Ryanair in 2016

[sn26567]

Ryanair is likely either to pull out of Norway or move to Gardermoen airport if a new aviation tax is imposed, says CCO David O'Brien at Connect.

[sean1982]

Ryanair has taken delivery of its 3rd learjet which is now fully operational. The jet will also be used for operational support, transporting engineers, spare parts, crew and managers through the network on a daily basis to reduce any delays by AOG aircraft to the minimum.

[flymd11]

The new Vilnius base: Malta and Birmingham are actually routes being moved Kaunas (90km away).

The Learjets: I guess this means there is 1 based in Dublin, 1 in Stansted and 1 in Milan?

[sean1982]

That is correct flymd11

[Passenger]

The labourt court conflict between Ryanair and six crew members based at CRL Charleroi isn’t over yet. The regional labour appeal court from Mons/Bergen has asked the European Court of Justice to decide which labour legislation applies at Charleroi: the Belgian one or the Irish one. “Which labour legislation applies?” could differ from “which social security system applies?”, as explained by a lawyer in this article:

Het Nieuwsblad:
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20160318_02190028

La Libre Belgique:
http://www.lalibre.be/economie/actualit ... a2d3ab87eb

[sean1982]

Ryanair will operate 20 rescue flights for stranded passengers from the ATC strikes

https://www.ryanair.com/ie/en/useful-in ... ue-flights

[Passenger]

Terrible attacks at Brussels today. However, for Ryanair it’s business as usual today, as The Independent (U.K.) reports:

A group of 28 British tourists staying in Brussels had a return flight from Charleroi to Manchester tomorrow, Wednesday. However, they wanted to leave Belgium asap because of the deadly bomb blasts. So they went to Charleroi this afternoon and asked to be rebooked for tonight's flight.

Ryanair didn’t allow this for free. Ryanair charged them 214 UKP = 271 Euro each: 60 UKP because they wanted to change their flights, and 154 UKP to level their initial ticket price to the fare that today’s yield management had decided. This would cost the group 7.588 Euro. They refused and will now fly home on Wednesday, as planned.

The Independent: “A Ryanair spokeswoman told The Independent the high fare was due to the fact there were only 28 seats remaining on the flight. This group declined to accept this change offer as is their right and we look forward to welcoming them on their scheduled flight from Brussels Charleroi tomorrow”.

Even worse is the lie Ryanair then brought up: “We regret any inconvenience caused to this group but our priority today remains re-accommodating our disrupted Brussels Zaventem passengers, and all other passengers are free to avail of our change facility in the normal manner."

What a lie. If the group would have paid 271 Euro per person today, they would have been accepted immediately. Thus taking in 28 seats Ryanair says it needs for “disrupted Brussels Zaventem passengers”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 46066.html

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Wanted to rebook my cancelled flight of today from BRU to SXF ....
I wanted to postpone it to next month..
Not possible for free, service rebooking charge 70 euro
Only free rebooking for tomorrow flight from CRL.
After today events? No thank you !
Ryanair stays what it is ...
A very cheap but lousy crappy airliner !
The crew was nice but I felt today the most share the experiences as the pax involved ..
Complaining about the way FR threat them,.
My idea,..

So I decided for a full refund of 2,38 euro ...
Cheap but no service ...

Hoping the world will change in many different ways ...

CXB

[sean1982]

Let me tell you how me and 3 colleagues spend our day yesterday. Because phonelines were down DUB couldnt reach anyone. Me and 3 colleagues started to arrange to move our operations overnight from one airport to another. We were phoning bus companies, whatsapping/fb crew members cause their phones were down. 1 airplane was blocked at Bru full of passenger luggage, so we had to organize ferry flights, get parking spots for the crew in CRL, organize transport for crew without car, arrange catering. Long story short, I put my phone and laptop down at 23u and got up again at 3 to drive to CRL and operate a flight.

My and my colleagues bent over backwards yesterday so FR customers would be the least inconvenienced possible.

[jvdv]

Hello,

My sister was supposed to fly back from Berlin yesterday evening on ryanair. I rebooked her flight to this morning without a fee. And when she went to the airport yesterday evening she got a hotel room and dinner. This morning she arrived in CRL iso BRU as announced. This was more than I hoped for. And I am happy my sister is back home.

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Sean...
If you were blaming me of giving FR a bad name.. I indeed was but I NEVER attacked their crewmembers of bad work ! On the contrary but I blame FR policies ..
It was my backpack on that blocked plane probably.. EI-DHN, I was evacuated from that plane while we were 'Boarding Completed' for morethen half an hour.
Crew was very professional, so the captain, they opened bar for drinks and snacks in front and back in the cabin while we where waiting,doors stayed open with the yellow rope in front of it.
The only thing I mentioned of the SXF based crew was that one girl was complaining that she was hoping for a quick take off because she said she won't get paid while standing still, the boy confirmed this, and we all hoped for the best... but while time was running it only went darker !
It was on FR163 BRU-SXF EI-DHN...
After that horrible situations and a completly logic cancellation of that flight, the only option of a refund or for a rebooking the next day in CRL is too less for me, giving it was a daytrip.
Why would you charge 70 euro for a rebooking a few days later...?
This for all FR cancelled flights ? This Is FR cheap and crappy policy I wanted to blame with my post.
Again I would never attack FR crew of being not professional, cheap or crappy..
I know they did the ebst they could,but the thing I wanted to blame was just that policy of the rebookinf fee here! Sorry if it read otherwise! Must be my crappy english..
Hope I cleared this.

Greetz and hope you could have some rest and time for clearing your mind and souls of that bloody terrorist attacks !

CXB

On a note : what happend to our left luggage on the plane, we couldn't carry it with us while being evacuating and the Easyjet people next to our plane Needed to all take all their belongings with them.. I know it was not a daily situation, hope it stays so for ever!, but rules in these situations were not clear for all different airliners... I emailed a lost not named luggage on board mail to swissport... nothing of info given lost properties on the Ryanair website concerning the airport of BRU, they send you to their department in Brussels CRL ?

[sn26567]

Sean, congratulations for your professionalism.

It was on FR163 BRU-SXF EI-DHN...

FYI, EI-DHN was just ferried from BRU, not back to SXF, but to STN. I hope your bag was taken off the plane before.

[sean1982]

Sean, congratulations for your professionalism.

It was on FR163 BRU-SXF EI-DHN...

FYI, EI-DHN was just ferried from BRU, not back to SXF, but to STN. I hope your bag was taken off the plane before.

thank you André #unitedwestand

[sean1982]

CXB,

FR operations are stretched to it's limits all over the network because of the backlash of french ATC strikes and what happened at BRU. What the crew said initially was right, but they never left belgium as I was talking to them this morning. The free rebooking period is something that management decides how flexible it is going to be. I can see why you are frustrated but FR had requests for people wanting to rebook their flight in July from BRU-IBZ for example. A line needs to be drawn somewhere. What we attempted to do is to shift our entire operation to CRL and get a solution all stranded costumers as soon as possible and so that is what they offered you. In all fairness, just by charging the "rebooking fee" for further out they were already lenient as normally you would need to pay the difference in fare as well. I understand you, I understand them ... that's all I'm saying.

Regarding your luggage: As the airplane was ferried to STN, it is safe to say that it has been removed from the flight and is in the hands of swissport. Why there was a difference in airlines is probably due to different SOP's. What I can deduct from your story is that the crew followed FR's bomb threat SOP . Getting in touch with swissport is a good first step. Maybe you can also try the livechat function on the help desk.
https://www.ryanair.com/ie/en/useful-info/help-centre

In all honesty, if you brand Ryanair a lousy crappy airline, it does affect us also as crewmembers, cause I know for a fact that everyone at Ryanair is doing their best to keep the impact of these dreadfull attacks to a minimum for our customers.

Personally I have been living on adrenaline the last 48hrs and just finished making some arrangements for crew transport tomorrow. I am standby tomorrow and hope it will stay like this so I can have the time to clear my mind and heart from the emotions inside.


Hope this answer helps you a little bit.
Kind Regards

[flymd11]

Let me tell you how me and 3 colleagues spend our day yesterday. Because phonelines were down DUB couldnt reach anyone. Me and 3 colleagues started to arrange to move our operations overnight from one airport to another. We were phoning bus companies, whatsapping/fb crew members cause their phones were down. 1 airplane was blocked at Bru full of passenger luggage, so we had to organize ferry flights, get parking spots for the crew in CRL, organize transport for crew without car, arrange catering. Long story short, I put my phone and laptop down at 23u and got up again at 3 to drive to CRL and operate a flight.

My and my colleagues bent over backwards yesterday so FR customers would be the least inconvenienced possible.

Very interesting insight, thanks for posting this.

[Flanker2]

Thanks for posting Sean, interesting insights indeed.

It's tough to be a crew espacially if there are no local offices or operations support.
Why you have to arrange those things instead of the locally contracted handling company is not easy to understand for me. In fact, shouldn't Aviapartner have taken care of those things for you at the BRU end and BSCA at the CRL end, just as they were supposed to take care of the pax?
Normally such things should be included in a handling contract and the ferry flight could have been handled the same way as a diversion at the CRL end.

I also don't understand that CX Belgium can not rebook to a later date within 1 month of the departure date, despite being inconvenienced. Sure, this is force majeure even for an airline that uses the term loosely.
And sure FR is not going to make any money on CX Belgium's 2,50 EUR fare.
But isn't the whole point of a 2,5 EUR fare to make promotion? If they can't promote their now "upgraded" customer service, I don't know what the "charm offensive" of the past year was all about.
So yes, IMO CX Belgium has earned the right to b*tch about it and Ryanair stays Ryanair, even if they are starting to charge 300 EUR for a high season return ticket.

IMO FR crews are great and nice to talk to. But Dublin has turned from a modest operation to a very "corporate" enterprise lately. Don't like the changes at all, to the point that I'm flying AZ to Italy this summer and just flew SN to BCN, where FR usd to have me exclusively on them for intra-EU before.

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Some last toughts :
* Drawing the line ONLY to the day after,in CRL operated is a very very narrow line. As loadfactor on my flights was very good and the loadfactor of today in CRL will be, I guess good too - but I can check as airazur will be on that flight and knowing FR hasn't bigger aircraft as B738 in their fleet, my guess is that rebooking options to later days would even be easier for Fr itself. But as their waving with almost free tickets for this flight giving only the option to the next day, within these circumstances, and asking a rebooking fee of 70 euro extra the ticket seems to me they will take money out of this hell and making of promo tickets normal tickets while stating it is a decent thing to do ! No it isn't, asking for almost a month later is reasonable, changing to three weeks later is OK ! I had to work today and I'm two weeks out of europe from monday on ! SXF half april isn't asking for IBZ in summer, SN did and was happy to rebook pax one month later, I know confirmed bookings...
FR NOT... BTW the fares were the same promo's fares as my ticket on that asked day !
* The thing is that due to this I wrote strong words about your company, you say it hurts you.
I understand this as you are a loyal employee, don't let it hurt you, it is your company that don't care that people think that way of their behaving, as long as it is cost-effective they don't care. Next week dust has gone down and they will wave again with some cheap tickets and every bad thing will be forgotten for a while. Even I will buy them again probably.
* Thx for your clear reply concerning luggage and SOP's... Interesting..
* Reading your 48h and after 86 FR flights I -again- understand .. the pax get what they pay for.. and some people has to pay that price.. some pax but even more their own employees...
* FR has some truely real good loyal employees, they will loose soon a very good one to British Airways !
In the name of a FR client, a pax.. I thank you for your work ( I know even you had to follow some policies ).

Hereby I say a big congratz to all working people in and around BRU.AIRPORT the last hours and day, I was amased what they achieved with so many stress,unknown,unsafe factors and together.. JAF,SN,Maintenance,police,fire-Fighters,Security,....

CXB

[sean1982]

Why you have to arrange those things instead of the locally contracted handling company is not easy to understand for me. In fact, shouldn't Aviapartner have taken care of those things for you at the BRU end and BSCA at the CRL end, just as they were supposed to take care of the pax?
Normally such things should be included in a handling contract and the ferry flight could have been handled the same way as a diversion at the CRL end.

That's quite difficult when your office has been blown up
It's swissport btw

But isn't the whole point of a 2,5 EUR fare to make promotion? If they can't promote their now "upgraded" customer service, I don't know what the "charm offensive" of the past year was all about.

In my opinion operating your full schedule less then 24hrs after the attack and offering all of our customers who were supposed to fly on that day a solution is pretty good customer service. Then again, I can be wrong

[mad_fab]

Not a big fan of FR in general, but fair is fair, they made a pretty good job moving all their operations to CRL overnight, thanks guys!

[convair]

In my opinion operating your full schedule less then 24hrs after the attack and offering all of our customers who were supposed to fly on that day a solution is pretty good customer service. Then again, I can be wrong

What the operations teams have achieved through their efficiency and dedication is indeed remarkable!

However, on the commercial side, they seemed to have remained a bit too narrow-minded, given the circumstances. I cannot believe you honestly feel happy with the way cases like Cathay's were handled.