Philip Meeson seems to have vented his spleen after the recent protests in France disrupted his services….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/4874720.stm
A furious airline boss has blasted the French as “lazy frogs” after protests disrupted services to the UK.
Philip Meeson, the chairman and chief executive of Yorkshire-based budget carrier Jet2.com, launched his attack in an article on the company website.The article’s headline said: “Jet2.com condemns French strike action and calls for lazy frogs to get back to work!”
In the past week, the airline has twice been hit by protests in France over new employment rules for young workers.
Services from France to Leeds-Bradford Airport were disrupted on Monday when French students protesting against the laws staged a runway demonstration at Chambery airport in the Alps.
More than 250 passengers were prevented from travelling and eventually arrived in West Yorkshire several hours late.
Last Tuesday, Jet2 flights were grounded when air traffic controllers joined a general strike in France.
Another low-cost airline, Ryanair, was forced to cancel about 80 flights on Tuesday because of the industrial action.
Mr Meeson, addressing his comments to the air traffic controllers, said: “After a token stoppage why can’t you just sort the matter out amicably without bringing thousands of people around the world, who give your country huge economic wealth, into the argument?
“You choose to do the job you do and it’s appalling that you are taking advantage of your dominant position by neglecting the responsibility you have to your customers.
“Whilst France is undeniably a beautiful country… we are appalled and quite frankly tired of the air traffic controllers’ old-fashioned attitude to dealing with any issues they may have.
“In short, we urge the French air traffic controllers to get back to work or get another job.”
Mr Meeson said on Tuesday: “The ‘lazy frogs’ comment was meant to be a bit of fun. It was tongue-in-cheek. After all, the French call us ‘les rosbifs’.
“I was very disappointed the French police stood by and let the students disrupt our flights.
“It seems to me that either the air traffic controllers or the students run France at the moment.”
By: wozza - 5th April 2006 at 12:37
How long until Ryanair post comments on the side of their aircraft on the matter!?!?
By: andrewm - 5th April 2006 at 07:59
HON 1R – the comments where originally posted on website and no other source – thats how press found out about them…
Good on Philip for the PR – every UK national news / media agency has covered this story! Well there were until someone was shot in Donegall but thats completly OT!
By: HON 1R - 5th April 2006 at 00:02
It’s even on the website, PM must be really annoyed about this! :p
By: andrewm - 4th April 2006 at 20:57
Mr Meeson went on camera branding the remarkes as “a bit of harmless fun”. One things ones PR department did not think before publishing news article!
By: Grey Area - 4th April 2006 at 18:59
I invite you all to consider how the French members of this Forum will feel about some of the nonsense posted earlier today in this thread.
I’ve cleaned this thread up now.
No more of that sort of thing in here, thank you very much.
GA
By: gingerheid - 4th April 2006 at 18:25
Well, we all now know that Jet2 fly to Chambery, as does a sizeable number of the general public in the Leeds area who may not have known before.
I think they won.
By: andrewm - 4th April 2006 at 12:16
Another angle is Jet2 just got fantastic amounts of UK and French coverage of their airline!
By: GKirk - 4th April 2006 at 10:56
Surprised nobody commentated on this when it was released on the Jet2 website last week 😉
By: allmcc - 4th April 2006 at 10:34
Looks as though PM has been attending the “MOL School of Dimplomacy”!!
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April 4, 2006 at 10:20 am