EU to investigate Ryanair charges and taxes

In some senses I can agree with both sides of the Story – I’ve flown all over Europe, and Ryanair have taken me to places I would never have though of going on a full service – Torp a good example, for a Ski trip!

As Tom says, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, Dublin, Kerry, Blackpool, Stansted, Rome Ciampino, Milan Bergamo, Venice Treviso… the list goes on – all ideal for what I have planned… a few ladsd, touring Europe, the only place I thought was a bit OTT was as mentioned above Torp for the bus ride to town – but we certainly had a great trip.

As said by other forumites, all I am bothered about is what I pay at the end of the day, and If I lived near Stansted I would certainly be booking day trips left, right and centre!

They certianly are not my favourite airline, but if they can get me flights such as LBA-DUB-LBA for £16? Who am I to complain!

There are many things I don’t like about Ryanair, such as the boarding scrum. The other month when I flew LBA-BRS-DUB-LBA, after flights with Air Southwest and Aer Lingus, the boarding scrum really annoyed me, and this is the one thing I would change about Ryanair. But for those sort of prices, I will put up with it.

LOL Tom you and ryanair they your favorite airline by any change 🙂 Could call you Ryanair Boy :p 😀 :diablo:

James

Who said I was arguing? I was just stating my point and opinion.

no one mate im just stateing my stance thats all.

Who said I was arguing? I was just stating my point and opinion.

Hmmmm…. LBA-DUB-LBA for £16 including taxes….. how dare they rip me off like that! :rolleyes:

Well if that’s your opinion, please leave them to other people who have absolutely no problem with the airline. I have had 13 individual flights with Ryanair, never paid over 30 quid for a flight, never had a delay over half an hour, and have always been more than happy with the service FR have provided.

Hey mate just adding my thoughts no arguement intended i aint out there to start an argument belive me If i was out to argue people would know about it.

But so many members of the forum have bragged about how they have found some ridiculously cheap return fares to destinations all over Europe, regardless of whether or not Ryanair seem to be ripping them off.

That aside, I’d never fly with them again. I hated the experience.

Hmmmm…. LBA-DUB-LBA for £16 including taxes….. how dare they rip me off like that! :rolleyes:

Ryanair think they can rule the roost saying yeah were the cheapest airline around and forget to mention the taxes. Ive flown with them 4 times in the last year *not my choice* and my experence they offer a shoddy service there staff are some of the rudest ive ever met.

Well if that’s your opinion, please leave them to other people who have absolutely no problem with the airline. I have had 13 individual flights with Ryanair, never paid over 30 quid for a flight, never had a delay over half an hour, and have always been more than happy with the service FR have provided.

The widespread practice of adding taxes and charges to airline tickets largely started some years ago when the first government imposed fees came in. The airlines were keen to demonstrate that these fees were “nothing to do with us” and thus seperated them out when doing fare calculations, and showed them as extras to the normal fare basis. Since then, the imposition of various other taxes, fees and charges (and yes, I agree, its a scam to list fuel surcharges seperately as fuel is a core part of operating a flight), and significantly the mass use of the internet for bookings (travel agents in the past were much more likely to just quote a total price) has changed the landscape to the rediculous situation we have now. The proposed investigation of Ryanair might be reasonable on the basis of the description of the taxes being misleading or disceptive, BUT I agree with the last two posters – the whole issue of taxes, fees and charges needs to be reformed as most of us don’t want to be lied to but we don’t really care where the money goes, we just want to know how much the flight is going to cost in total.

Andy

On my BMI frequent flyers card, a so called “free” flight from Leeds to Heathrow costing 12,000 points from my account also costs me £48 in so called taxes and charges, considerably more than the charges on a “paid for” ticket, and far worse than Ryanairs usual extra charges. BA’s fuel surcharge is a con when so much of their fuel costs are hedged: – The EU should investigate these practice accross the market.

It seems to me the sensible thing to do would be to insist that the airlines most show only the final cost to the customer including all taxes and charges

Agreed, 100%

Never the less, Disception is Disception

On my BMI frequent flyers card, a so called “free” flight from Leeds to Heathrow costing 12,000 points from my account also costs me £48 in so called taxes and charges, considerably more than the charges on a “paid for” ticket, and far worse than Ryanairs usual extra charges. BA’s fuel surcharge is a con when so much of their fuel costs are hedged: – The EU should investigate these practice accross the market.

It seems to me the sensible thing to do would be to insist that the airlines most show only the final cost to the customer including all taxes and charges

So what Ryan Air really is doing is loosing money on small routes such as Vasteras-Stansted and Gothenburg-Glasgow. The proposed tax made a perfect alibi for pulling out from these routes.

Part of me was thinking that as well :D. They seem to like making excuses:).

Ryanair provide a cheap if not nasty service, wheather they call thier fees,taxes, shareholder bonuses, MOLs money towards his price bullocks or whatever, at the end of the day the fare is nearly always cheaper than any of their rivals. Yeah they dont drop you close to your destination or compensate you when thing goes wrong but no ones putting a gun to anybodys head to fly with Ryanair. Its consumer choice and if they were so awful, why do so many people fly with them? Pure and simple there the cheapest! Thats why people grin and bear it!

Never the less, Disception is Disception

Ryanair provide a cheap if not nasty service, wheather they call thier fees,taxes, shareholder bonuses, MOLs money towards his price bullocks or whatever, at the end of the day the fare is nearly always cheaper than any of their rivals. Yeah they dont drop you close to your destination or compensate you when thing goes wrong but no ones putting a gun to anybodys head to fly with Ryanair. Its consumer choice and if they were so awful, why do so many people fly with them? Pure and simple there the cheapest! Thats why people grin and bear it!

There seems to be a perception on this forum, that a degree of kudos will be gained by criticising Ryanair.

OK, they may sail close to the wind with some of their claims regarding fares and charges, but everyone can see the total cost before making a booking, and the final fare can be exceptionally good value.

I have used their services from LBA and STN on several ocasions, and granted, it is somewhat basic, but no worse than the charter airlines, and in truth, not that far behind what currently passes as service in the rear cabin on BMI’s LHR-LBA service.

Ryanair’s passenger numbers must suggest that the public are generally happy with what they are getting for their money, or are you guys suggesting that all their repeat customers are too thick to know any better.

Disception is Disception, whether customers are happy or not.

There seems to be a perception on this forum, that a degree of kudos will be gained by criticising Ryanair.

OK, they may sail close to the wind with some of their claims regarding fares and charges, but everyone can see the total cost before making a booking, and the final fare can be exceptionally good value.

I have used their services from LBA and STN on several ocasions, and granted, it is somewhat basic, but no worse than the charter airlines, and in truth, not that far behind what currently passes as service in the rear cabin on BMI’s LHR-LBA service.

Ryanair’s passenger numbers must suggest that the public are generally happy with what they are getting for their money, or are you guys suggesting that all their repeat customers are too thick to know any better.

On another note, Ryanair are pulling quite a few services away from Sweden due to high tax.

Sorry mate but that’s just plain bs from Ryan Air’s side.

Swedish government has proposed a tax on flying (about 10€ per flight within Europe) which should be compared to the one currently used on trains and buses which is about 10€ on a similar trip. The word here is proposed. The proposal includes lower taxes on routes to Gotland (an island in the Baltic Sea) and minor airports in the northern regions which EU probably won’t allow. So the result may very much be no tax at all, but the decision isn’t to be taken until september. And most likely EU will take another 2 months before decision.

So what Ryan Air really is doing is loosing money on small routes such as Vasteras-Stansted and Gothenburg-Glasgow. The proposed tax made a perfect alibi for pulling out from these routes.

(And as a sidenote; I don’t like the tax. The big problems will occur on airports such as Sturup (Malmo, Sweden) where traffic will move to Kastrup (Copenhagen, Denmark).)

Ryanair think they can rule the roost saying yeah were the cheapest airline around and forget to mention the taxes. Ive flown with them 4 times in the last year *not my choice* and my experence they offer a shoddy service there staff are some of the rudest ive ever met.

Ryanairs taxes and charges are pretty good to be honest…

You miss the point… The key issue that the EU is looking into is that Ryanair are supposedly claiming some “taxes” are government imposed when they are actually not imposed by governments. This it is claimed, if proven, amounts to disception and misrepresentation…

Andy

Ryanairs taxes and charges are pretty good to be honest, if they are going to investigate someone there are far better candidates!

About time too 😡