Ryanair's check-in fiasco at Stansted

Ah, sorry Andy….fully understand. 🙂

Ryanair use ground stairs, usually two sets one at front and one at back (aircraft only has option of front airstairs). Quicker to position and remove than either the airstairs or jetways, less likely to go u/s, allows for offload/onload both front and back, and cheaper than fitting the factory airstairs option. Furthermore, lower aircraft weight without airstairs allows for reduction in landing fees at many airports (at the airline I used to work for we used to remove the 737 airstairs when they were on long-term cheapy work to save money on landing fees).

A

I wasn’t thinking of maintenance. Do Swissport do that?

Why do RYR park nose-in to the gate when they don’t use the airstairs? They could get rid of the pushback if they park at an angle. Do their aircraft have internal stairs or do they always use the handling agents? Is that more cost effective than flying around with two sets of steps?

Who might that be?

Paul

Probably himself, the heavy fella. At least O’leary makes no secret of his contempt for all around him. This is a jolly good read. http://www.paulkilduff.com/ruinair.htm Even contains some flowery quotes from the man himself.

What is to stop Ryanair handling themselves? Is there anything to say an airline can’t set up their own check-in, baggage handling etc. Could they then fully automate check-in and have people take their own bags to the plane? Why are we stuck with systems from the past? Why are planes different than any other transport mode? Lets dumb it down!
BTW 4 years since I’ve flown and I probably won’t again! Still work in the industry though!

ps; I notice Ryanair’s biggest fanboy on this forum has been remarkably quiet on this subject…

Who might that be?

Paul

ps; I notice Ryanair’s biggest fanboy on this forum has been remarkably quiet on this subject… No doubt there’ll be a view that Scumbag O’Riley’s halo is still intact and its all Swissport to blame, but as I say when you pay peanuts you get monkies – Irish monkies, not Swiss monkies

Interflug62M – sorry then, I’ll clarify my previous post…

I was calling Ryanair monkies, not Swissport. I know how it works at my local airport… Ryanair have gradually constrained the ground handlers more and more – wanting to pay less, reducing the service level, etc. End result is that the ground handling is run on a shoe-string and whilst I accept that the ground handlers need to deliver a certain level of service, with the margins they’re on they pay very very low wages for doing what is in effect a crappy job, and ultimately that isn’t good for staff moral and absence increases. Ryanair consistantly put severe downwards pressure on all of their suppliers, and thus ultimately they only have themselves to blame when things get a little nasty.

Actually, at the end of the day with ANY airline (not that I ever have or will fly Ryanair), passengers should care not who handles the flight – if anything goes wrong, it is airline the passenger has a contractual relationship with and it is the airline that should be held responsible and it is the airline that must drive the fixing of the problem. With Ryanair, this situation is even worse as those inconvenienced the most had paid a PREMIUM to have their bag handled and Ryanair failed to deliver.

Andy

From the Ryanair web site today:

Ryanair, the world’s favourite airline, today (5 Aug) announced that its passenger traffic grew by 19% in July 2009 to 6.7m passengers which is a new monthly traffic record for Europe’s largest low fares airline.

But at what cost to the industry as a whole? As far as Swissport is concerned they go after the business because they have an income to earn and shareholders to feed, even handling that bunch. Ryanair have made no secret of the fact that if they could get by without handling agents then they would. Many check in staff lost their jobs with the introduction of the much vaunted “self check-in system”, alot of good that was on the day! and Swissport had to adjust their business model accordingly to take the vagueries of this outfit into account. Staffing for handling these days is even more “knife edge” than in my time in handling, resulting in very little, if any, slack in the system, Ryanair should be aware of this. Rostering for the Ryanair operation must be a bloody nightmare. Sorry Andy, normally you and I are on common ground ref this confounded carrier but I don’t think
that in this case its right to label Swisport staff as monkeys, and as for getting to Carcassone for a few pence it might be as well to remember that it has cost some in our industry dear to enable that to happen…nothing personal.;) I can well remember sitting in in a negotiation with a based “low cost carrier” and the situation was that we were expected to tender to turn around a fully loaded 737-400 using 4 staff! In the real world it meant allocating a min of 5 to achieve that so person 5 was at our companies expense, so we would have been losing out from the start had our MD not decided that handing that carrier was just not worth it. I was also instructed by that carrier on many occasions to manipulate and alter the delay codes in movement messages so that our company was made to look responsible for the delay thereby incurring the dreaded penalty payments. I narrowly avoided a disciplinary hearing for refusing the airlines Station Managers requests to alter the codes until I proved what was going on to my senior management. I’ve seen this ‘Low Cost” scenario close up, and it stinks! Don’t use it.:mad:

Depends where you want to go….my owned house’ nearest airport is Carcassonne and I work in London and live in Bedford so therefore if I want to get there I would fly Ryanair and if I can plan early enough it’s a good price and I think a decent service. As said above, the service is at a level with buses and trains so its a mass transit mode. Forget the idea that air travel is for the select few. Old hat, history!
Having said all that…I prefer to drive even though its 13 hours from Dunkerque, the cheapest crossing! The drive and country is very pleasant. The car parking and car hire at t’other end all add to the cost making the journey cost about equivalent. If I was on my own I might fly…with the kids I would drive and take a whole lot more luggage with me.

As usual – pay peanuts, get monkies. Why anyone would want to fly Ryanair and run the considerable risk of getting jerked around by those clowns is beyond me – its just not worth it, IMHO.

Andy

I would not, under any circumstances, use Ryanair. Once extras are factored in, the savings over a full-service airline are not worth the bother.
I just go on BA’s website if I need to fly around Europe.

As usual – pay peanuts, get monkies. Why anyone would want to fly Ryanair and run the considerable risk of getting jerked around by those clowns is beyond me – its just not worth it, IMHO.

Andy

Presumably Swissport do want Ryanair’s business and therefore have to accept the responsibility that goes with the contract. If Swissport feel they’re not getting paid enough then Ryanair will shop around for another provider. If no other company wants them they’ll have to pay more. Simple law of supply and demand.
Many of us use other forms of public transport such as buses and trains and to be honest, Ryanair compare well, if not better, than many public transport operators.

Ryanair get the service they pay for as do their customers. It’s a bit like buying a raffle ticket for a pound then complaining because you didn’t win the Ferrari.
I work at Stansted though happily not for Ryanair, nor do I ever fly with them.

From the Ryanair web site today:

Ryanair, the world’s favourite airline, today (5 Aug) announced that its passenger traffic grew by 19% in July 2009 to 6.7m passengers which is a new monthly traffic record for Europe’s largest low fares airline.

I wonder what the increase would have been if they did everything right?