bergerac-Marrakesh
Cuneo-Marrakesh
Billund-Krakow
Prestwick-Rzeszow
Kaunas-Stockholm Skavsta
Edinburgh-Katowice
Marseille-Reus
Marseille-Treviso
Marseille-Pisa
Reus-Bremen
Reus-Rygge
Reus-Leeds
Barcelona-Leeds
Birmingham-Montpellier
Treviso-Wroclaw
Marseille-Vatry
Stockholm Skavsta-Trapani
Leeds-Vilnius
Weeze-Bergerac
Weeze-Marseille
Weeze-Rygge
Hahn-Bologna
Hahn-Tanger
Hahn-Warsaw Modlin
Hahn-Tallinn
Hahn-Oslo Rygge
Hahn-Gran Canaria
Cork-Krakow
Kaunas-Tampere


Maybe I forgot some routes

[j636]

They have route(s) from Leeds, Birmingham, Doncaster, Liverpool and East Midlands also cancelled.

[1sky]

I thought more route than that were cancelled from Hahn.

[MKY661]

Budapest-Malaga

That can't be good. Malev Ran that route for a long time. Guess Wizz Air still have it in the bag though :)

[peppo_8787]

From Italy, they cancel:

Bari-Siviglia
Bari-Varsavia Modlin
Bergamo-Poznan
Bergamo-Glasgow Prestwick
Bergamo-Maastricht
Bergamo-Groningen
Bergamo-Oslo Torp
Bergamo-Brno
Bergamo-Lodz
Bergamo-Groningen
Bergamo-Maastricht
Bologna-Francoforte Hahn
Bologna-Salonicco
Bologna-Paphos
Cagliari-Edimburgo
Cagliari-Oslo Rygge
Cagliari-Norimberga
Ciampino-Lipsia
Cuneo-Marrakech
Cuneo-Ciampino
Palermo-Oslo Rygge
Pisa-Cork
Pisa-Tirgu Mures
Pisa-Maastricht
Pisa-Marsiglia
Trapani-Amburgo-Lubecca
Trapani-Lipsia
Trapani-Billund
Trapani-Valencia
Trapani-Londra-Luton
Trapani-Rzeszow
Trapani-Stoccolma Skavsta
Treviso-Marsiglia
Treviso-Girona
Treviso-Wroclaw
Treviso-Maastricht
Trieste-Barcellona Girona
Trieste-Birmingham
Trieste-Cagliari
Trieste-Dusseldorf Weeze

[Jack1985]

Pisa-Cork is not cancelled, it is for-sale via the BOOK NOW feature which you can select from the ''Manage Booking'' feature.

[MKY661]

Also I just found this Regarding the Liverpool to Lublin route on the Lublin Airport website:

"Flights from Lublin to Liverpool are very popular among the passengers. The average number of sold seats is 90%, therefore we are suprised by the carrier's decision to suspend the flights for the winter", says Krzysztof Wojtowicz, President of Lublin Airport.

Ryanair promises to resume flights to Liverpool and extend the services from Lublin Airport as from the summer of 2014.

Changes in the winter schedule of Ryanair | Lublin Airport (http://www.airport.lublin.pl/en/lotnisko/aktualnosci/zmiany-w-zimowym-rozkladzie-ryanaira.html)

[Millionmileshigh]

Manchester-tours and Manchester - Katowice also dropped for 2014

[boyzinblue]

Ryanair have also now confirmed that Leipzig/Hallo will lose Rom, Pisa, Faro, Malaga and Trapani for S14. London is the only route to survive. FR blame the cuts on insufficient aircraft availability, insisting they were very happy with the performance of the routes!! Funny that you then cut them, to try new routes. I do not believe this current strategy of route cutting is wise, since when (if) FR return to these airports they have to rebuild their customer base again.

[Bagso]

This is somewhat puzzling re the STN element !

London Heathrow Says Tougher Fee Cap to Weigh on Spending Plans - Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-10/ryanair-opposes-regulator-lifting-fee-cap-at-london-stansted-hub.html)

The airline committed to boosting passenger numbers there by 50 percent to more than 20 million over 10 years after agreeing on terms for growth with new owner Manchester Airports Group


Ryanair Holdings Plc (RYA) slammed a decision to scrap price regulation at London Stansted.

I thought MAG had agreed a "low price" deal based on guaranteed delivery by RYR, but this seems to suggest that MAG can introduce price hikes at will ?

[insuindi]

I am fairly certain that Ryanair will not return to all of these airports with the same routes next year "when the planes are there".

[racedo]

I am fairly certain that Ryanair will not return to all of these airports with the same routes next year "when the planes are there".

10% would probably be dropped anyway as route recycling goes on but likely majority would return.

[eu01]

Ryanair and Google are jointly working on top-secret plans in a bid to completely transform how consumers search for, select and buy airline tickets.

In a wide ranging interview with the Sunday Independent (http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/oleary-reveals-ryanairgoogle-plan-to-change-how-we-buy-tickets-forever-29907730.html), O'Leary said the partnership with Google would change the way people buy tickets forever.
"There are some very exciting developments with Google, where we have been working with them on sharing the pricing," O'Leary said.
"We'll be sharing the Ryanair pricing through all of the Google outlets, so when you go in, there'll be route selections, cheapest prices and so on. "They want to launch with us and we're working with them on that kind of product".

O'Leary expects the project to go live by the end of March.

[davidjohnson6]

Slightly confused on scope. Will Google be just a distribution mechanism, showing the same prices as the FR website, or will Google be more integrated to show different prices based on one's Google+ profile and purchasing history ?

An example of this is found in some retailers in N America. If you walk in off the street as a complete stranger, prices displayed are high. Sign up for a store chain loyalty card and agree to being sent 'useful marketing messages', and the more you shop, the lower the prices, thus locking in customer loyalty. Part of this of course involves the retailer being able to 'monetise' the data about you and not just your purchasing history but also details of any product enquiries you may have made.

If the price displayed to the customer is substantiallyaffected by web browsing / purchasing / Facebook / Google+ history, then Ryanair need to be very careful - Ryanair may end up doing the commoditised low-profit-margin high-commercial-risk flying while more of the value in the airline business accrues to Google. I do not believe Ryanair are remotely capable on their own of making use of the value of big data / data science.

[racedo]

An example of this is found in some retailers in N America. If you walk in off the street as a complete stranger, prices displayed are high. Sign up for a store chain loyalty card and agree to being sent 'useful marketing messages', and the more you shop, the lower the prices, thus locking in customer loyalty. Part of this of course involves the retailer being able to 'monetise' the data about you and not just your purchasing history but also details of any product enquiries you may have made.

US Retailers also sgement on basis of how many returns you make as well, i.e. the lets buy the pretty party frock for 1 night and return next day bint gets classified V quickly.




If the price displayed to the customer is substantiallyaffected by web browsing / purchasing / Facebook / Google+ history, then Ryanair need to be very careful - Ryanair may end up doing the commoditised low-profit-margin high-commercial-risk flying while more of the value in the airline business accrues to Google. I do not believe Ryanair are remotely capable on their own of making use of the value of big data / data science.

No but why would they need to when people like Dunhumby etc would do all of that segmenting for them.

[Hangar6]

FR kills off sky scanner and google kills off ??
Me thinks Ducksie is going to have his lunch eaten on this one , he never liked the interweb and google is so much better at eating customers,

[SealinkBF]

I think this is simply like when I do a Google search for "Glasgow Hotels", I get links to prices via Google.

So if I check "Tenerife flights" presumably some of the results will be live prices.

[Sober Lark]

Whatever about the nicer face of Ryanair, one things certain, Leo never puts away his Swords.

[LAX_LHR]

Anybody know what is going on with MAN-BCN?

Its currently got 2 flights in the system for the football in March, but someone on the MAN thread suggested daily flights would be loaded, with flight numbers etc from March 30th.

In the 'new routes' section of the Ryanair site, it has in the Manchester section 'Barcelona from 12th March' (the football flights), but then in the Barcelona section, it has 'Manchester from 30th March' (obviously non football).

As of yet, no flights have been loaded from 30th March, nothing in GDS or in other sources. Is the route going ahead or not?

[MANFOD]

LAX-LHR, I think there are a few of us who are intrigued to know just what routes FR will be operating at MAN this summer.

Various other routes have been mentioned, possibly because of slot applications, and we still only have DUB at 18 flights weekly on their web site as far as I know, compared to the 30 or more that were mooted.

[pee]

Whatever about the nicer face of Ryanair, one things certain, Leo never puts away his Swords
Even with the best intentions (nicer face etc.), there is too much ongoing chaos related to the future flights (routes, timetables), nothing seems to be 100% sure. Will Ryanair's nicer face compensate the current degree of uncertainty, most probably influencing its sales?

[LAX_LHR]

Various other routes have been mentioned, possibly because of slot
applications, and we still only have DUB at 18 flights weekly on their web site
as far as I know, compared to the 30 or more that were mooted.


Yes its all a bit up in the air right now. Oporto, Zadar and Skavsta have been rumoured, with Dublin increase actually announced as you say, and Barcelona is appearing on the Ryanair website as a new route from 30th March but nothing loaded.

[j636]

The daily MAN-BCN route was available until the middle of last week before it was removed from sale.

[durry]

What a Micky Mouse bunch they are. Passengers can`t rely on their routes any more , one minute it`a on then it`s off....amateurism

[MANFOD]

J636, If El Prat has gone, I see on the FR web site that Girona is still only 3 x weekly. As someone else pointed out, it was originally showing as 10 x weekly but then reduced to daily. Then when El Prat appeared, Girona went down to 3 x weekly.

Goodness knows what we'll finish up with, but 31 March is not all that far off in terms of what's bookable. There may be some clues if anyone learns what slots have been returned by the end of this month.

[Keyvon]

Ryanair has announced two new bases: Athens and Thessaloniki, starting from next April.
Ryanair Announces New Athens Thessaloniki Bases (No 63 64) (http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-announces-news-athens-and-thessaloniki-bases-no-63-and-64)

9 new routes including Stansted-Athens.

[CCFAIRPORT]

RYANAIR OPENS 4 MANCHESTER ROUTES IN 2014



BARCELONA, BOLOGNA, FUERTEVENTURA & GRAN CANARIA
& INCREASED FLIGHTS ON 5 EXISTING ROUTES
OVER 2M PASSENGERS & 2,000 JOBS AT MANCHESTER

Ryanair, Europe’s favourite low fares airline, today (15 Jan) announced it will open 4 new routes from Manchester (in March 2014) as well as adding frequencies on 5 existing routes, which will deliver 2,100,000 passengers p.a. and support 2,100* on-site jobs at Manchester Airport.

Ryanair’s growth at Manchester from March 2014 will deliver:

· 4 new routes to Barcelona, Bologna, Fuerteventura & Gran Canaria
· 36 Manchester routes in total
· More flights on 5 existing routes – Dublin, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Malaga & Tenerife
· Over 2.1m Ryanair passengers p.a. at Manchester
· Over 2,100* jobs sustained at Manchester Airport

Ryanair celebrated its 4 new routes and increased frequencies by releasing 100,000 seats on sale at prices from £16.99 for travel in Feb and Mar, which are available for booking until midnight Thursday (16 Jan).

Ryanair’s Maria Macken said:

“Ryanair is pleased to deliver 4 new European routes to/from Manchester to Barcelona, Bologna, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria, as well as increased frequencies on 5 existing routes, which will deliver over 2.1m passengers per annum and sustain over 2,100* “on-site” jobs at Manchester Airport.”

[ssflyer]

MANFOD-at least there are flights from MAN,FR have now pulled their BHX/GRO 3xweekly down to a fat zero!:E

[All names taken]

I see RYR are still using that old-fashioned pax/jobs calculation method:
2.1 mill pax = 2,100 jobs.

Well, frankly put: total BS / lies /misleading / call it what you want.

The research that produced that correlation was based on the days when full service (and over-staffed) carriers ruled the air waves. RYR have been pace setters in destroying that model and cutting staff numbers to the bone. Additionally, their outrageous baggage charges have ensured that employment amongst baggage handlers continues to dwindle.

Sorry RYR you can't have it both ways.

[RAT 5]

Look at it the other way: are RYR saying that if they pulled out then 2100 people would lose their jobs? I don't think so. They are still in their ivory tower feeding themselves on the arrogant seeds and thinking the world owes them everything. How many other carriers are there at Manchester, and since how long has RYR been there? It's not been that long and are they also saying that 2100 jobs have been created since RYR joined the party?
The more they open their mouths the more we know the truth. Eisenhower had it correct. "it's better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you're a fool, than to open it and confirm the truth." All the other airline staff must be laughing in their disbelief.

[racedo]

All the other airline staff must be laughing in their disbelief.

You mean like
Malev
Sky Europe
BMI-Baby
Air Polonia
etc
etc
etc
etc etc

[eu01]

Something positive in the wind. A new group booking service, just introduced by Ryanair, will allow groups of at least 20 pax to block book seats on a flight with the person booking without including the names of all the passengers at the time of booking.

The new booking page (http://frd.ie/help/index.php/group-booking) gives some information.

How to make a group booking?
Group Terms & Conditions


Min Group 20 (no max)
Quote Valid for (7) days (subject to seat/flight availability)
Payment 100% at time of booking.
Credit card fee 2%, debit card free
Names 50% of names due halfway between booking date & outbound departure date
Balance due 14 days in advance of outbound departure date
Name changes within 14 days of outbound departure, €50/£50 per person per sector
Optional extras Normal rules apply
Date/Route changes Normal rules apply.

In principle, a very good move, I'd only like to know what will be the price level when compared to the individual bookings, very much depends on that.

[RAT 5]

Racedo: You are too selective in your thoughts. There are some big players at Manchester, both EU & international. I doubt they or MAN are setting out their business plans at the whim of RYR. They are new-come bit players relative to the older residents. MAN has been a major airport long before RYR rose from the ashes.
I do not doubt RYR has brought many riches to many regions, but to say that MAN has 2100 job dependant on RYR is a speculation too far.

[eu01]

Let's have a brief look at the flight schedules on a new route from Athens to Thessaloniki: Sat, May 10 2014

Flight.. Depart - Arrive

FR10... 06:25 - 07:20
FR18... 07:45 - 08:40
FR16... 17:30 - 18:25
FR35... 18:50 - 19:45
FR12... 20:10 - 21:05
FR28... 22:05 - 23:00
The Thessalonian population is 322,240 (city) / 790,824 (urban). A great... vision or madness?

[Mr A Tis]

I must be missing something here. I can't find any flights from MAN to BCN, except the two football specials in March. Nor are any of theproposed Las Palmas flights bookable.

[davidjohnson6]

Perhaps worth noting that on the same day, 10 May, Aegean operate 10 flights from Athens to Thessaloniki

[racedo]

Perhaps worth noting that on the same day, 10 May, Aegean operate 10 flights from Athens to Thessaloniki

What is current financials of Aegean ?

[SealinkBF]

I understand up to 30 September 2013 they made a profit of €59m after tax with €237m cash in the bank.

Domestic traffic was dropping (probably due to the financial disaster that is Greece) however by third quarter domestic pax numbers started increasing again, however international traffic is increasing faster.

Of course, I could have entirely misread their results... :ouch:

[racedo]

Sealink

Thank you.

Had a read and the stating that the Aqcuisition of Olympic will cause losses in last quarter. Guess it will be the integration of Olympic that will be challenge.

Funny EU allowing monopoly situation.........

[davidjohnson6]

racedo - I would encourage you to Google to read up on the Aegean - Olympic takeover / merger. I believe the rationale given was that Olympic was in such trouble that a refusal to permit integration with Aegean would have led to Olympic very likely ceasing to fly commercially in a substantial way.

I believe EU competition law permits merger of 2 companies with non-trivial market share when there is significant doubt as to whether one company is a going concern - a similiar logic prevailed with IAG / British Airways buying bmi. Aer Lingus seems to be in good health, showing no sign of major problems like bankruptcy so Ryanair is being denied permission to take over Aer Lingus. If Aer Lingus were to spend a few years losing a ton of money and looked like going bust, then MOL might get his way. Until then, MOL will have to just carry on with life.

I'm sure your buddies in Dublin will be able to stand on their own 2 feet when competing in Greece though

[pee]

There have been some leaks concerning the new Dublin - St. Petersburg route. Most probably it will be flown from April onwards three times a week. The preliminary schedules suggest early departures from DUB (6:00 - 6:30 AM), the time of arrival in St. Petersburg just after 13:00 local time. The travel days would be Tue, Thu, Sat.

[AMS flyer]

New routes for EIN:

EIN-MJV 2/7
EIN-CFU 1/7
EIN-TSF 3/7

Most probably operated by second based aircraft at EIN.

[The SSK]

Aegean is a great little airline. Consistently profitable until the Greek meltdown happened, it’s already back in the black even though the economy is still a total mess. Add to that a terrific reputation for service and a string of awards. Not the sort of thing you associate with a Greek airline, I can only conclude that they are very well managed, and the few contacts I have with them suggests they have a strong and affirmative corporate culture.

Will be an interesting battle. It will hurt Aegean but I doubt it will cripple them

[Sober Lark]

Autumn to now = Kenny Jacobs. Congrats

[racedo]

Autumn to now = Kenny Jacobs. Congrats

Ryanair Completes Senior Management Appointments (http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-completes-senior-management-appointments)

9 Appointments. importantly 8 of those are internal.
Always need new blood but too many destabilises and tells people internally they will not be considered for promotion.

[davidjohnson6]

Lesley Kane who was previously Head of Sales & Marketing is promoted to become Ryanair’s new Head of Groups & Corporate Sales.

I hope I'm not being naive here, but this seemed a somewhat surprising announcement for 2 reasons:
- How is moving from head of sales+marketing to head of group/corporate sales a promotion ?
- With a network that is still heavily reliant on airports in leisure-focussed locations and areas with modest population density, how much potential is there really for significant amounts of corporate sales ? Or is this a coded way of reinforcing the message that the company wants to move much more towards primary airports ?

[racedo]

I hope I'm not being naive here, but this seemed a somewhat surprising announcement for 2 reasons:
- How is moving from head of sales+marketing to head of group/corporate sales a promotion ?
- With a network that is still heavily reliant on airports in leisure-focussed locations and areas with modest population density, how much potential is there really for significant amounts of corporate sales ? Or is this a coded way of reinforcing the message that the company wants to move much more towards primary airports ?

More close involvement with T Agents perhaps ?

[TSR2]

All but one are internal promotions. Well earned reward for those who have served Ryanair loyally over the years.

[Seljuk22]

FR about to cancel BGY-CIA (3 daily). Last flights bookable 29 March.
Ryanair to cancel flights between Milan and Rome - ANSA English - ANSA.it (http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/english/2014/01/17/Ryanair-cancel-flights-Milan-Rome_9916062.html)

[EI-A330-300]

Customer service and all that......
Ryanair passengers 'mutiny' after plane forced to land at airport 250 miles from destination - Irish Mirror Online (http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/ryanair-passengers-mutiny-after-plane-3041524)


Ryanair passengers revolt and steal from alcohol trolley after delay | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2542666/Furious-Ryanair-passengers-launch-revolt-steal-booze-trolley-faced-24-hour-delay-following-emergency-landing.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490)


Don't know which article is correct.

[ayroplain]

Customer service and all that...
Pray, tell us what Ryanair did wrong here.

[insuindi]

"English passengers would not have behaved like this and the British plod would probably have arrested rather than negotiated with the lot of them."

I admire your view of "English passengers".

British police would have been quite unlikely to arrest the lot, an arrest requires 2-4 man hours, times half the pax on board, well...

[racedo]

Part of the problem is Ryanairs reputation, people are on edge from the minute they walking into the airport (it used to be the website, but that seems much better now?) its a shame because in terms of dealing with unplanned diversions FR are normally very good in this regard, but i suspect the passengers feared being dumped and left to fend for themselves based on the many Ryanair myths out there.

English passengers would not have behaved like this and the British plod would probably have arrested rather than negotiated with the lot of them.

So French culture, Ryanair Myth/perceived historical reputation

Is CDG/ORY open at this time of day?

Put it another way Paris is a Capital city, if i was flying into any London airport that had a night curfew and they dropped me in Newcastle I'd be thinking it was for their convenience not mine, is Nantes a FR base?

What a load of crap............English people would have behaved better.

Moron see, Moron do...................Nationality has SFA to do with it.

Ask the staff that were abused at Gatwick at Christmas by Pax if people behaved with stiff upper lip or as reported on here the Aer Lingus staff abused at Dub by pax when things were held up.

As for flying into CDG / ORY, your flight is going to Southend and can't land so lets just call LHR and tell them we want to land, right that should be a fun conversation.

[Sober Lark]

A vet should have been called to tranquilize these wild, uncultivated savages and they should have completed their journey as freight.

[EI-A330-300]

Quote:
As for flying into CDG / ORY, your flight is going to Southend and can't land so lets just call LHR and tell them we want to land, right that should be a fun conversation.

Two other airports, one surly would of accepted and as it was after 23.30 in the evening those airports were hardly packed to the rafters. I'm sure FR didn't even try as it would be a cost to them.

STN/LGW/LTN would of being able to take a flight from SEN.


This is a common problem in BVA and there is no plan in place, if its not the time its the weather.


Ask what happened in KRK last night, Ryanair staff just left passengers for 4 hours before cancelling a flight.

[racedo]

we don't blockade roads or ports, burn trucks, dump dead sheep in the road either, so don't lecture me on the French please.........these people behaved like animals and professional aircrew should not be subjected to this kind of abuse...period

Fuel Strike by truckers in 2000
Port blockages by those against Veal Calf exports
Unite attacks against managers and families at Grangemouth 2013
Farmer blockages at food and dairy processing plants and retailer distribution sites
Union attacks including deaths of people during miners strike
Jail for animal rights extremists who stole body of elderly woman from her grave | UK news | The Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/may/12/animalwelfare.topstories3)
Digging a body up and attacking a farm

As for nice behaved English people..............Heysel Liverpool fans actions is a reminder and England national team supporters abroad are given a wide berth

[Jack1985]

Not sure if it's been noted but it appears Bergamo will be closing for maintenance sometime this Summer, as Malpensa MXP has appeared in the drop-down menu with the exact same destinations as Bergamo although no flights loaded.

Nationality has SFA to do with it.

Ask the staff that were abused at Gatwick at Christmas by Pax if people behaved with stiff upper lip or as reported on here the Aer Lingus staff abused at Dub by pax when things were held up.

Completely agree, pax sometimes believe paying circa 40 euro entitles them to thousands, when if a bus/train was cancelled they'd be left royally in it. Media has a lot to do with this.

[Noxegon]

Completely agree, pax sometimes believe paying circa 40 euro entitles them to thousands, when if a bus/train was cancelled they'd be left royally in it. Media has a lot to do with this.

The difference is that one rarely has to wait days for a replacement bus.

[compton3bravo]

You are joking Insuindi about Brits behaving like those on the Ryanair flight. I live here in southern Spain and you want to see some of the ´´antics´´ that some of them get up to - it is not Marbella either - just a quiet little port for most of the year.
The thing about the French, Spanish etc they stand up for their rights and don´t sit on their backside and shrug their shoulders like people in the UK seem to do now. One recent incidence which may have escaped you in the UK - the town of Burgos in the north of Spain has seen a number of clashes with police and local people who objected to their boulevard being turned into a traffic-free area on the instructions of the Mayor (the mayor has a lot of influence in Spanish towns and villages). He has had to suspend the work for the moment due to the protests.
I would think also on the Ryanair flight I would have thouht a large proportion of the passengers would have Moroccan or French with Moroccan ties as the flight operated from Rabat.

[Jack1985]

The difference is that one rarely has to wait days for a replacement bus.

I wasn't referring to commuter buses, for example euro-lines operating a daily late-evening Cork-London service, if it's cancelled its cancelled. Refund, no compo, different story with airlines altogether.

[occasional]

One of the advantages of the scramble system of boarding was that, if one reached the plane reasonably early, one could choose a window seat which did not require looking over ones shoulder to see out.

Now that seat reservation may be necessary to obtain a window seat, it would be nice to know which seat rows have comfortably placed windows.

Would it be possible for someone to list the seat rows with a rating (say A,B,C) for the convenience of the windows ?

[Charlie Roy]

Try seatguru.com

[occasional]

Thanks, Charlie. No information about windows that I can see.

[AGPwallah]

I flew on EI-DYZ two weeks ago in 11F, which had a window, and noticed that 11A had no window. Hope this helps.

Just looked on Seatguru and it confirms 11A does not have a window, it looks like the only one missing.

AGP

[boyzinblue]

Does anyboby know what "will be assigned a randomly allocated seat" will pratically mean if you are travelling with family or friends?

[NickBarnes]

Ryanair have some big news later today according to their twitter

[Kinder]

Not sure if it's been noted but it appears Bergamo will be closing for maintenance sometime this Summer, as Malpensa MXP has appeared in the drop-down menu with the exact same destinations as Bergamo although no flights loaded.

I haven't heard about the plans for scheduled maintenance at BGY this summer. Usually such things are being announced 1 year before or smth. No checked and no information provided.

Could it be big news from Ryanair for today that they will leave BGY for MXP?

[Keyvon]

BGY is closing for planned runway maintenance from May 13 to June 1 included.

ALL airlines operating to/from Milan/BGY will reroute their flights to Milan/MXP.

FR has a multi-year commercial agreement with BGY and it's not planning to leave.

[111KAB]

Possibly this is the article but seems a % sign is missing out of the last paragraph...... Ryanair promotes its new direction in London as airline announces that customers ‘love’ its recent service improvements - Marketing - Marketing | Ireland's online business and management news service - Businessandleadership.com (http://www.businessandleadership.com/marketing/item/44366-ryanair-promotes-its-new/)




“Ninety-seven of 10,000 Ryanair customers surveyed have said they will fly Ryanair again – and can continue to enjoy a range of customer service improvement and initiatives as well as the lowest fares and most on-time flights, but can now enjoy reduced airport bag, boarding card and excess bag fees, a second free small carry-on bag, along with easier website access, 24 hour grace periods, quiet flights and allocated seating, with further improvements set to be rolled out over the coming weeks and months,” said Ryanair’s head of customer service Caroline Green.

[racedo]

Ryanair Partners With Google Flight Search (http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-partners-with-google-flight-search)

Partnership with Google flight search

[Sober Lark]

I don't get this dramatic announcement Racedo. Until all airlines join Google flights with their best fares isn't the consumer still going to have to shop around for the best deal?

[top9un]

Ninety-seven of 10,000 Ryanair customers surveyed have said they will fly Ryanair again

As many as that?

[Capetonian]

“Ninety-seven of 10,000 Ryanair customers surveyed have said they will fly Ryanair again% .... perhaps?
I wouldn't. Have flown them once, had a specific reason for doing so, and it wasn't because it was 'cheap' or even convenient. They got me there on time, but it was a ghastly experience and I despise their ethics, and for that reason more than any other, and won't fly them again.

[VanBosh]

I try and avoid them too despite using them all the time years ago. Nothing against them, they are a hugely successful airline but I just don't like the service/product so no thanks. Maybe their recent changes will improve them but who knows.

My issue is I really want to go to Marrakech, direct with Ryanair or one stop with others...a tough call.

[CCR]

Ryanair are certainly a punctual airline. I prefer the food/drinks onboard than on Easyjet and the cabin crew have always been great in my experience.
However, a 4 hour trip to Marrackech I would have to use the exit seats onboard as Ryanair seating is a little cramped for a long flight to Morocco.

[jferreira20]

Official: base in Lisbon:

1 plane, 4 new routes:

Oficial: Ryanair abre base em Lisboa | Low Cost Portugal (http://www.lowcostportugal.net/viajar/aeroportos/lisboa/oficial-ryanair-abre-base-em-lisboa/2014/01/#axzz2rDCHScCW)

[jdcg]

Good move by FR I think. Just came through LIS courtesy of EZY and it's a great city. Badly affected by the economic downturn but with a creative undercurrent that reminded me of Berlin. And it's a lot warmer! The airport's LCC terminal is remote and of course just a shed really but adequate.

[FRatSTN]

New UK Routes:

Manchester - Lisbon
Manchester - Zadar
Bristol - Bologna
Bournemouth - Chania

[racedo]

I don't get this dramatic announcement Racedo. Until all airlines join Google flights with their best fares isn't the consumer still going to have to shop around for the best deal?

Don't know how Dramatic it was..........did it involve some cunning trumpets with a cunning plan or was it just a press release ?

[Sober Lark]

All their press releases are cunning plans Racedo.

[racedo]

All their press releases are cunning plans Racedo.

I would have my serious doubts.
They are written by PR people.

[CCFAIRPORT]

Oslo-Rygge - Rhodes twice per week

[Sober Lark]

A little bird told me they have someone new in PR :) Do they still had a cunning plan to get the Queen of Spain's beard. Does he know the Italian's kill and eat young Erithacus rubecula.?

[eu01]

Warsaw Modlin 12:10 - Gdansk 12:55
Gdansk 13:20 - Warsaw Modlin 14:10
Warsaw Modlin 15:00 - Wroclaw 15:55
Wroclaw 16:20 - Warsaw Modlin 17:20
Logically: where this aircraft could actually be based? (...) My guesswork's conclusion: it will be a Modlin based aircraft.
The schedule has now been changed for a WRO based plane to make the rotation: WRO (17:55) -WMI-GDN-WMI-WRO (22:40). Whatever plans might have existed, the rumoured Modlin base will not be implemented right now.

[mikkie4]

Just watched MOLs new advert for how wonderful ryanair are ,talk about CHEESEY,big grin from ear to ear.people wont be taken in by MOLs sweet talking!!!!!

[bannercounty]

and mikkie how many people travelled with Ryanair in 2013? I know a fair amount of corporate people who have moved from legacy to Ryanair because of their new baggage rules.

[CCFAIRPORT]

NEW ROUTE

Shannon to Poitiers

[racedo]

?Sent to Siberia? Ryanair pilot has claim thrown out - Independent.ie (http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/sent-to-siberia-ryanair-pilot-has-claim-thrown-out-29964396.html)

Morgan Fischer case thrown out. Court stated,

"Noting that Capt Fischer did not want to sign a new contract on lesser pay, “the reality is that different bases have different pay levels. This is very clearly set out in the contract,” the tribunal ruled, adding that the job at Kaunas was offered to him “because he never sought an alternative as he should have done.
“To complain about being sent to Timbuktu in circumstances where other options were clearly available to him but were not availed of by him is not a sustainable argument,” the tribunal found.
“It appears that the claimant, in effect, wished to re-write his contract on his terms and ignore what he had signed up to when he joined the respondent company (Ryanair). Not surprisingly, this was not an option.”"

[maggot738]

Tomorrow is D-Day for the introduction of allocated seating on Ryanair. I think it's a good step in the right direction. As I am operating on earlies tomorrow I am hoping for a painless and seamless transition

[ericlday]

Maggot738 - will be interesting to read your observations.

[Skipness One Echo]

Just watched MOLs new advert for how wonderful ryanair are ,talk about CHEESEY,big grin from ear to ear.people wont be taken in by MOLs sweet talking!!!!!
* ahem
http://www.ryanair.com/doc/investor/2014/q2_2014_doc.pdf
Second biggest airline in Europe.

It defies reason to suggest that it's just a bunch of confused OAPs or dementia sufferers who inadvertently book Ryanair. People love to *whine* like a VC10 on maintenance but it's a pretty inescapable fact the talking that matters is done with their wallets.

[racedo]

Skip

Stop using logic as that confuses those who believe FR is responsible for everything.

[tangarizie]

Do you guys know if a couple flying together within the same booking, if they don't buy reserved seats will they still be able to fly together?

[CCFAIRPORT]

yes because it s free seating with FR ! among the 189 seats on the plane you have a big chance to be with ur partner ;)

[FRatSTN]

Do you guys know if a couple flying together within the same booking, if they don't buy reserved seats will they still be able to fly together?

The real answer to your question is probably yes but is not certain. Ryanair will try to allocate seats together for people travelling in the same booking but cannot guarantee it.

I would imagine the sooner you check-in online the more likely you are to get seated together as seats are allocated at check-in.

Hope that helps.

[occasional]

FRatSTN,

Do you happen to know if seats will be allocated from the front backwards, or from the back frontwards ?

[FRatSTN]

I think from the centre outwards, but not 100% sure on that one.

[frfly]

I would say it has something to do with the amount of baggage being expected, as the forward holds are still being used exclusively (where possible) for a quicker baggage off/on load.

Travelled on 2 flights yesterday and this is my observation. First sector, 60% load but very little checked baggage, majority of PAX sat towards the front of the aircraft, a few passengers asked to move to the back before departure. But rows 22-33 were empty.

Second sector, lot of checked baggage about 75% load and more evenly spread throughout the cabin, overheard the dispatcher tell the crew there must be 18 people in the rear section (last 5 rows).

[EI-DAC]

Rumors from italian aviation forums:

-4 B738 to be leased from Flydubai, to be based at STN for summer operations
- new italian base at MXP (regardless of the temporary transfer of flights from Bergamo)

[davidjohnson6]

Been reading on CAPA that Ryanair are looking at listing fares on GDS.
Is this just a journalist making things up or is this really true ?
I can understand why this might happen to atract business customers but it just seems so much the antithesis of what FR has been for so long - just can't believe the company really would do such an about-face change in strategy

[VanBosh]

One of the slides on the Q3 investor presentation mentions GDS in 2014.

[aer lingus]

Ryanair shelves Cork/Kerry plans | Irish Examiner (http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/ryanair-shelves-corkkerry-plans-257533.html)
Not expanding at Cork or Kerry. Airport charges too high says Cawley.

[Hangar6]

Hi

This is due to happen in FEB ,anyone any updates as all quiet at recent Q3 results presentation?

I believe FR have six grounds to support their case , plus very deep pockets .....

[scodaman]

Some bad PR for Ryanair in N.Ireland today.

Story in Irish News about a family who wanted to fly from City of Derry and they have 3 children needing oxygen bottles to breath for medical reasons. Ryanair do not allow passenger oxygen bottles on board and instead wanted £200 extra to provide bottles to the family.

Ryanair cited 'health and safety' reasons.

The family instead cancelled and are flying from Belfast with Easyjet who have no issues with passengers bringing medical oxygen bottles on board.

The headlines in the paper and on radio is 'Ryanair charging for passengers to breath' etc

Another dubious charge/practice that Ryanair will need to address imo.

[racedo]

What is dubious about wanting to control the Oxygen that is brought on board ?

Who becomes responsible if Oxygen bottles brought by passengers develop a fault or are empty ?

Travelling on any airline is not a free for all that the passenger decides what they want to bring.





.

[Angels-One-Five]

Thick question I am sure but

What is GDS?

[lfc84]

http://bit.ly/1jfy9Y2

[Angels-One-Five]

None of that explains what GDS is? It just says FR are joining or enhancing their 'GDS offering' depending on the article. All the articles assume you know what the f**k GDS is in the first place.

Reading between the lines, something to do with google?

[davidjohnson6]

Angels - try typing the words "airline gds" into Google, and having a read of some of the search results.

[lfc84]

angels

read the preview of the first link on the page that I posted - http://bit.ly/1jfy9Y2

the preview reads as follows and informs you



Ryanair fares expected to appear on more GDS channels by mid 2014

TravelBizMonitor ‎- 10 hours ago

Ryanair has confirmed plans to put its fares on global distribution systems by the summer. In a major u-turn, the airline is now in "active ...

[Angels-One-Five]

Thanks both.

I'm still not sure what a Global Distribution System is (are we talking sky scanner or travel agency systems)

But it's not important

[fa2fi]

Travel agents basically. That requires access to the booking systems. Screen scrapers merely make use of current airline websites. With GDS travel agents can book direct as well as corporate travel agencies. I believe sites like Expedia will be able to access the reservation system too.

[Noxegon]

Ryanair First Irish Airline To Allow Portable Electronic Devices? (http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-first-irish-airline-to-allow-portable-electronic-devices-peds-on-all-flights)

[racedo]

One of the one sancturies that anybody flying as a passenger has is that no muppet on his phone shouting "I am on way to Torremolinos with Bev for weekend"..............soon to be a thing of the past :{

[victorc10]

If you read the article it does not mean that at all.

[racedo]

If you read the article it does not mean that at all.

Not yet but it will be.

[Una Due Tfc]

100% oxygen bottles are essentially little bombs, remember what happened to that Qantas 747 a few years back when a faulty oxygen bottle went kaput? Tore a chunk out of the fuselage. I can understand why some airlines would be so strict about it

[racedo]

I can understand why some airlines would be so strict about it

Can't understand any airlines that are not.....given warnings on toothpaste today, anything a passenger brings should always be queried

[Epsomdog]

Ryanair have got it right in this case. Oxygen is a very hazardous substance. Materials that would not normally ignite can do so, in a pure oxygen environment. The only cylinders permitted on board an aircraft are properly designed and certified units that have a "Form 1".

[Una Due Tfc]

Racedo, I'm curious about something. I think Ryanair were totally correct in this instance, but in other cases were bending the rules might be better than the PR nightmare of not doing so, such as the case of that surgeon who had to change his flights to bury his family and was charged, or any situation where Joe Bloggs has to change his flights due to a family emergency, are local management authorised to make exceptions to the rules or is it a case of by the book regardless? Cheers

[Epsomdog]

Racedo
One of the one sancturies that anybody flying as a passenger has is that no muppet on his phone shouting "I am on way to Torremolinos with Bev for weekend"..............soon to be a thing of the past

Ryanair are only permitting phones in flight mode, so we should be saved from the muppets!-))

I suspect though, that confusion will rule and people will "forget" to select flight mode. The danger there, is 200 odd mobiles all trying to find a signal at once! That's a lot of electrical disturbance going on!
Modern aircraft rely on undisturbed electrical signals to connect the pilot to the controls. Is it really worth taking a chance just so someone can play a game?

[racedo]

Racedo, I'm curious about something. I think Ryanair were totally correct in this instance, but in other cases were bending the rules might be better than the PR nightmare of not doing so, such as the case of that surgeon who had to change his flights to bury his family and was charged, or any situation where Joe Bloggs has to change his flights due to a family emergency, are local management authorised to make exceptions to the rules or is it a case of by the book regardless? Cheers

Don't work for FR so cannot comment on rule flexibility.....
In case of surgeon he arrived at airport before news media were even reporting the story. That one is kind of a hard one.

Problem in allowing local flexibility ends up where what someone allows in Dublin is not what is allowed in Lisbon or what someone allows in Ciampino.

It ends up then with each airport making up their own rules and even with an airport two members of same team will apply different rules because they interpret guidelines differently. This angers pax even more because of lack of consistency.

Using the well worn phrase of "well leave it to common sense" would mean what though ?
What you would interprest as fair and reasonable in making a decision may be seen as you been a :mad: by pax because they heard that in airport X another passenger had got Y allowed or changed.

The benefit of having clearly laid down SOPs means there is little room for manouvre and I think for staff it means they have a back up in being able to rely on these.

I know nothing frustrates people in any occupation more than having applied the rules as per guidelines. A screaming abusive customer then gets a senior manager to override that decision by being abusive knowing their behaviour will force the result they want. This undermines people and allows bullying to get away with it.

There are times when some flexibility is needed but allowing that call to be made after the event by someone divorced from the incident and time at least allows people on the ground to feel that have backup.
Customers are not always right, neither are staff.

[victorc10]

"Modern aircraft rely on undisturbed electrical signals to connect the pilot to the controls"

The 737 is anything but a modern airliner.....

[Una Due Tfc]

Thanks for that Racedo. It's interesting when you take a step back and look at it analytically like that. The system certainly has it's advantages, and seeing as common sense is becoming more and more rare, taking the responsibility away from junior and middle management might be the way forward for other companies too

[racedo]

Thanks for that Racedo. It's interesting when you take a step back and look at it analytically like that. The system certainly has it's advantages, and seeing as common sense is becoming more and more rare, taking the responsibility away from junior and middle management might be the way forward for other companies too

It takes out freedom of individuals to make a decision BUT if you think the different cultures across EU that FR operate then getting everybody to follow one policy means you avoid having a big management team who try and figure out what was done where.

[james170969]

Is there something wrong with Ryanair's online check in? I'm trying to check in my cousin and her friend for flights to Alicante from Prestwick on 24/2. My cousin is getting assistance onto the aircraft but her friend is not. Ryanair tried to allocate her friend a seat and charge me £5 + credit card charge. The two of them would prefer to sit together but they aren't bothered about where they sit so they don't want to reseve their seats. I tried several times and I had to enter their passport details each time but then I kept getting a message saying to call Ryanair or check in at the airport.

[Bradley Hardacre]

are you including the NG?

The 737 is anything but a modern airliner.....

most of the skill Boeing employed in designing the NG was in providing a modern airliner with an enviable dispatch reliability and improved fuel burn to a customer who wanted an ancient airliner.

[Jwscud]

True, but to interfere with the flight controls, you'd need a toolkit rather than an iPad.

[EI-DAC]

New route: TRN-AHO 3xw effective July 1st

[racedo]

Ryanair Challenges Antitrust Regulator Over Aer Lingus Stake - Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-12/ryanair-challenges-antitrust-regulator-over-aer-lingus-stake.html)

1st of 3 day hearing

[EI-A330-300]

Pay for seats if you are part of a family.

Family spilt between row 8 and 24, a child sitting alone.

Ryanair booking separates mum and tot - UTV Live News (http://www.u.tv/News/Ryanair-booking-separates-mum-and-tot/de5eeea4-030f-49f7-b6f0-3dfaff31f08e)

Just when they take steps forward in customer service they take two steps back and are still money grabbling. They will continue to have articles and bad PR like this unless they sort themselves out.

As for there response we will sit families together, do the thousands of crew know this and if the flights full do they expect people who payed to move seats.

[racedo]

Should mother be allowed to travel on own ?

Claiming didn't know...........kind of hard when checkin website keeps referring to it including showing where the seats are. She had option of ensuring they could sit together but elected not to. Everybody else is to blame it seems.

[EI-A330-300]

Racado


This is why airlines like Aer Lingus and Easyjet will continue to provide customer service and not force families to pay for seats together.

[hec7or]

Yes, but maybe it is a good moment now for FR to employ some class leading customer services experts from the wider industry, rather than lose business for the sake of their over achieving bean counters.

The accountants have had their opportunity to shine, and they've done wonders, if only to make the competition leaner and more efficient, and have done little to distance FR from their competitors, since the competition have copied the business model, got cost effective and survived.

FR can easily afford to employ the best in the industry, but it appears to be against their religion to spend the money to do so.

[Mr A Tis]

I've just noticed a Transero B737-700 operating for Ryanair tonight into Liverpool. Is this a one off, or a longer lease? Surprised this time of year the need to sub charter aircvraft in. Wet lease or damp lease or just a one off?

[Millionmileshigh]

Lets not forget that if you check in as soon as it becomes available (still 15 days before, not 7 as some are saying) you will still get seats together without paying, but obviously only if they're available...

[racedo]

Lets not forget that if you check in as soon as it becomes available (still 15 days before, not 7 as some are saying) you will still get seats together without paying, but obviously only if they're available...

Yeah but don't let facts get in the way of Faces RANT............

[lfc84]

Seating Allocation | On Board the Aircraft | Passengers (http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=2207&pageid=12706)

[78Whiskey]

I've just noticed a Transero B737-700 operating for Ryanair tonight into Liverpool. Is this a one off, or a longer lease? Surprised this time of year the need to sub charter aircvraft in. Wet lease or damp lease or just a one off?

Nope, no sub in. It's FR's own EI-EKR, just sometimes the aircraft uses the incorrect HEX/ICAO code which makes it show up as a TSO 737-700.

[Millionmileshigh]

I do have a question though,

Say a flight is full, and a mother and child are the last to check in. The only seats left are 1a and 33f

What happens in that situation?

With free seating the CC could simply move people around, is is more awkward to do with allocated seating as this would normally be sorted out at the gate, before the CC have a chance to sort it out.

[racedo]

Seating Allocation | On Board the Aircraft | Passengers (http://apicdn.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&key=1e857e7500cdd32403f752206c297a3d&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pprune.org%2Fairlines-airports-routes%2F496656-ryanair-9-a-98.html&out=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.caa.co.uk%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fcatid%3D2207 %26pageid%3D12706&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pprune.org%2Fairlines-airports-routes-85%2F)

Lots of shoulds.................

[FRatSTN]

I'm not a fan at all of allocated seating. I think it tries to sort out a problem that doesn't really exist. People are more than capable of working it out for themselves. It doesn't need the work of a computer to tell people where to sit.

The only benefit is that it takes away the scrum at the gate, but even then, passengers may still be rushing to secure their space for luggage in the overhead lockers.

Passengers should definitely be able to pay extra to reserve seats if they want to. The passengers who choose not to in my opinion should not be allocated seats and just simply have the free seating policy.

Passengers who reserve seats or just pay priority boarding (or have special assistance) should of course be boarded first. Then, all they should do is organise the remaining people who haven't paid anything extra into 2 or 3 groups based on their check-in position, or "sequence number".

For example, all passengers with seq. numbers 1 - 59 come forward first, then 60 - 119 etc. but allowing exceptions for a small overlap for passengers in the same party, or at least certainly with children.

They have two queues at the boarding gates anyway, the "priority" and the "other" queues. Whilst say the reserved seating and priority boarding passengers are boarding, they could gather passengers in the other queue for seq. numbers 1 - 59 and so on, to avoid delay switching between the different groups.

Also with free seating, the cabin crew can urge people to move down towards the centre of the cabin (if boarding from front and rear doors) to stop people blocking the aisle near the doors, which is a common problem I find with allocated seating.

That way we wouldn't have these problems of people being separated from their family and it would be in my mind a much fairer way to do it. Plus it might also give some people the incentive to pull their finger out and check-in earlier so they can board earlier.

[racedo]

For example, all passengers with seq. numbers 1 - 59 come forward first, then 60 - 119 etc. but allowing exceptions for a small overlap for passengers in the same party, or at least certainly with children.

Haave seen it in the past with boarding with children (even with allocated seating) where you ask people to come forward and its a young child with mum and dad, then 2 teenagers with granddad and grandmas so for 1 child you have 8 or 9 boarding.

Sadly no matter what you do you will still have the feckless turning up at last minute or checking in last minute. Then demanding that everything else is rearranged to suit them because they wish to save a few quid, course that is not a worry when they hit the airport shops.

When travelling as a family we pretty much always paid for priority boarding because it then left you in control of what happens in getting a seat rather than relying on the goodwill of others.

[fa2fi]

In the case that the pax are split up the crew would simply move those who have not paid for their specific seat once onboard the aircraft. I would imagine the crew have a way of telling who has paid and who has not.

[EI-A330-300]

In the case that the pax are split up the crew would simply move those who have not paid for their specific seat once onboard the aircraft. I would imagine the crew have a way of telling who has paid and who has not.

Can't see crew knowing that info and if they did then what is the point of allocated seating????

[fa2fi]

Well at my airline it says on he manifest and there's also a discreet way of telling by looking at the boarding card.

The point of allocated seating is it makes money and a good proportion of people prefer it. If people haven't paid they obviously aren't that bothered where they sit. So you ask them to move, if they don't want to you ask someone else.

[RAT 5]

In the airlines I use most often they allocate seating in advance. 24hrs before the flight you check in and print the boarding card. You also have the chance to change the allocated seating if you so wish. It is most common that all the pax on a common booking have been seated together. It's called common sense. However, those who wish to be in the smoking section can relocate their seats before printing. What's so difficult. Have RYR not yet entered the pax controlling era?

[davidjohnson6]

RAT - which airlines that you use still have smoking sections ?



FRatSTN - consider the passenger who pays online for a specific seat but because of a train delay is the last person at the gate to board the aircraft. The flight is full, so someone who was following a free seating policy is now sitting in the late passenger's seat. The airport is slot controlled and push back time is approaching fast. Do you
a - tell the passenger with the allocated seat that they have forfeited their chosen seat and musit sit at the back of the plane ?
b - enforce that people move seats, even if it's a single parent and child who would be separated thus requiring further seat changes ?

My point is that you can set aside a few seats in the aircraft as allocated with the remainder free seating... but you cannot operationally make the whole cabin both allocated and free seating at the same time on an LCC
A mix of free seating and allocated works on trains only because there is a much less stringent time constraint around turnaround times (so staff can distribute all the 'reserved seat' paper slips) and that train passengers are not required to be seated at any point (eg just after train departs station).

[occasional]

If people haven't paid they obviously aren't that bothered where they sit. So you ask them to move, if they don't want to you ask someone else.

fa2fi,

Your conclusion is incorrect.

Because there is no correspondence between seats and windows it is difficult to determine which seats have comfortable windows before boarding, so if you think a good window is important you deliberately do not reserve a seat.

[fa2fi]

Yeah in which case you could get an aisle seat or a middle seat?

Anyway point is relating to the case of the 'but I have a child' brigade. If the cabin needs to be rearranged then it can be by the crew in order to get kids sat by parents. A lot of parents know this and therefore will not pay as they know the crew will move the cabin for them.

If someone has not paid for a seat then technically they are not entitled to it and therefore can be asked to move regardless of whether they have a boarding card for it.

When I was crew it happened bothed on a free seating airline and assigned seating airline. Bottom line is you don't move those who have paid and you don't move your regular flyers. Simples.

[RAT 5]

RAT - which airlines that you use still have smoking sections ?

That was a joke: my point being that my airlines allocate seats at online checkin, but offer you the chance to change it when checking-in finally and printing the boarding card. It's very easy.

[j636]

My point is that you can set aside a few seats in the aircraft as allocated with the remainder free seating... but you cannot operationally make the whole cabin both allocated and free seating at the same time on an LCC
A mix of free seating and allocated works on trains only because there is a much less stringent time constraint around turnaround times (so staff can distribute all the 'reserved seat' paper slips) and that train passengers are not required to be seated at any point (eg just after train departs station). DJ

Paper slips don't exist in Europe, UK behind with the times. Train turnaround times are usually no more than 30-45 minutes while Ryanair are 25-35 minutes so no difference and trains carrying way more than a jet. All it takes is a code to show up hundreds of names on electronic displays.

I think a few IT changes by FR would sort out the problem however in this case the passenger booked before Ryanair announced allocated seating and responsibility should fall with the airline. Families won't mind if there is a row or two between them but this time the gap was massive and unless the flight was very full and heavily reserved an IT glitch could be to blame.

[davidjohnson6]

j636 - I agree that paper slips on most trains are no longer neessary. However, the average B737 doesn't have an electronic display above the seat, so to mark a seat as allocated, cabin crew would have to lay out pieces of paper on each seat indicating if it's reserved or not.

Of course, in a mixed allocated/free-seating set up, not every seat will be reserved, so cabin crew would have to lay out those "Reserved" pieces of paper more carefully for specific seats every turnaround which all takes time...

Yes, trains do carry more people, but a train usually has far fewer seats per non-emergency available door, so a given number of people can enter/exit the train much faster. As with LCC cabin crew, a team of cleaners can start work on a train approx 30 mins before arrival at a terminus, so minimising turnaround time. Train crew can check tickets after the train starts moving, making boarding faster. No need for a passenger count, get all passengers seated, safety demo or to check everyone is wearing a seatbelt and seats upright on a train before departure. This means that the number of minutes when a long distance train is (almost) empty of passengers at a terminus is rather longer than a 25-min turnaround plane.

My point overall, is that a mixed allocated/free-seating set up on a train is much easier to execute, than it is on a Ryanair B737 based on current turnaround times and aircraft. I agree that Ryanair is on a drive to improve customer service, but the aim to be to not annoy people, rather than reach the standards of a traditional network carrier - if they can meet Easyjet current levels of service, then consumers will likely be happy.

Yes, Ryanair could implement a combination of allocated and free seating, but would the increased consumer satisfaction outweigh the loss of ancillary revenue and the operational time cost, and would passengers pay higher fares for that extra satisfaction ?

[CCFAIRPORT]

New route

Krakow to Gdansk

[PAXboy]

Ryanair says cleaning up image is starting to pay off - Business News - Business - London Evening Standard (http://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/ryanair-says-cleaning-up-image-is-starting-to-pay-off-9103998.html)

Time will tell if that is the sole, or main, or part reason for a change in bookings but we will never know for sure.

[Tom the Tenor]

Very good, and while you are at it bring back the 737-200 as well! :}

[racedo]

Whilst this relate to a period previous to Ryanair's new fluffy makeover, i did like the following;

"It also said Ryanair made the option to refuse insurance difficult to find - with the box to tick being on a countries drop-down menu between the Netherlands and Norway."

I await Racedo perfectly reasoned response and justification for why un ticking insurance should fall between Norway & Netherlands, surely it should be somewhere between Nigeria & Gambia ??

Could you provide the information on takeup of insurance ?

[The SSK]

I await Racedo perfectly reasoned response

Could you provide the information on takeup of insurance ?

Fail

..........

[Sober Lark]

On the plus side, I suppose it makes it hard for 'chancers' who travel without any insurance to claim they were not offered insurance. Uninsured persons are a burden on society.

[racedo]

Fail

Was it really worth the bother to highlight your ineptness ?

[chris789]

Ryanair claims it is the best value airline and perhaps it is. However, if you have a strong belief in your product, then you should not need to trick people into buying your products.

It is this sort of devious, slightly underhand selling which has meant I have not flown with Ryanair since I was a student, some 7 years ago (when I got those 99pm fares). I suspect I am the sort of customer who wants value for money, but flies a lot that they should be trying to claw back. Hiding insurance in a drop down is one of the things that just puts me off.

If you are proud of your fares, then let me buy the fare I see, easily and without fuss including only the things I choose to buy additionally.

[CCFAIRPORT]

NEW DESTINATION : RENNES

One new route

Porto to Rennes

RYANAIR | Rennes - Porto (Portugal) : nouvelle ligne pour cet été (http://www.quellecompagnie.com/News/ryanair-rennes-porto-portugal-nouvelle-ligne-pour-cet-ete-vols-low-cost-0529.php)

[racedo]

Take up?

Is that all you've got.........http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/cool.gif

Pretty clear you not the slighest interested in a discussion but using to have a personal dig.

[racedo]

Ryanair to double fleet size and carry 150m people by 2030 ? Cawley - Independent.ie (http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/ryanair-to-double-fleet-size-and-carry-150m-people-by-2030-cawley-30025008.html)

[insuindi]

With more than 200k views in 2 days this youtube video does not help to serve the all new image of a friendly cosy carrier... once again, it required the police to get passengers freed from a delayed plane in the middle of the night. STN-OPO FR8347 14FEB14 Ryanair Flight 8347 (Subtitled) - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASDuLY3F4v0#t=0)

[Jack1985]

I really am puzzled by this and the communications breakdown (what it seems) lies solely with the airport authorities and handlers ~ swissport I believe at Stansted? As well as that this no service ban Ryanair have on the ground is ridiculous and I fail to see how they can't carry it out obviously not alcohol, but in a disruption situation are you telling me with an aircraft on the ground as long as that and you keep doing trolley runs you aren't going to make more money than if it had departed on-time??

It seems like the easiest situation to rectify, no refueling available thus the flight can not operate - release the pax cancel the flight, crew off duty - simple for Christ sake at Cork, the terminal is always open! MAG doing a lot more behind the scenes to build profits?

[j636]

Jack

They should of being given free food that's why they didn't serve food, don't blame handlers as communication would of being with control centre in Dublin and onto the manager in STN.

Wonder if the video will be removed soon....

[racedo]

Monumental cock up..................can't take off and Stansted closed for the night so you can't be let back in.

The list of who screwed up is likely to be quite long..........

[Jack1985]

Jack

They should of being given free food that's why they didn't serve food, don't blame handlers as communication would of being with control centre in Dublin and onto the manager in STN.

Wonder if the video will be removed soon....

I can only give one example, a Ryanair flight to Malaga we had was delayed for over 7hrs one night after the based aircraft went tech - The service operated with a Malaga crew inbound on-time with the outbound pax being held in the terminal until just before midnight, they were all entitled to food vouchers and drinks after 2hrs - Which they received and there was no communication from ops in DUB to do that ~ My understanding from this video is the inbound Porto flight diverted to BHX due to WX? even though the passenger says it was to refuel that's highly unlikely, the fact the crew then prepared to operate the return after midnight but fueling wasn't available is puzzling - And its the handler at fault there - I highly doubt op's in DUB would drag this one out, swissport are infamous for it.

Duty manager in STN responsible for the terminal also is one ''monumental cock-up'' to quote racedo, are keys that hard to find these days?? :}

[Sober Lark]

If only they had a frequent flyer program they could have offered the little revolutionist 25,000 miles like other airlines do in such circumstances.

[Gulf Julliet Papa]

There is simply no excuses whatsoever from Ryanair to hold passengers aginst there will onboard an aircraft and racedo you can't even begin to defend the decision. Would Easyjet requiore police to come to yet antoher Ryanir flight to free passengers.

If there are no ground staff as reported how do you get the passengers from aircraft to terminal?

[Jack1985]

I agree, but the Captain did say at the start he had contacted the agent to open up the gate and people would be free to leave, swissport never got back to him? As for the crew member who replied to a passenger ''I'm off duty'' when asked for food, there's a P45 which should be sent in his direction regardless of whether it was a bad day or not.

I will say though, there is clearly a lack of guidelines for crew in these rare situations, anyone with a brain would quickly realize the flight Isn't going to be released and to let pax return to the terminal.

With regards your friend on the LBA-DUB flight, there is a point to be made there; during that disruption, Ryanair made every effort to get passengers home, they cancelled a lot less flights then there rivals and that has to be commended, I'd rather be delayed then stranded if I'm honest - but the disconnect with basic customer service skills in these situation is totally alarming.

They've put laws against this in the US following the JetBlue incident, were brainy enough to realize what do to in most cases here in Europe in such incidents, at least I thought.. :confused:

[insuindi]

First newspaper report on this story Ryanair Flight 8347: Man videos 12-hour delay 'with no water or food' - News & Advice - Travel - The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/ryanair-flight-8347-man-videos-12hour-delay-with-no-water-or-food-9141389.html)

[davidjohnson6]

I can partly sympathise with some of the junior people directly involved in the situation.

Imagine you were cabin crew on the flight - it's 3 am, you have very little control of the situation, you don't dare go against company procedures because of the company's reputation for punishing those who break the rules, you've done far more hours than you expected to work, and you're not being paid for all the grief. Whatever happens, you won't be thanked or rewarded for your efforts.

Would you really care after 3 am ?

Were flight deck crew on board the plane ? What did the captain do ? You know - all that stuff about captain being in command and responsible, etc...

[insuindi]

As a passenger, I am somewhat bemused that those "primarily concerend about your safety aboard" cannot function at all during a situation that's outside the ordinary. Scary at least. You would hope one of the flight attendants or the captain had sufficient imagination/brain power to resolve such a situation. And if that means calling the police because you don't know where to go with all these passengers due to a shut terminal building, so be it. Reflects very poorly on Ryanair's company culture, where employees are 1) not capable to function outside set protocol or/and 2) scared to do so!

[lfc84]

why should this even be outside set protocol?

it shouldn't have got that far / as lengthy !

[racedo]

There is simply no excuses whatsoever from Ryanair to hold passengers aginst there will onboard an aircraft and racedo you can't even begin to defend the decision. Would Easyjet requiore police to come to yet antoher Ryanir flight to free passengers.

WTF you including me in your rant ?

As for police going onto U2 flights, they have and most likely will again.

[racedo]

90% of the screw up was all on Ryanair and if the terminal was actually closed then very little on MAG as I can't see an airport with passengers on stand being completly closed down utter bullsh*t.

So you ignore Police man statement that they cannot find anybody within airport to open up.

Airport is responsible for PAX in airport and their access NOT the airline.
No reason for Pilot or Crew to keep people on plane if they can get them back into Terminal.

Additionally Airline cannot allow passengers off aircraft IF there are no personnell from handling agent available as handling agents are responsible for Pax from the moment their feet hit the ground.

Crew faced with a we cannot go anywhere and we cannot offload because airport locked up and handling agents gone home.

[racedo]

One dreads to think what would have happened had someone started smoking in the toilets and thankfully the Portuguese people are by and large very polite and well mannered in my experience .........just curious as to when Stansted became part of Portugal.

I read "PEOPLE" as POLICE hence comment..........sorry:ugh:

[racedo]

but ultimately it is Ryanair's responsibility FULL STOP the handling agent is contracted by Ryanair

If there is NOBODY and I mean NOBODY from the ground handlers taking calls, available or anywhere around then what do you do ?

[racedo]

In my company we always have agents or employee's on site you never know when an aircraft may have to return to stand due tech problem, perhaps even disruptive passenger.

Doesn't mean at 1am when rain is peeing down in a a major storm at Gatwick they will answer the phone.....does it ?
What then ?
Do you abandon aircraft and go seeking them ? or stay with the aircraft and keep ringing.

Me at a guess you would keep trying as I figure the FR crew were doing but when no access to terminal, handling agents won't pick up the phone and limited options what then ?

[Hangar6]

Problem is many airports have been trained by MOL to leave his planes and customers high and dry

You provide ooh service and submit the extra invoice for staffing and equipment
And he REFUSES to pay even when the Capt and local manager said they would pay, or he gets the invoice and pays a small fraction of it, a small fraction determined by him. , so

FR are 100% at fault here

No handler or airport will work for free , MOL has trained airports etc to be like that , even cabin crew are not happy working for nothing

Every airport, airport handler in Europe knows FR , you won't get paid for OOH service even when promised.

[davidjohnson6]

What would have happened if at 2 am, one of the passengers had decided they'd had enough, gone to an unattended aircraft door, blown one of the chutes, gone down the slide and walked towards the terminal ?

Would MAG likely have prosecuted for trespass or would the passenger have had reasonable excuse ? Would Ryanair have likely sued for damages ?

[OntimeexceptACARS]

With DJ6 on this, I'd defend my right to leave a parked aircraft and leave the airport if need be. Obviously allowing a reasonable time for staff to escort me.

With or without police help.

Wonder what constitutes false imprisonment? (And yes, a serious question).

[The SSK]

The next iteration of EU passenger rights legislation will include clauses on tarmac delays. Details are still to be thrashed out between the EU's legislative organs but I would guess most likely is food and refreshments after one hour, return to the gate after 2 hours unless safety/security reasons why not.

[pee]

The precedent? All Finnish civil airports are maintained by Finavia, the former Finnish Civil Aviation Administration, but in the future it could change. Early next month the Finnish Government will decide whether to give Lappeenranta airport the permission to cut loose from Finavia's network and start on its own. The aim is to reduce airport fees, and thus open up new connections to Europe. So far Ryanair planes are flying full from this airport on the Russian border, but the amount of flights is very low. The local authorities claim that this potential could be utilized to much greater extent.

[racedo]

From a Swissprt statement on DM

A Swissport spokesman said: 'The weather on February 14 has been recognised as one of the worst to hit the UK for decades with high winds causing travel chaos across the country.
'Stansted Airport was one of the few airports around the country that was able to accept some diverted flights despite some reservations regarding the availability of turn-around facilities.
'Due to extreme weather the inbound flight from Porto was initially diverted to East Midlands and arrived some three hours later at Stansted to collect the passengers for the flight to Porto.
'Swissport and the airport were under considerable pressure with 30 additional diverted flights in addition to scheduled aircraft.
'The flight was loaded, but fueling was not available. This caused the delay.

'Swissport staff were under extreme pressure dealing with an unprecedented level of flights and whilst we accept we should have unloaded the passengers sooner we simply had no one available to unload when contacted by the Captain.
'Swissport regret any delay to passengers and to Ryanair. However, in extreme circumstances, our staff worked tirelessly to ensure that diverted flights were dealt with as soon as possible.

'We are disappointed that even under these extreme conditions we fell short of our usual high standards.'

[Jack1985]

Ryanair's statement on FR 8347 - 14th February 2014 Due to? (http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-s-statement-on-fr-8347-14th-february-2014)

[Una Due Tfc]

They had at least 12 hours notice that this storm was coming, what intensity it would be and the effect the winds would have one 29L/R at LHR and 26 at Gatwick. I think it reflects extremely badly on Swissport that they had insufficient overtime cover in place on the night and on FR for not ensuring this was the case. If I have it right, there wasn't anybody to escort the passengers from the aircraft to the terminal and then supervise them in the terminal. The police hade to break in to the airport ffs

[davidjohnson6]

Could also be construed as a monumental failure of systems / procedures and in senior management for failing to ensure adequate planning for when normal systems are put under strain to ensure there are no catastrophic failures.

It'll never be disclosed publicly, but somebody at a high level deserves a bit of a kicking for not thinking about resilience in an organisation. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity as management concepts have been around for decades

[airbourne]

The biggest issue that I see here is the passengers. If they had called the police 'several' times and nobody had arrived at the aircraft, what was to stop any of the passengers simply walking off the aircraft?

From what we see in the video, the door was open. Can we assume the air stairs were down? If so, what stopped passengers forcing their way off the aircraft. There may not have been any access into the terminal but one would assume that police would turn up fairly sharpish if there was members of the public walking around the ramp unescorted?

Also, was there not one single member of swissport or ryanair that had airside ID to access the terminal?

[Una Due Tfc]

You would be subject to serious legal prosecution if you did it, I'm not saying you would be prosecuted due mitigating circumstances, but the laws for deliberately trespassing on the ramp are quite severe

[Una Due Tfc]

If STN is 24 hour then the lack of fire cover excuse I read elsewhere is bull****

[fivejuliet]

The airfield is 24h however the terminal is another matter

[Jack1985]

Let's clear a few things up;

1) The passenger terminal is never closed bar Christmas day itself - Flights regularly depart STN pre 6am and arrive upwards of 2am.

2) The reason the flight was not re-fuelled was because (see #3)

3) 30+ flights diverted to Stansted that night from LGW, LHR due to to those crazy winds we experienced. Swissport had nobody available and hence there apology to Ryanair

4) Unfortunately for the passengers had there flight been operated by Stansted crew they would have been offloaded by the crew themselves because they would have used there passes to gain access and supervise the passengers once inside.

5) Nobody from Swissport available to re-fuel or de-board and supervise the passengers or even to open re-open the gate plus the crew were Porto based and had no access even though they ended up overnighting along with the pax.

[compton3bravo]

Just a few humble observations and questions. I would have thought that the handling agent would look after the scheduled arrivals and departures and put the diversions to the back of the queue. Surely your regular customers come first. I would have thought the Captain could have come into the cabin and tried to explain the situation and not leaving the local constabulary to sort the problem out. As for the cabin crew who allegedly said he/she was off shift I don´t think they would be with the company for long if I had anything to do with it. As for the Swissport duty manager same scenario.
Nobody comes out of this very well except for the mostly Portuguese passengers who kept mainly cool - heaven forbid if it was a bunch of Brits returning from a boozy weekend somewhere!
Any answers to the above would be appreciated.

[Mr A Tis]

I don't fly RYR- but swayed by the new charm offensive, extra leg room & pre bookable seats- I booked BCN-MAN for May.
Now this route is new & only became bookable about 5 weeks ago.
I now find the schedule has changed by 12 hours !!
Which is no good to me- so I'm hoping for a full refund.
The question is, why do they rush out a new route & then turn the schedule on its head within a few weeks ?
Please Mr RYR some planning before you put out a route schedule !
Schedule changes happen, but by 12 hours ??? No no no- sorry but you're back on my avoid list

[RAT 5]

I guess after the event it would seem wise to have tankard
fuel.

Whenever there is an unscheduled out of sequence event it is best to have to ask for the least help necessary, because you will be the bottom of the pilem - end of the queue. Have enough fuel and catering to be independent of the handling agency. All they have to do is provide the pax and the baggage. They will thank you and you will be on your way in the most expeditious manner.
It's called command-manship. You are on site and make your best judgement. I'm sure RYR does not have tanker tables EMA-STN. All this is assuming fuel was available at EMA. I assume after landing at EMA they would have to refuel for the STN sector anyway, so why not do it all in one go?

I haven't read all the details about the reason for the delay. I've only picked up that someone posted it was due to lack of fuel. Can that really be true? Such a long time?

[tim1941]

I would have thought that the Stansted authorities should have referred both Ryanair and Swissport to the CAA as not fit for purpose!

[Una Due Tfc]

Not a chance. FR are STN's biggest customer by miles. Given how fickle FR are with their bases after a long history of leaving over relatively minor slights and charges, it would be suicide for STN to come down hard on FR

[davidjohnson6]

As has been mentioned elsewhere, the EU this week has made a decision as to what state-owned regional airports can or can't do with regards to Govt money subsidising airport operating losses and investments
EUROPA - PRESS RELEASES - Press release - Speech: Introductory remarks on new guidelines for state aid to airports and airlines (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-148_en.htm)
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/publications/cpb/2014/002_en.pdf

Ryanair seems to fly to these airports more than most airlines. Anyone care to suggest how this will impact Ryanair's flying and business model ?
My guess is
- Most constrained airports - Charleroi, Beauvais and Bergamo
- Constrained but not quite so much - Eindhoven, Girona, Hahn and Skavsta

I'm sure the 10 year transition period for airports with between 700,000 and 3m pax will have an effect but I haven't figured out what it'll be exactly - probably incentivises managers at these airports to look at the following options:
a) go all out for high growth in the hope of making profits based on high pax volumes
b) raise airport charges to keep pax numbers at no more than 699k per year and avoid EU constraints
c) raise airport charges so that airlines are no longer subsidised by the taxpayer
Airports in this category might include some of:
Santander, Reus, Malmo, Goteborg (GSE only, not GOT), Kaunas, Memmingen, Baden-Baden, Weeze, Bremen, Trieste, Alghero, Trapani, Brindisi, Treviso, Knock, Prestwick

Additionally one needs to think about the stability of these rules and the capacity of elected politicians to influence these rules. Will these rules be fixed forever or is it more likely that in about 8 years time someone at EU will decide to alter them slightly based on a changed competitive environment within the airline industry ?

Of course, if an airport can bring in 5m passengers per year, it should be more than capable of running at a profit.

Anyone else have comments or insight on this ?

[eu01]

Ryanair should consider a change in its policy concerning the connecting flights. Having so many small airports in the network they should provide all of them with regular (daily) morning- and evening flights to one selected bigger airport in Europe. These flights should be engineered to enable all possible connections thus binding numerous destinations in Europe. It would have true sense to many otherwise "dying" airfields, giving the local communities true reason to support Ryanair.

[Facelookbovvered]

Many thanks to DJ6 for posting the links.

It's clear that a number of airports will never cover the operating costs and are within the catchment area of other airport that will, and without wishing in anyway to upset people who's passion is their local airport, do we really need DTV,BPL or Doncaster, like wise PIK ?

We are fortunate in the UK that most airports are privately run, but the recent trend of Scotland & Wales buying airports at PIK & CWL is worrying, more so for Scotland that has other airports in its catchment area

Many low cost airlines have been masterful at gaining maximum advantage from airports that have been willing to stump up cash to increase passenger numbers, but this often is short lived, I don't blame or criticises them for this, there are lots of places I would like to visit, but probably not go back to, Prestwick for one, Cardiff for another.

There is of course a need for airllinks to remote regions but these are not going to see easyJet or Raynair twice a day, maybe an Eastern service daily at best and these should be publicity funded if required to maintain the links.

10 years is way too long to get a grip of this, five would be generous, more EU fudge

[Capetonian]

Quote from MoL himself?
What was your worst travel experience?
Without a doubt, it was a trip to Bucharest back in the early days of Ryanair. Travelling in those Eastern Bloc countries before the fall of communism was an ordeal. You could only get in to Romania if you were travelling on business, and we were leasing a load of BAC-111s from the national airline, TAROM.
For some unexplained reason our flight was diverted to Timișoara and then… well, people talk about Ryanair’s customer service ethos, but this took the biscuit. We landed at midnight and were marched silently into the terminal building by machine gun-toting guards. They locked the doors, turned off the lights and left us there all night.
The following morning, without anyone telling us where we were going, we were marched onto a bus, then on to a train to endure a six-hour trip to Bucharest – itself a dreadful place to visit. Back then, all foreigners were put into the Intercontinental Hotel. In those days there were no lights, the food was atrocious, the beer even worse, and it was full of hookers and God knows what else.

I've never had a beer that was full of hookers!

[Jack1985]

There a reason there is a '','' present, he's talking about Bucharest itself.

[Capetonian]

Ryanair to fly passengers to US for under £10 - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/10663617/Ryanair-to-fly-passengers-to-US-for-under-10.html)

Michael O’Leary, the airline’s chief executive, told the Irish Hotels Federation conference in Meath yesterday that he would offer tickets to New York and Boston for €10 (£8.20). Flights back to Europe would cost €7.30.

However, he admitted that passengers would pay extra for everything from meals to baggage.

The flights would leave from up to 14 major European cities to 12-14 destinations in the US.


Been kissing the Blarney Stone, Michael? And yet ......... everything he's done so far has been successful if one measures passenger volumes rather than satisfaction as a measure of success, but sooner or later he's going to take a wrong turn, and this might be it. Or maybe it's just another publicity stunt.

[Una Due Tfc]

I could see it happening if the range on the 737 max is up to scratch. Feed everybody through Shannon on this side, pre clear them and fly them to less mainstream airports in the north eastern U.S.

[davidjohnson6]

In 2007, MOL was talking about Ryanair flying from Europe to Islip on Long Island, close to NYC. That was almost 7 years ago. We've had a deep recession and FR have had ample chance to pick up widebody aircraft while other carriers were shrinking or going bust. As far as I can tell, FR have done very little to put Ryanatlantic into reality, besides talking in 2008 at a press conference about bl-w j-bs in business class.

I'll believe this when the aircraft order is confirmed.

[EI-BUD]

Davidjohnson6

I would have agreed with your comments about FR and it's transatlantic ambitions, but I think it's competitors dipping there toe in the water could force his hand, Norwegian for example ... They also have set up shop in Ireland to headquarter their long haul business, if they (however unlikely) decided to do a Dublin USA flight FR may feel compelled to respond. Moreover, if one if FRs lo cost competitors got long haul right and make it pay it could be a game changer.

Westjet coming across on a 737 may also show the potential . All that said MOL will watching with interest as to how Norwegian perform on these new routes . If FR wanted to enter this space the lead time is large for appropriate aircraft .... Unless of course it was 737 op to the cities on the Eastern Seaboard of the US ...

[Cyrano]

Or maybe it's just another publicity stunt.

Surely not? :cool:

Perhaps closer to the truth, reported comments from about-to-retire Michael Cawley, speaking in Shannon yesterday (http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/200m-ryanair-passengers-very-realistic-260250.html#.Uw7tbbdEyi0.twitter):
At a Shannon Chamber of Commerce business breakfast at Dromoland Castle yesterday, Michael Cawley also poured cold water on the airline’s transatlantic plans and admitted that last year the airline “lost families in a big way” on its routes.

On press reports yesterday morning concerning Michael O’Leary talking about possible €10 Ryanair fares to the US, Mr Cawley said that his boss had given him ‘a hospital pass’ talking about the €10 fares to America.

Mr Cawley said: “I can say whatever I want because I’m leaving in four weeks' time, but the so-called ‘Ryanair transatlantic project’ is not something that sits within Ryanair as such.”

He said: “There is a business there of a low-cost option possible from many secondary airports around Europe.”

However, Mr Cawley identified challenges to Ryanair mounting any transatlantic business including immigration, licences and not having the advantage of a 25-minute turnaround time.

He said: “It is something that we haven’t worked on for a long time, it is something that is there. At some stage there was enthusiasm for it, but now we are so busy immersed in allocating the 175 new aircraft we have around Europe there is just no time for it.

Mr Cawley said that Ryanair’s transatlantic business “is something that is not imminent, but there is a business there we reckon”.

[j636]

The US fares are completly a pipe dream. APD from the UK and Germany a big problem. Charges at JFK and BOS another. High fuel prices.

This would proabnly of being way more possible in 2006/7 but will never be in the future unless jets are staff are working for freshair.

[Jack1985]

A real pity Michael Cawley is leaving, someone who seemed to have the common sense side in Ryanair.

What amuses me about MOL speaking about Transatlantic is his clear lack of knowledge in the area - He talks about LaGuardia being a secondary airport in NY and as if he can just launch services there? Does he understand how slot coordinated the States is even in regional airports? Rochester NY would be a secondary airport, and it has no where near the facilities.

As has been pointed out, its fiction and another grab for free press which ''qualified journalists'':rolleyes: are so willing to give him.

[PAXboy]

Capetonian ... everything he's done so far has been successful if one measures passenger volumes rather than satisfaction as a measure of success, but sooner or later he's going to take a wrong turn, and this might be it. Or maybe it's just another publicity stunt.Agreed. it's the nature of the highly adventurous and high achievers, that they often crash and burn at the end. Many examples abound but two usual ones are: The boxer who retires as world champ. but can't do without it and comes back - to get pummelled by the next guy in line. Politicians are another lot.

Many CEOs follow this path because they have always won before - so surely they're going to win this time?

MoL may very well win this one. I don't mind either way.

[Angels-One-Five]

Surely the key (and the profit) is interlining with their extensive European network?

NYC - Poznan, Warsaw, Triest, Rabat i dunno, the list is endless. If they took the flights through their hubs then that would work.

I suspect this is the reason they have suddenly become more friendly and are offering allocated seating etc.