Ryanair in 2015

[airazurxtror]

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has targeted a doubling of the proportion of bookings made via GDSs within five years.
Ryanair rejoined the Travelport GDS in April 2014, and has since also made its flights bookable via Amadeus and Sabre. “Participation is rising strongly, particularly among corporate travel agents,” said O’Leary. “Sales through GDSs are going very well”.
He added that GDSs accounted for less than 5% of sales but expected this to rise to 10% over the next five years. “This would be reflected in the fact we expect about 10% of our total traffic in five years’ time will be business travellers and we would expect most of those to be coming through the corporate travel agents and GDSs,” he said.
“When we launch the website and app in October, you’ll see us aggressively push business travel and Business Plus, which is a fantastic package of services.”

[airazurxtror]

This topic has just passed the 70.000 views, which averages some 230 views per day since its launch ten months ago.
One might say, not untruthfully, that Ryanair seems to rouse a certain interest amongst the Luchtzakers.

[RTM]

If Ryanair thinks the impact of 6 years is so low, then why bother going through all the hassle of trying to get it shortened? Especially since doing just that is against the law. Which according to the Judge also applies to Ryanair.

The statement that records are only kept for two years is BS. It is either a lie, or against the law. They just don't want to do the trouble of helping passengers to long after they made money of of them.

[airazurxtror]

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary has predicted the "mother and father" of all fare wars this winter as airlines prepare pitched battles to control Europe's skies.
"There is rumoured to be a fare war coming this winter and I can confirm that all those rumours are absolutely correct," said Mr O'Leary in London.
Mr O'Leary said the summer period was strong for Ryanair and pointed out that its load factors have been at record levels.
He said Ryanair will benefit as existing fuel hedges expire in coming months. Those fuel hedges were inked at nearly twice the current price of a barrel of oil.
"We're looking forward to enjoying much lower fuel prices and intend to pass that on both this winter and next summer in the form of much lower airfares," he said.

It'd be only normal that the airlines pass on the customers the savings they make or will soon make on the price of fuel. A price war ? Yes, by all means, and the sooner the better !

[Passenger]

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary has predicted the "mother and father" of all fare wars this winter as airlines prepare pitched battles to control Europe's skies. "There is rumoured to be a fare war coming this winter and I can confirm that all those rumours are absolutely correct," said Mr O'Leary in London. Mr O'Leary said the summer period was strong for Ryanair and pointed out that its load factors have been at record levels.

This is O’Leary-the-shareholder speaking, not O’Leary-the-airline-CEO. Because announcing a price war means: “passengers, do not book yet, wait till the last moment because prices will go down closer to your flight date”. Late bookings are fine if you can rely on your business clientele, but not for tourist carriers like Ryanair who need early bookings.

He said Ryanair will benefit as existing fuel hedges expire in coming months. Those fuel hedges were inked at nearly twice the current price of a barrel of oil. "We're looking forward to enjoying much lower fuel prices and intend to pass that on both this winter and next summer in the form of much lower airfares," he said.

This is O’Leary-the-shareholder speaking, not O’Leary-the-airline-CEO. Because today's fuel prices give an advantage to competitors that did not hedge too much. Found on LSE.co.uk’s forum: “For this year, Ryanair’s fuel is hedged at $91. For next year, 70% of its fuel is hedged at $66 a barrel” (LSE = London South East – LSE.co.uk).

So airazurxtor, a direct question: how much shares O'Leary has? If I’m well informed, his package is valued at just over 32.000.000 Euro. Correct? If so, last few days weren't good for him... To announce that "Ryanair will benefit from a price war" and that "Ryanair will benefit from the fuel prices" are more aimed to give the share value a boost, isn't it?

It'd be only normal that the airlines pass on the customers the savings they make or will soon make on the price of fuel. A price war ? Yes, by all means, and the sooner the better !

I would almost agree with you. But actually, I think that most Ryanair customers prefer that Ryanair lowers the luggage surcharges and that Ryanair would cancel the name change fee (one letter wrong in your name, discovered at the check-in = 160 € surcharge). Or perhaps they can cancel the I-forgot-my-boarding-pass fee? Some say it's only 15 Euro's nowadays, but if one reads forum posts on airlinequality, many of those passengers report that they had also to pay the airport checkin fee of 50 Euro...

[Passenger]

As for me, I find it right and comforting that every Ryanair customer - celebrity or not - is treated in the same manner. The "BV" pay the same price as the "not BV", why should they be privileged ?

Wrong. Phara de Aguirre did not ask for a special treatment because she is a well known media person. She did exactly what all passengers do when their luggage doesn’t show up: queue up at the Swissport desk and file a complaint. Passenger de Aguirre reports excellent contacts with Swissport, however: no result. So instead of “missing” it became “disappeared, lost, gone”. Only now, she contacts Ryanair to report it. No reply. She mails again. No reply. She mails a third time: no reply. And only now, after her third mail to Ryanair remains unanswered, she publishes on social media that she’s pissed off on Ryanair because she doesn’t get an answer to three mails about an extremely unpleasant experience. A friend of her (a researcher at the Antwerpen University) then joins in because she experienced about the same thing at about the same time. A reporter from Het Nieuwsblad picks up those complaints on Facebook and Twitter and contacts Phara de Aguirre for more details. Hence the story becomes world news in the northern part of Belgium.

Rofl .. A civil court case? They will get the legal amount, that will be a quick ruling.

Don't be too optimistic as court verdicts and rulings aren’t that much in your favour recently. And this one could be another one of those unpleasant stories for you.

1. If it indeed becomes a court case, apart from the 1.131 SDR (equivalent 1.390 €) indemnity of the Montreal Convention, Ryanair will also have to pay the “rechtsplegingvergoeding” (litigation fee) which will be the maximum of 1.100 € in this case: an obvious refusal to pay a legal indemnity. And Ryanair will also be condemned to pay the court case costs (not that much though).

2. But who says that the Montreal Convention for checked luggage applies here? Hand bags are not “checked luggage” (= with identification label): they are personal belongings. So Belgian civil law applies – in this case Article 1384: “Men is aansprakelijk voor de schade welke wordt veroorzaakt door de daad van personen voor wie men moet instaan”. One is responsible for the damage that is caused by persons one has under supervision. Belgian civil law article 1384. Contrary to Montreal, for BW 1384 one has to proof guilt. And there is clear guilt here: one can read here that your airline doens’t treat hand luggage as valuable goods, but just as ennoying stuff / plain cargo. When an airline forbits passengers to board with their valuable goods (40-50 pax per flight?!), the airline must keep supervision on those belongings till ther are handed back to the passengers. Keep an eye on them till they are loaded in the cargo hold, keep an eye on them till they are given back when the bags leave the aircraft. Just like VLM is doing (my own experience on full flights). But this requires extra staff from the handling agent to do so, and low cost carriers hate that. So based upon this negligence from the airline, passenger de Aguirre can claim indemnity for her MacBook, her digital camera and other expensive belongings that are lost/stolen. And for her photo's you have lost.

The worst news for Ryanair is that Phara de Aguirre is one of the very few Ryanair pax who has spend money on a personal-legal-insurance (the Dutch word is “rechtsbijstandsverzekering”) to cover court costs. So yes, this could become a very interesting court case.

[sean1982]

You could have spared yourself this longwinded post, because if you would know what you are talking about the bags are tagged as hold luggage and recorded as such on the load sheet. Whether or not she had additional insurance is not the airlines problem. That is a contract between the passenger and the insurance company. Back to Google you go

[RTM]

I'm not so sure about that Sean. I neither should you be, I think. Those bags are definately not checked in bagage, and treated differently. Nevertheless, it is a good point to bring up, and I think a Judge would be the right person to answer the matter.

[Passenger]

You could have spared yourself this longwinded post, because if you would know what you are talking about the bags are tagged as hold luggage and recorded as such on the load sheet. Whether or not she had additional insurance is not the airlines problem. That is a contract between the passenger and the insurance company.

Ryanair and passengers rights: it remains mission impossible, water and fire, it fits like een tang op een varken. This is not about tagging hand luggage and writing the number down on the load sheet. This is about the right of passengers that their valuable personal belongings are taken care of. This is not about your frequent flyers that hope that their hand luggage will be accepted as checked hold luggage upon check-in. This is about passengers that planned to keep their most valuable personal belongings with them during the whole process, including their onboard journey. But then, suddenly, at the gate -or even later, at the steps- they’re told they cannot board with that hand luggage. When an airline does so, it must threat that luggage with much more care then the routine for cargo hold luggage. And here, Ryanair obviously fails. Tag them, put them in the hold, load them onto the belt, finished. No sir: it's tag them, put them in the hold, remove from the hold upon arrival and take them to the stairs to give them to the passengers that are deboarding at that moment.

Your reaction (it's an Insurance problem) proofs once again that passenger rights with your company are limited to sit down and shut up.

[sean1982]

No sir: it's tag them, put them in the hold, remove from the hold upon arrival and take them to the stairs to give them to the passengers that are deboarding at that moment.

Which aviation law says that? A tagged bag and recorded onto the load sheet is accordance with the Montréal convention. Your assumption that belgian law applies is just that ... An assumption. Practically all airlines in BRU are doing the same, including your beloved SN.

Aditionally all passengers are being asked at the moment the bag is tagged if they have any valuables, travel documents or medication in the bag that they wish to remove before it is being checked in. So if miss Phara her MacBook and digital camera were indeed in there, she did not point this out at that point (or didnt see those things as valuable at that point)

Your reaction (it's an Insurance problem) proofs once again that passenger rights with your company are limited to sit down and shut up.

Really now? How so? What does a contract between a customer and an insurer have to do with a third party? When you car gets stolen, who needs to pay you out? The insurer or the car manufacturer? Do they get involved when the car is stolen? I dont think so.

[airazurxtror]

The Copenhagen base having been abandoned, the flights to Copenhagen from Charleroi have changed schedule.
The morning flight (from 5 november) seemingly will be by an aircraft based at Luton :
Luton 06.30 - Copenhagen 09.20/09.45 - Charleroi 11.15/11.40 - Copenhagen 13.10/13.35 - Luton 14.25.
The evening flight (from 25 october) by a Charleroi based aircraft :
Charleroi 18.25 - Copenhagen 19.55/20.20 - Charleroi 22.05.

[KriVa]

Really now? How so? What does a contract between a customer and an insurer have to do with a third party? When you car gets stolen, who needs to pay you out? The insurer or the car manufacturer? Do they get involved when the car is stolen? I dont think so.

I'm sorry, but that's not quite how this scenario played out, in my eyes. The scenario being discussed here, is much more alike to taking the trip Calais-Dover, while having your car parked in the belly of the ferry for the trip. Upon arrival in Dover, the ferry company tells you that they can't find your car anymore.
Who's to blame? I think it's fairly obvious here.
I have no idea how Ryanair handles luggage (be it cabin or checked), so I can't say who's to blame in this instance. The scenario you described, was just not according to what happened here, in my eyes.

On the other hand, thanks for keeping this discussion on topic and (mostly) mature, everyone.

Carry on!

[sean1982]

Really now? How so? What does a contract between a customer and an insurer have to do with a third party? When you car gets stolen, who needs to pay you out? The insurer or the car manufacturer? Do they get involved when the car is stolen? I dont think so.

I'm sorry, but that's not quite how this scenario played out, in my eyes. The scenario being discussed here, is much more alike to taking the trip Calais-Dover, while having your car parked in the belly of the ferry for the trip. Upon arrival in Dover, the ferry company tells you that they can't find your car anymore.
Who's to blame? I think it's fairly obvious here.
I have no idea how Ryanair handles luggage (be it cabin or checked), so I can't say who's to blame in this instance. The scenario you described, was just not according to what happened here, in my eyes.

On the other hand, thanks for keeping this discussion on topic and (mostly) mature, everyone.

Carry on!

Thomas, Im sorry but for the insurance company it doesnt matter if you lose your car on the ferry or parked in the street. The liability side is something that they have to find out, but they will have to pay out the customer regardless. The has nothing to with the customer-airline relation at that point. The whole reason of getting an insurance in the first place is when things like this happen. If a bag is lost you adress your bag handeler, if the bag has disappeared they will give you a form stating that that was the case, you give this form to your insurer who will pay out if the pay out conditions of the contract are present.

[RTM]

Having an Insurance sure helps getting your money (sooner), but that doesn't relieve the airline from its liability...

The way I see it, the passsneger/customer has a contract with the airline, Ryanair in this case. The passenger does not have a contract with the bag handler. It is the airline that subcontracts this, so they do have a contract with the bag handler. But as far as a passenger/customer is concearned, the airline is their partner. So if a bag gets lost, your claim is with the airline. It is good that the contract between airline and bag handler goes to the extend that first service in such a case is offered by the bag handler themselves. But is in the end, like this case, the bag is unrecoverable, the party which you as a passenger/customer have a contract with, the airline, is liable. Whether or not they can pass the liability on to their partner or not, is not of the passengers/customers interest. They should be compensated regardless, by the airline. They in their turn can choose to pass the bill on to the bag handler as being the responsible party in their contract.

So, having a proper travel Insurance will help you as a passenger/customer a great deal, as they will compensate you for the loss, and then, when as far as you're concearned the case is closed, they will retrieve the money from the airline, which then in their turn retrieve the money from the bag handler.

But, in this case, the passenger/customer does appearantly not have a travel Insurance. So she herself will have to file the claim with the airline, and so she does. But after several attempts, she still has not received any answer. Not even an automated reply stating that her claim/mail is received well, and is being handled. So the option she is left with is to take legal action, for which she appearantly does have Insurance. I think she is in title to do so, and in the contract she has, the airline is the one to sue.

[RTM]

And to continue with the comparison with cars and their Insurance... True story.

Years ago, I was involved in a three car accident. I was driving the front car, and came to a hold for a traffic light, as did the car behind me. The car behind him wasn't paying attention, and slammed in to the back of the second car, which was pushed into mine. Now, eventhough it was clear from the start who was at fault, I was to deal with the Insurance of the second car, as he was the one that het me. Regulations dictate that. They are the ones to compensate me, as they will retrieve the money from the Insurance of car three.
But, as it turned out, eventhough regulations dictated so, the second car had a low cost Insurance, which did not aknowledge my claim, and kept pointing me to the Insurance of car number three. Of which I didn't even have the details.
Thanks to the police who at the time still attended situations like this, and made a report, I was able to get the details from the car three Insurance, and contaccted them. Luckily, that was a full service Insurance. They did aknowledge the fact that my claim was with car two, and went out of their obligation, and contacted them in my place. After nearly 3/4 year, the Insurance of car two finally compensated me, which they should have done after a few weeks as it was such a clear cut case.
The full service Insurance even followed up to make sure I was compensated, and appollogized for the burocracy, but the were bound by the rules. They themselves even compensated me for the fact that I had had a sore neck for 6 months on top of that.
So guess to which company I switched my car Insurance at the next oppertunity? With legal aid this time...

[Passenger]

Your reaction (it's an Insurance problem) proofs once again that passenger rights with your company are limited to sit down and shut up.

Really now? How so? What does a contract between a customer and an insurer have to do with a third party? When you car gets stolen, who needs to pay you out? The insurer or the car manufacturer? Do they get involved when the car is stolen? I dont think so.

Amazing how you, once again, turn away from the facts when your airline is to blame. Like RTM already stated: the passenger has signed a contract with the airline, so the airline must compensate.

Off topic, about additional insurance: cover of luggage insurance is lower then the Montreal Convention. A luggage insurance serves when the luggage is late upon arrival, when luggage is stolen from a hotel room or when a passenger travels with very expensive clothings and shoes.

Back on topic: main issue here is that Ryanair did not reply to three mails. Very unpolite, but probably in line with what O’Leary said about EU Rule 261/2004: "...We have a policy of always appealing cases, especially when they are taken by compensation-chasing lawyers..." (quote from post airazurxtror 26 Aug)

The loss of this luggage is a result of your superhigh luggage surcharges: up to 45 € for a normal 20 kg suitcase. Off course people try to avoid that 90 € r/t fee, so they use the biggest hand luggage that is allowed. However, a 737-800 in cattle class conf doens’t have space for 180 cases. So you are forced to offload 40-50 hand luggage bags per flight.

And then, instead of treating those bags as valuable goods, you handle them as cargo, whilst you should hand them back as soon as possible, which is at deboarding. Without pointing at someone: ground staff meanwhile recognizes those tags, and ground staff knows that the content of hand luggage usually is more then just laundry.

But then, who cares? With a load factor of 98%, you can afford to loose some passengers by refusing to refund or compensate them. And it's cheaper for you, as will never gain on them more the 1.390 € (1.132 SDR) you have to pay them. Unfortunately, when you do this with someone like Phara de Aguirre, it turns against you.

[sean1982]

No sir: it's tag them, put them in the hold, remove from the hold upon arrival and take them to the stairs to give them to the passengers that are deboarding at that moment.

Which aviation law says that? A tagged bag and recorded onto the load sheet is accordance with the Montréal convention. Your assumption that belgian law applies is just that ... An assumption. Practically all airlines in BRU are doing the same, including your beloved SN.

Aditionally all passengers are being asked at the moment the bag is tagged if they have any valuables, travel documents or medication in the bag that they wish to remove before it is being checked in. So if miss Phara her MacBook and digital camera were indeed in there, she did not point this out at that point (or didnt see those things as valuable at that point)

Everything in the above post are assumptions and personal opinions which are useless in a factual discussion

[MrG4]

Press in Malpensa on the 2nd of September.
Rumors: Stn (3 daily), Mad (daily) and Nap (daily).
Mxp and Nap are new entries

[airazurxtror]

For lack of aircraft available, there would be only one 737 based at Milano Malpensa this winter.
It could fly daily to Madrid and Napoli, Stansted being flown by an STN-based aircraft ?
EasyJet already fly from Malpensa T2 to Madrid, Napoli, London Luton and Gatwick - not to Stansted.

At Bergamo, they are not happy - same as at Charleroi when Ryanair opened its Brussels base ...

http://www.ecodibergamo.it/stories/Cron ... um=twitter

Ryanair è pronta a volare dallo scalo varesino, al Terminal 1, a partire da ottobre. Le destinazioni saranno annunciate nel corso di una conferenza stampa che si terrà il 2 settembre

http://milano.corriere.it/notizie/crona ... bf5c.shtml

Ryanair manterrà comunque, almeno per ora, la propria base per l'Europa continentale a Bergamo Orio al Serio, che di fatto ruota attorno quasi esclusivamente al traffico generato dalla compagnia irlandese.

http://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/201 ... refresh_ce

I decolli e gli atterraggi avverranno al terminal 1 proprio come accade per Wizzair e Vueling, mentre il terminal 2 resta a disposizione della compagnia britannica EasyJet (che pesa con una quota del 35 per cento del traffico sullo scalo varesino)

http://milano.corriere.it/notizie/crona ... resh_ce-cp

[Conti764]

And to continue with the comparison with cars and their Insurance... True story.

Years ago, I was involved in a three car accident. I was driving the front car, and came to a hold for a traffic light, as did the car behind me. The car behind him wasn't paying attention, and slammed in to the back of the second car, which was pushed into mine. Now, eventhough it was clear from the start who was at fault, I was to deal with the Insurance of the second car, as he was the one that het me. Regulations dictate that. They are the ones to compensate me, as they will retrieve the money from the Insurance of car three.
But, as it turned out, eventhough regulations dictated so, the second car had a low cost Insurance, which did not aknowledge my claim, and kept pointing me to the Insurance of car number three. Of which I didn't even have the details.
Thanks to the police who at the time still attended situations like this, and made a report, I was able to get the details from the car three Insurance, and contaccted them. Luckily, that was a full service Insurance. They did aknowledge the fact that my claim was with car two, and went out of their obligation, and contacted them in my place. After nearly 3/4 year, the Insurance of car two finally compensated me, which they should have done after a few weeks as it was such a clear cut case.
The full service Insurance even followed up to make sure I was compensated, and appollogized for the burocracy, but the were bound by the rules. They themselves even compensated me for the fact that I had had a sore neck for 6 months on top of that.
So guess to which company I switched my car Insurance at the next oppertunity? With legal aid this time...

Wow, how long ago is this...? Off-topic, but liability covering for someone elses damage when the blame is on you, is the mandatory base insurance for any car (burgerlijke aansprakelijkheid). Besides, it's your insurance company that will pay you after which they'll reclaim the money from the responsible drivers insurance company.

About your remark on the police. They still do make a report if you request it. However, for accidents without wounded people or no external factors (drunk driving f.e.) you are supposed to fill in the European accident report on which both insurance companies base themselves. If you fail to agree with the other party, you can call tje police after which a formal report is made. If both insurances dob't come to an agreement, it's to the judge to decide...

But now back to Ryanair