I’ve said it many times before – Ryanair has not been and still is not good for the industry.

1. Ryanair has degraded the terms, conditions and pay of those working in the industry to the extent where the industry is not a pleasant place to work anymore. I don’t believe ANYONE has the right to travel by air so cheaply that the consequence is that those who work for and supply the industry can find it hard to survive
2. Ryanair is a nasty airline. I don’t believe anyone actually LIKES flying with Ryanair. Some business travellers may well fly with the airline, but they do so only because of company policy dictating the cheapest (as per PeeDee) or because they are the only viable travel option between the points the passenger needs to travel between. Even leisure travellers don’t actually like flying with Ryanair – they tollerate the airline, but only to get the cheap fares and to fly more often than the otherwise would. Of course when the relationship between what customers expect to pay and what they are forced to pay breaks down (as was the case with these students), trouble may well follow. Take the nastiness of the charging out of the equation and some of the problems created by Ryanair and the likes go away
3. Sure the old-boys network airlines overcharged in the past and to an extent that had to change, but now that we have fares that are way cheaper than the cost of production/supply. Ryanair has artifially created demand that in a world where the environment and climate change IS an issue that has to be acknowledged by the industry (even if I don’t believe in it) – demand that would best be taken out of the market right now
4. It was said by Scumbag O’Riley that he wanted air travel to be like getting on a bus – well he got it because all of the anti-social behaviour that’s a feature of some city buses (especially late night buses) is being replicated in air travel. Sorry, but until the mega-cheap fares came along there just wasn’t the level of air rage and poor behaviour that is reported regularly now. So part of the blame HAS to be placed at the doors of those who travel now but didn’t do so often in the past, and by the way the low-fare airlines do business that results in unnecessary confrontation over things like fees
5. The airline world will genuinely become a better place again once the likes of Ryanair are gone – and by the way, I genuinely believe that the raw low-fare model will break down to some degree in the not too distant future. Sure, airlines won’t go back to the overly-expensive fare structures that existed in the past and some lower fares will stay. But like I say, dragging everything down to the lowest common denominator results in overly congested airports, stress, hassle, bad behaviour, and poor terms and conditions for suppliers and workers. I don’t care – I don’t accept that people have a right to fly half way across Europe for a fiver, not when the “costs” of doing so are taken into consideration. Everything has been dragged down by this plague on the industry, and the consequences are becoming more and more obvious. Sooner or later, people will tire of it, or governments will price it out of existance

Andy

Very well put Andy. I think I’ll leave this area to you now and retire;)

I’ve covered this subject enough via my posts on another thread, cloud9 will know what I mean;)

As I’ve said previously, why wouldn’t people park their a**e on a seat for €1 when other carriers may charge, in some cases, a lot more. Most non aviation people, who comprise the vast majority of those who fly with Ryanair et all, will not be aware, and why should they be, of the huge cost to the industry, in terms of lost jobs and reductions in pay and conditions, that has enabled them to do so. I would hope that the aviation minded amongst us will spare a little thought about this when they next settle into that blue & yellow, or orange seat. I think it would be wise to make the most of the fares that these carriers offer, as the business model that they use is based purely on an endless supply of cheap fuel, and all the signs are that we are witnessing the end of that era.

Not a thing you get to see everyday, some very not-so-subtle propaganda right in the start.

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/airline-business/2011/02/air-koryo-safety-video-with-ad.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Apparently Air Koryo now also has an “official” Facebook page.

Well you don’t get that on their Il62s! at least we didn’t. There was just the usual ‘in aisle’ demo by the cabin crew in very broken, but polite, English. Having travelled on both their Il62s and Tu134As, I have noticed the cleanliness and smartness of the cabins, and the charm of the cabin crews. Then again, as their fleet gets so little utilisation, thats probably not surprising. I notice that the c/a on the video uses the term “airplane” whereas on the Il62 flight that we were on, they seemed to emphasise the term “aeroplane. I wish they would change their logo though, it always reminds me of a witch on a broomstick with her hat billowing in the breeze:)

It makes you very conscious of the passage of time when you see types being broken up and completely disappearing, that you can well remember entering service.:(

Oh ye gods, not again.;)

I hate ’em,

I don’t use ’em,

I’ll never use ’em,

I hate Mol and his “business model”,

Their customer service stinks,

Those that use ’em, deserve everything they get,

Oh yeah, and the livery is s**t.

Ryanair hater? Guilty as charged……..Do I apologise for that? No.

Have a nice day;)

A classic case of ‘ones eyes being bigger than ones belly’. With ref to the A380, I am honestly not surprised.

Nice shots Keith. I quite like that livery too.

I’m not so sure; the Egyptian army is largely conscript I believe. My guess is that the rank-and-file will side with the population.

Aren’t these two statements conflicting? I’m not really sure what ‘behind the scenes actions’ you are alluding to (but I’m sure there are some at work in Egypt). To us democracy is seen as fundamental right, to others fundamental religious beliefs may seem right; I’m sure we would be very critical of an Islamic cleric calling for the formation of a fundamentalist Islamic state in Egypt. How would any of us feel if we thought external powers were trying to influence our democracy at election time? Too much external pressure may just play to the ‘foreign elements’ argument used by Mubarak.

So far, I think that the tone struck by the west (and by that I mean Obama) is just about correct.

1. I agree with that 100%

2.Again a very valid point. But I don’t see a conflict of the points that I made, however it doesn’t mean that there are none;) its just the way I see it.

Well, the guys got some neck, I’ll give ‘im that. If nothing else he is following the time honoured processes as exhibited by other washed up dictators throughout history. I’m sure that is little comfort to the Egyptian people this morning. This guy has genuinely oppressed a vast swath of his own countrymen for very many years, and made their lives a misery. I dare say that there are many in Egypt this morning, that hope that he gets his wish to ‘die on Egyptian soil’ sooner rather than later. A great pity that the protestors were not able to capture the TV and Radio centre, these are tools vital to the survival of failing dictatorships, but are also very essential to those who oppose it.

These will be dangerous times for those protestors, who in the eyes of Mubarak, have humiliated him before a very large audience, and I’ve no doubt that some will pay a very heavy price for that. We’ve seen over the last few days, total shutdown of the internet and mobile phone network, along with very cynical use by the regime of the state media in stirring up divisions and distrust amongst the population, and blaming ‘foreign elements for the unrest, again not untypical of a failing regime. The parallels between the fall of Honecker in the GDR, Ceausescu in Romania, Alia in Albania etc are striking, as will be Mubarak’s response to the courage shown by the Egyptian people. But this will also be a dangerous time for the regime. The population have had the scent of victory and to simply promise to tinker with the very same constitution so cynically devised by him many years ago, as an instrument to suppress his own people, Mubarak offers very little, other than minor regime re-shuffles and vague promises of talks to help ‘improve’ the lot of the ordinary guy in the street. A by product of Mubaraks decision could end up resulting in sustained pro islamic actions by some of the disaffected population, with some even turning to terrorism, a very sad scenario indeed and one that I personally did not envisage this time yesterday. I’ll leave the experts to assess the very significant damage to the country’s economy of that scenario. The unknown quantity IMO is the Army, but as more time passes, the more I think that they will in the end, fall into line with the regime. Sadly, I think that the behind the scenes actions of certain powers outside Egypt will have played a major part in Mubarak’s final decision.

The sudden appearance of so called ‘pro Mubarak demonstrators’ in the streets, along with the re-appearance of the hated police and interior ministry personnel, setting various factions off against each other, are classic “Stasi guide to maintaining your regime in power’ material. For a man who supposedly loves his fellow countrymen and his nation so much, Mubarak has a very strange way of showing it to his people. Still, I guess that in hobbling his way to September, it gives him, his family and their cronies, time to get their financial and material affairs in order. I sincerely feel for the Egyptian people today, and I hope that their courage and determination to join the community of democratic nations will come to pass, despite the lack of meaningful support from governments who feel that they are already members.