Ryanair On Panorama BBC1 Monday 12th Oct (Merged)

The other day i had friends fly from UK to France, BA and AF wanted £1000 return london to Poitiers. Ryan charged £85 return for what is a 1hr flight.

I know who i would fly with.

Christian

Well, you´re right in many occasions but not always. In many situations you fly directly to the best airports. Not only where there´s only one choice as in the case of Madrid, but to secondary ones which sometimes are usually closer to your final destination as Rome Ciampino vs Fiumicino, and negleted by major carriers for dark reasons.

It depends if adding the ground costs to the plane ticket is still worth it.

I watched it. Didnt think it said anything really interesting but I still woulndt want to fly Ryanair – mostly because I dont want to go somewhere that is supposed be where I want to go but isnt.
Good luck to them – they do what they do and people are getting on thier aircraft, but they arent my kind of airline.

I don´t normally hate any airline, just encounter good and bad experiences when flying. I don´t normaly care what an airline makes, as long the fare is good, and I have to admit that Ryanair ones are particularly good compared to Iberia in our monopolistic Iberia soil.

We usally are really greatfull in Spain, despite Iberia monopolizing the 80% of the market, for having a choice. And in the regional airports whose fares have dropped significatively when Ryanair came over, we usually say; long live to Ryanair.

Airline industry is not particularly clean, and in Spain we have a good example or dirty tactics. So for the moment, Ryanair it´s still “baby games”, in the Spanish aviation history. I have never understood this heated debate about Ryanair: yes or no. Being loyal or not. As a private company, I don´t have any reason to complain for its commercial policy, as long as it doesn´t affect me, my reservations. It´s none of my business.

So flying low costs?. Well depends. Why not?. Iberia will charge for checked baggage. So having “catering for purchase” on board, no refunds, assistance on expensive numbers, and now pay for the luggage..Is there any difference between a “regular airline” and “a low cost”?. Is it possible to determine when an airline is a low cost one or not. I am not sure about it.

Two questions Interflug.

Did you watch the programme?

Do you live in Ireland?

I am personally tired of “cheap shots” at the Irish, made by people who do not know them.
” Mikey the Pikey” “Scumbag O’Riley”SHOTS? CLEVER?

I repeat-whatever MICHAEL O’LEARY is doing, he gets bums on seats!

Danke schon,es tut mir egal.

I apologise in advance to the moderator if by responding to this post I am out of line, and I will totally respect your judgement.

Did I watch the programme? Yes I watched a downloaded version as I was working when the original was screened.

Do I live in Ireland? No, although I fail to see what that has to do with it. As I stated in my previous I have worked with Aer Lingus, Aer Turas and a small Scottish airline Air Ecosse who based me in Ireland both North and Eire at different times and I have a great number of Irish friends..

I don’t like O’Leary or the way he works and it would not matter to me wether he was from Tirana or Ulan Bataar.

Skymonster
I understand your point but the problem is that all the lo-cos have been set up by entrepreneurs whereas many airports are owned (or were) by the taxpayer or council tax payers,many later handed on a plate to private enterprise….. a bit like good old BA.Many are badly run from a commercial standpoint by useless management teams which you can hardly say about FR or EZ/BE/Jet 2 for that matter.
That’s why people grudgingly admire them and don’t feel as luvvy duvvy about airports.

Barry

And yet…..on this forum there seems to be a suggestion airports are wonderful do-gooders being robbed by Dick “Turpin” O’Leary.

Airports have to make a profit too you know… It always amazes me that many folks seem to think its OK for Ryanair to make money, and yet it sometimes seems that no one else is allowed to make money. If the likes of Ryanair constantly seek to drive down what they pay – be that for landing fees, airport passenger handling, checkin, etc – then inevitably if they get their way then the providers of the service to Ryanair et al have to make economies too, or put up other charges. These economies/price hikes extend to but are not limited to things like – increased parking charges, fewer checkin desks and checkin desk staff, fewer security staff, fewer immigration staff on duty (which airports have to pay for), less car park buses, “encouraging” passengers to spend money in airport shops (on which airports get a commission), etc.

Bottom line – the supposedly “grim” experience you suggest passengers are arguably subjected to is a DIRECT consequence of the low-fare airlines driving down what they are prepared to pay to use an airport. Manchester recognised this, wasn’t prepared to process pax at £3 per head or less as it’d cost them more than that to do so, and told Ryanair where to go. The sooner other airports recognise this and start DEMANDING a fair price from airlines like Ryanair for the facilities and services they provide the better things will get.

Andy

I’d rather get allocated a seat at checkin, and then sit in the lounge drinking gin until just before boarding completes thank you!

True, as I’ve done many, many times myself. I still can’t bring myself to whinge that much at Ryanair though!

Paul

Paul
I may be guilty of not explaining my point properly.I’m not saying the allocated seats is a major obstacle.The comment about the airport experience wasn’t related to this or to FR in any way.
What I’m trying to say is that everyone I know who finds air travel increasingly traumatic thinks the treatment they get at airports makes the low cost airlines look like angels,whether they’re flying to an FR airport or from LHR with major international outfits.
By that I refer to exorbitant car park fees,exorbitant catering prices,surly or offensive security “jobsworths”, long waits for car park shuttles,delayed gate allocations to trap punters in the shopping area,increasingly longer passport queues with hardly a hint of concern…….the list goes on.These are what I hear people really bleating about.Most seem resigned to the “you get what you pay for” behaviour of FR and other locos.
And yet…..on this forum there seems to be a suggestion airports are wonderful do-gooders being robbed by Dick “Turpin” O’Leary.
Who’s kidding who?

Barry

If you want to have a good choice of where to sit then stand in the queue for 20 minutes longer. You’re going to be stood somewhere so it might as well be in the queue. I usually grab a beer and treat the queue as an extension of the bar to make standing there a little easier!

I’d rather get allocated a seat at checkin, and then sit in the lounge drinking gin until just before boarding completes thank you! I guess that rules Ryanair out for me then! 😀

Andy

I’ve flown FR,EZ and BE in recent weeks and after a previous post deliberately asked friends,family and business colleagues for opinions.Universally the biggest criticism of FR (from those actually taking a flight with them!!) is the lack of allocated seating and the resultant bun fight but EVERY person including my wife has said the AIRPORT experience is far worse than the flight and single out UK ones more than the overseas arr/dep point.

I know the whole airport thing and Ryanair can be less than ideal at times but I really don’t think it’s all that bad. 3 or 4 years ago Dublin used to be an absolute hell hole because it was tremendously disorganised but I honestly don’t find it that bad now, and I don’t seem to have a huge problem with them at UK airport or anywhere else. There certainly haven’t been any ‘fights’ for seats on any of the 72 flights I’ve done with them. If you want to have a good choice of where to sit then stand in the queue for 20 minutes longer. You’re going to be stood somewhere so it might as well be in the queue. I usually grab a beer and treat the queue as an extension of the bar to make standing there a little easier!

As for the general Ryanair experience, so far in 2009 I’ve flown with Aer Lingus, Air France, ANA, BA, FlyBE, Lufthansa, KLM, Malev, Orenair, Ryanair, Swiss and S7, and I can’t say Ryanair were all that unpleasant in any way compared to the rest. To be honest, I find it’s as much of a pain in the backside as you choose to make it and the problem with airlines like Ryanair is people go out of their way to find things to whinge about instead of just getting on with it. Is not having allocated seating that much of a pain in the grand scheme of things? Nope. Is having two boarding groups where all you have to usually do is be in the first 20 people in the non-priority queue to sit where you want such a big deal? I really don’t think it is. People make it a big deal, that’s all.

Paul

I tried to avoid contributing!
Who cares whether anyone is right or wrong about RYR or MOL?
It’s true however that EZ and others also have “hidden” opt outs for insurance,massively overcharge for credit/debit cards and EI have only a week or so ago been criticised for building in a “handling” fee which can only be removed at a late stage by inputting an Electron number!
No,what really annoys me is that too many of the detractors on THIS forum work for other airlines or airports.
I’ve flown FR,EZ and BE in recent weeks and after a previous post deliberately asked friends,family and business colleagues for opinions.Universally the biggest criticism of FR (from those actually taking a flight with them!!) is the lack of allocated seating and the resultant bun fight but EVERY person including my wife has said the AIRPORT experience is far worse than the flight and single out UK ones more than the overseas arr/dep point.
Rightly or wrongly there is a perception outside this forum that people like MOL are championing the punter against airports building “palaces” by shafting the airlines and that Government and airports are making flying an ordeal,so think on…..

Barry

Moderator Message

Is cuma lom

I won’t lose any sleep over it.

Now, back to the thread topic please.

Thanks

GA

Moderator Message

I see no “shots” in this thread, whether cheap or otherwise, aimed at the Irish or at any other nationality for that matter.

Let’s have no more groundless accusations of racism. It isn’t big, and it isn’t clever – but it is off-topic.

Ni lia duine na tuairim, Bentley. Like it or lump it.

Sláinte agus táinte.

GA

I detect a slight (?) anti-Irish feeling in this whole Ryanair debate. How dare an Irishman run one of the most successful airlines in the world? The fact is folks,its bums on seats,and he is DOING WELL!:diablo::diablo::diablo:

A cheap shot sir, if you don’t mind me saying so. Ryanair is one of many foreign owned/registered airlines operating in the UK, and leaving aside ones personal feelings about this “carrier” and no I’m no fan either, I’m sure that nobody on here looks at this topic through racial eyes. I worked with Aer Lingus for a summer in the late 90s and totally enjoyed working with Irish colleagues. As for Ryanair “doing well”? yes, on the back of endless deals, discounts from its plane makers and all and sundry and generally, screwing their service providers into the ground (and then having the nerve to blame THEM when there is a shortage of staff and baggage problems etc due to the lousy fees they pay), and evading the REAL costs of what they are doing by distorting the playing field for others…..yep..doin well.

The programme set out to rubbish Ryanair, and in my humble opinion failed. So who is trying to rubbish Ryanair and why,I wish I knew.

I don’t think that the program rubbished Ryanair – I’m not even sure it set out to do so, although given other TV programs have tried to do so in the past it was not unreasonable to assume that Panorama might try to do the same. Actually, what we ended up with was, IMHO, a fairly balanced view of Ryanair that presented the good/positives and the bad/negatives, laid some truth on the line and explained how the airline works, didn’t really labour either good or bad unjustifiably, and left the viewer to make their own mind up.

Anyone who says that the program was biased against Ryanair maybe, IMHO, looking at the airline through rose tinted glasses, tinted maybe by the fact that sometimes very cheap fares overrides all other issues that Ryanair creates.

Andy

Do you mean MICHAEL O’LEARY:diablo:

At least get your facts right:dev2:

WHO IS THIS SCUMBAG O’RILEY:mad::mad::mad:

Hear hear:dev2:

No offence intended here Bentley, but I am somewhat confused…at one point you seem to be jumping to Ryanair’s/Michael O’Leary’s defence by taking pot-shots at Skymonster, and yet you agreed with me about the quality of the program, care to let us know where your loyalties actually lie!?:confused:

I guess I’m a bit of a Star Alliance sort of person! 😉

Nowt wrong with that Andy, I love Star Alliance carriers, think its the best alliance to be in. I just obtained my Silver Membership through bmi’s Diamond Club; shame I cannot use any of the Star Allliance lounges as I need to be a Gold member to enjoy this privilege!

SKYMONSTER, Who do you fly with?

In the last year, I have flown with:

bmi (mainline/regional) – 5 sectors
bmibaby – 5 sectors
KLM – 1 sector
Lufthansa – 29 sectors
Singapore Airlines – 4 sectors
Turkish Air – 1 sector
United Airlines – 16 sectors

I also have at least 8 more sectors on United Airlines, at least 2 more on Lufthansa, and 2 on TAP Portugal booked/confirmed before the end of the year – I guess I’m a bit of a Star Alliance sort of person! 😉

As you can see, I am not TOTALLY averse to the low-fare sector having done 5 sectors on WW this past twelve months (I live near EMA and where needs must / no other sensible choice, except Ryanair that I absolutely refuse to fly with under any circumstances). And before you try to claim its easy for me to go with the “full-service” airlines, I’d point out that the flying I do is not necessarily on my employers money – all the remaining UA flights I have this year are paid for by myself, and all of the bmibaby flights were work-related so paid for by the company.

Andy

Bentley,

Care to tell us who you work for?

Just out of interest, sort of thing…..

:rolleyes:

Have a look through the Ryanair topics on PPRuNe! 😀

Andy