AN airline is attempting to embarrass its passengers into paying compensation for the climate change emissions of their flights by getting cabin crews to sell “carbon offsets” from the duty-free trolley.

James Tallack, Which? transport researcher, said: “We would not want people to be made to feel uncomfortable. Offsetting is essentially an individual’s choice and these schemes are not yet regulated, which might undermine confidence in them.”

It wouldn’t embarrass me – chances are you’d never see the passengers sat within earshot or the trolley dolly ever again. I’d just say (angrily if they woke me up to try to sell it to me!) that I didn’t believe in global warming and wasn’t interested in paying any more than I’d already done to fly.

A

I don’t know what all the fuss is about. Can’t believe I’m defending Ryanair as I hate them, but… I know Ryanair get bad PR for not dealing with some situations well, but I doubt they go out of their way to make things more difficult than they need to be.

So, there was an aircraft already on the ground due to RON in Dublin, and an aircraft coming in 1.5 hours late that wasn’t going to RON in Dublin. They effectively swapped the two aircraft plots around – nothing major, airlines do it all the time and a complication will only arise from swapping the two plots if one of the aircraft is scheduled for a maintenance input at a specific base that night.

As for the standby crew… That’s what they’re on standby for – to recover irregular ops. For all we know, the crew on the delayed inbound might have been delayed enough to be out of hours to operate their final sector, and if so Ryanair would either have had to cancel their last flight (and the resulting first flight the following day as the aircraft would have been out of position), or put the standby crew onto it. Again, that’s what standy crews are for – no point in having crews on standby if you don’t use them, and if this all occurred late on in the day (which it sounds like it did) after all the crew scheduled to operate reported and sickness is therefore not going to be an issue for the remainder of the day, then you might as well use the standby crew to recover a delay.

Andy

I’m proud to say that I got rid of my 4×4 last year. I now have a 2+2 seat coupe that (1) uses more fuel (lower mpg) than the 4×4 did, (2) has higher emissions than the 4×4 did, (3) is classified far less pedestrian friendly should I hit one than the 4×4 was, and (4) can, if I so wish, be driven much more wrecklessly than the 4×4 could. Not only all that, but my current car its far harder to see out of whilst driving, is far less practical, costs more to tax, and more to insure. But of course all the prats who stereotypically think 4x4s are all bad and other cars are better, have welcomed the fact that I rid of the 4×4. ******* em! When I change my car again I am DEFINITELY going back to a 4×4 – my concience will be clear as my next car will be better for the environment, better for pedestrians, and better for me and my wallet.

A

“Where next for FR?” The further away the better IMHO, and take the nasty piece of work that runs the airline along too

Andy

Don’t worry about the “must use self service or on-line check-in” thing… It won’t happen – maybe because its bmi regional rather than bmi, or maybe because its EMA and its their only route and they don’t have self-service machines. Either way, you’ll be fine checking in at the desk – trust me, I’ve done it several times. EMA security can be a real zoo first thing in the morning due all the Ryanairs, bmibabys and easyJets departing, but bmi regional passengers should be able to use the express line – will save you some time.

Andy

Why is it policy to replace the entire flight crew under these circumstances ?

Probably because by the time a replacement F/O had been called out, got to the airport and prepped for the flight, the entire crew would have gone out of hours for their original planned duty.

Andy