Ryanair named 'worst short-haul airline'
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46761330

"A Ryanair spokesperson said the airline's success was not reflected by the survey"

Yup. No.

Regardless, they will still fly 140M plus cheap pax in 2019 and employ 5000 cheap pilots and several thousand cheap cabin crew.

Forgive me but it's done well over an hour now.
Perhaps it's because it's a news item relating to Aviation and this froum is the News and Rumour section of the Professional Pilots Rumour Network. I don't know just a guess.

Anyway, I posted it because I was rather amused by Ryanair's reaction to it and the carefully crafted vocab of their spokesperson.
Brought a chuckle to my morning coffee and biscuits.

Never say never - they fly to places other people don't - and if its a choice between an hour on Ryanair or a 5 hour train journey at weird times.....................

I avoid them but at least you know what you're going to get service -wise whereas a lot of "full service" airlines are anything but these days - I see BA crawled off the bottom in the listings after several years

Would be interesting to know why these people voted it the worst. Perhaps they fell foul of their well known rules and had to pay up?

Personally I've used them several times a year since 2001, well over 70 flights now and never had a single issue, not even a delay (other than once I got caught up in a bomb scare at Kaunas airport which I can hardly blame FR for). It's funny, I have a friend who pays attention to every negative FR story out there, claiming they are a disgrace and he will avoid them. He's flown with them 3 times. Every time he arrived at his destination early, the flights were the cheapest by far, had good times and he even sat with his travel partner without paying for seats either. He's had nothing but good experiences but just likes to jump on bandwagons, as do a lot of FR detractors. Whatever they are doing they need to keep doing it. Surveys like this don't reflect on the fact that they are one of the most successful airlines in the world.

And no, I'm not an FR employee, I have absolutely nothing to do with them, just a very satisfied customer.

Asturias56, if you are referring to my previous post, which got deleted, I'm confident that in my case never means never. They are without doubt successful, provide lots of employment and offer the masses an alternative to air travel. But they are just not my type of airline.

I believed this forum was intended for posting 'Rumours' or 'News'.

Ryanair being revealed as the worst short-haul airline won't come as any surprise to most, hardly qualifying as rumour or news....

News or not it is a subject of frequent discussion in the industry and so relevant. Like many I try to avoid them but sometimes they are the only carrier available within practical travel plans. I never have an issue with the crew and the service is usually reliable but Ryan being Ryan even when they deliver what you have booked, they manage to make you feel ripped off.

Unlike Herb Kellerher and Southwest who sold you cheap tickets AND an enjoyable experience.

yes - it was a ref to your post - God knows why it disappeared..... I agree - but sometimes with work or family you have no choice - I don't like Merpati Nusantara or TAAG but they're the only show in town in some places I go

Almost seems FR start to read Kelleher's excellent book....but never got around to finishing it...

A fair few people seem to do what I do after using Ryanair. Mutter "never again" and then use them again. My bottom line for short haul only is: cost, cconvenience, timeliness, safety record.
Ticks my boxes, and I just write off the journey time against benefit on arriving where I want to be, when I want to be, cheaply.

Let’s face it, you’ll get what you pay for, Ryanair gets bashed all over, but still delivers what they are promising,….. namely nothing.. except cheap fares and not crashing an aircraft every year.

We can proceed to discuss how the industry has changed and how the commercial side took over decision making while not giving a sh*%t of providing a proper working environment nor giving their employees the necessary time to gain experience while paying them reasonable wages.

Nobody working in aviation more then 15 to +20 years does not feel the change and seems not to be worry about it. But unfortunately, thats the direction we are heading to….

Ryanair is just a mirror of our society and type of our current consumer behavior, cheap fares are posh and people don’t care getting treated like sh*%t as long as tickets cost less than the parking fee at the airport.

There are many Ryanair’s are around us, with different names and colors,.....things will even go worse.....

For me if it's a choice between Ryanair and walking I'll walk. (Or perhaps choose to go somewhere else instead.)

It's basically the way they treat their customers with complete and total and utter contempt. It might work on some people, but that's not how you get my business.

Its WHICH. No data provided on who actually flew with Ryanair rather than rehashing Daily Mail headlines. More about grabbing headlines for WHICH to increase subscibers than reality.

Agreed. Flown a lot as pax with Southwest and always found them well up to the job. Which is more than I can say of the old USAir.

That is why airline managers much prefer Skytrax.

https://www.paddleyourownkanoo.com/2...houldnt-trust/

A little advertising spend, a consulting assignment and voila an 'award'.

You get what you pay for !! But with over 400 aircraft (the biggest fleet in Europe) and flying more International Pax then any other airline in Europe it cant be doing a lot wrong !!!
If pax want to pay 5 pounds for a ticket then let Ryanair fly them.

I have never experienced this contempt myself and only ever see those who have ignored FR rules or disagree about one of their changes speaking of it.

What exactly are they doing that's different to other airlines? They charge for food, drink, bags, check in, ticket changes, priority boarding and seat selection. The website pushes things like insurance, hotels and car hire at you too. More and more airlines do these things these days. In fact in recent times I can think of more airlines that use these kinds of practices than don't to be honest, Are they also treating people with contempt or trying to make money like any business? If there is a mass cancellation or a delay does any airline come out smelling like roses? In the recent drone fiasco at LGW did FR not move almost everyone to STN to minimise the impact?

edi_local, maybe UK airlines. On my regular LCC, Eurowings, I can prebook and pay for a seat OR check-in online 72hrs prior to departure and select a seat for free. Of course, the choice could be limited (though I've always got what I wanted bar the once). I may also choose to check-in at the airport at no extra cost.

Meh. Imagine being named "Most Hazardous Ketchup of 2018". No big deal. People will always consume Ketchup, regardless of the rating. People love ketchup. But seriously folks, I have stated time and again, most of the "World's Safest, Best-est, Sexiest Airline" are usually long-haul benign climate airlines, with revenue generating first-class and business class service, and a HUGE tourist base. Do you want to fly daily from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay in winter and still be considered "Safest" or "Best" airline? And then rated by a bunch of pundits? Thought not.

I agree with this. I've flown FR many times and never had a bad experience - given the terms and conditions. (For instance, I'd never count on them to make a connection as they are a point-to-point service).

When things go wrong, I've had experience of other carriers, both low-cost and national, behaving just as badly for a much higher ticket price.

From an uninformed SLF point of view I figure short hauls mean more takeoff and landing practice, and those are the two parts of the flight I worry about the most (although in the early days I do recall flying more than once out of my local FR airport with a pilot who I figured must have an air force background given his curt style, acceleration and rate of climb on takeoff).

I use Ryanair regularly on LGW-DUB. For a one hour flight I think I can manage not to be able to stretch my legs straight out or to have 'complimentary' food and drinks offered to me; it's 300 miles and Ryanair sure as hell beats walking. Only slight concern is that almost all the cabin announcements are gabbled to the point of incomprehensibility, usually by someone without English as a first language. If something occurred that needed them to speak without benefit of a script then I doubt if passengers would be any the wiser.

I do wonder how many of the satisfied regular users of Ryanair would think twice or differently about using them again had they experienced the last minute cancellation that I had to suffer last September, which resulted in a non refundable hefty return ticket price to get home.

Astounds me that after 25 years people still complain that RyanAir isn't like a full service airline

It's a bus company that makes money on the extras. Everyone knows it , they have a world wide (rotten) reputation and brand name and have been very successful

just don't complain about them doing what they tell you they'll do (or more likely NOT do) for you

If you want full service go and pay full service

Indeed Asturias, not why I started the thread. I was simply amused by the vocab the Ryanair spokesperson used in response to the results. Not meant to be a bash-Ryanair but rather a chuckle over elevenses.

I think there are a number of posters who may be seen to be RYR bashers, but are not. RYR do not provide the product we desire when travelling and, therefore, we don't fly with them.

Nothing irks me more than those who do fly with them and then complain bitterly about the sort of operator they are. By not using them I ensure that I won't join that club ;)

I wonder what the discussion would be here, if the 737 would have been named "worst short haul aircraft" by passengers (flying it with ryanair)...
The whole topic is pretty nonsensense.
Succesfully tried the same for some 10 years, and then got weak last year. They were the only company offering a direct flight at the perfect time, so although not significantly cheaper, I selected them. I was actually quite impressed, comparde for example with the 28 inch seat pitch of iberia the seating was absolutely OK for european standards. Service was marginal, but friendly and appropriate. Both flights were on days with heavy thunderstorms and we were accurately kept current on the latest delay information, the girls at the counter were as quick as FR24 with providing the latest status. Compared to the FR Service I experienced, I would for sure not have put them at the end of the list.
But contrary to probably 90% of the people answering the survey, I would not take that decision after a single flight...

Well, this certainly doesn't help......

https://www.rt.com/news/448197-ryana...ece-takes-day/

Just to add that...

https://www.irishcentral.com/busines...safest-airline

I think this is a demonstration of what many of us feel. Ryanair are a perfectly good airline when things go according to plan. It's when things go wrong that their shortcomings become apparent.

Can anyone name an airline for which this statement is not true? My worst passenger experiences have been with a national carrier.

You name the national carrier you had a bad experience with first! It is not an absolute, but, in this part of the world, you are more likely to be left in the lurch with RYR than any other carrier. This doesn't come from personal experience (never use them) but that of an ATC friend who (now WAS) a regular user. After three bad experiences costing him €€€ in additional expenses he finally gave up on them.