Ryanair insanity: Captain Morgan suggests mutiny, ordered to Lithuania

If I could make this stuff up, I’d become a novelist. Seriously.

Captain Morgan Fischer, a pilot with Ryanair, decided to try out the type of stunt for which his boss, Michael O’Leary, is famous. And, he learned what happens when you tangle with a master media whore.

Apparently implying that O’Leary is a moron, Fischer took public issue with the company CEO’s notion that a co-pilot could be swapped out with a flight attendant. So, he suggested that O’Leary be replaced with someone from that pool of employees, specifically a “probationary cabin crew member currently earning €13,200 a year.”

I’m starting to believe that O’Leary is thin-skinned.

After taking a potshot at the Ryanair top dog, any hope Captain Morgan had of landing someplace warm was dashed. Rather, according to the Guardian, he “was offered a transfer to Kaunas in Lithuania after Ryanair announced the closure of operations in Marseille, where the pilot is based.”

Keep in mind that Fischer, an American, is “embroiled in a contractual dispute with the airline and, according to Ryanair, did not submit a request for a reassignment destination.” Unlike the other pilots in his situation, he won’t be able to score a new spot in a place like Spain, Portugal or Italy.

There’s a bit of extra significance here, because “Kaunas is considered Siberia for Ryanair pilots.” That only leaves one question: is Ryanair considered Siberia for pilots at other airlines?

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[photo by MarkScottAustinTX via Flickr]

Ryanair passengers stage sit-down strike

What would travel bloggers do without Ryanair? From trying to get rid of co-pilots to arresting passengers for complaining about the sandwiches, the budget airline provides endless grist for our mill.

Yesterday more than a hundred passengers refused to leave their plane after their Ryanair flight from Fez, Morocco, to Beauvais, France, was diverted to Belgium. It was one of four Ryanair flights diverted to Liege due to foggy conditions in France. Passengers were offered a bus to their final destination, a journey of 225 miles. While passengers in three of the planes agreed to go, those in the fourth flight refused, insisting to be flown there instead. The flight had departed Fez three hours late and landed in Liege at 11:30 PM. The passengers didn’t leave the plane until 3:30 in the morning to catch a 4:30 AM bus home.

That’s the story both sides agree on. Beyond this, there are two stories. Passengers say they were then abandoned by the crew, who even left the cockpit open, and were not given any water for several hours. The toilets were also locked.

Ryanair said the crew stayed for an hour and only left when some passengers got disruptive. They also say that they would have gotten an earlier bus if they had agreed to leave.

[Photo courtesy user Yap S S via Gadling’s flickr pool]

Ryanair cuts 1000 jobs and 150 flights over German air tax increase

When the German government recently announced a new tourist tax designed to offset their budget woes, many airlines announced they’d be forced to cut flights and jobs. So far, Irish low cost carrier Ryanair has been the only one to actually deliver on that threat.

Because of the upcoming tax, the airline is reducing its presence at Frankfurt Hahn airport. At the moment, Ryanair operates over 530 flights from Hahn, and will bring that down to 382. In the process, 1000 jobs will be lost. Three of the airlines Boeing 737 aircraft will be moved to other airports in their route network.

From Frankfurt, this also means the loss of routes to Berlin, Prague and Gothenburg. The size of the Ryanair operation in Frankfurt is massive – and this reduction in flights means the airline will handle 1 million fewer passengers a year.

If Ryanair is just the first of German based airlines to make cuts like this, the proposed €8 tourist tax will most likely all go to waste on unemployment benefits for fired workers.

[Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images]

Ryanair and Easyjet passengers told “you can fly home, but not with your bags”

Earlier this week, 10 million Spanish workers went on strike to protest changes to workers rights and pensions. As usual, the strike shut down airports, forcing most European air carriers to cancel their flights. Once the strike was over, it took several days for things to get back to normal.

As airlines struggled to get enough planes back to Spain to pick up passengers, both Ryanair and Easyjet had a bad message for their customers – you can fly with us, but you can’t bring your luggage with you.

Most of the passengers were given absolutely no warning about this, while others only got a few hours notice. As tired vacationers struggled to find ways to get their possessions sent home, others had to give up and just leave their things at their hotels, without the chance of ever seeing them again.

One passenger left over $1,500 worth of clothes in Gran Canaria, a very quick way to completely spoil what was supposed to be a fun vacation. As is becoming common with low cost carriers, they showed that they really don’t care by saying little more than “sorry for the inconvenience”.

Passengers on fully loaded Russian flight told “standing room only”

Looks like the Russians managed to beat Ryanair to claiming the dubious honor of being the first airline with standing room only.

On a Tatarstan airlines flight from Antalya (Turkey) to Ekaterinburg (Russia), passengers were told that the flight was full, and that they’d need to stand if they wanted to get to their destination.

In total, six adults did not get a seat – which means they were also without a life jacket and oxygen mask, not to mention the possibility that the plane would not have enough bags of pretzel snack mix for them.

Apparently, the original plane with 148 seats had been switched out at the last minute for a plane with 142 seats. In any normal situation, the airline would “bump” the six passengers and leave them behind, but I guess telling people to just shut up and find somewhere to stand is much cheaper.

Of course, the passengers are now demanding compensation from the airline, expecting just under $5,000 for the experience of having to stand. Look at the bright side – if told to stand, you won’t have to worry about a middle seat, and there won’t be any arguments over the armrests.